Note 27 — Chapter III · JEAN AUDUBON AS SANTO DOMINGO PLANTER AND MERCHANT

The proper name of this seaport town, as given by all French cartographers and writers, is Les Cayes, meaning "the cays" or "keys" (small islands, Spanish cayos); omitting the article it is often simply written "Cayes." French residents on the island, however, when dating or addressing a letter or receipting a bill would naturally write "aux Cayes," meaning of course "at The Cays," where the document was signed or where the person to whom the letter was addressed resided (see the Sanson bill, and bills of sale of negroes, Appendix I, Documents Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6). It was thus an easy step for Englishmen, in ignorance or disregard of the French usage, to call the town "Aux Cayes"; even as early as 1797, Bryan Edwards, though giving the name correctly on his map, which doubtless had a French source, wrote "Aux Cayes" in his text; the corruption has survived, and is occasionally found in standard works, but is too egregious to be tolerated.