1883, March 23–27: (The Liberal Insurrection: The Landing at Miragoâne): No one could say Salomon had failed to warn his enemies — more than any other Haitia…

1883, March 23–27: (The Liberal Insurrection: The Landing at Miragoâne): No one could say Salomon had failed to warn his enemies — more than any other Haitian ruler, he had gone untiringly to the country and made his voice heard, but the Liberals would not listen. Dantès Bellegarde later mused that in the opposing factions were men remarkable for education, experience, and integrity — Salomon, Boyer-Bazelais, Edmond Paul, Démesvar Delorme, Armand Thoby, Hannibal Price, and a younger set whom Geffrard’s educational efforts had prepared for public life — who by cooperation could have assured the prosperity and dignity of their country. It was not to be. On March 23, 1883, the American steamer S.S. Tropic anchored at Mathewtown, Inagua, and embarked some seventy Haitian exiles; the next day this expedition rendezvoused at sea with a British ship Alho from Jamaica carrying a detachment headed by Boyer-Bazelais himself. The party — Liberals all, some by conviction, others by opportunism — included Désormes Gresseau, Boileau Laforest, five Rigauds, two Chenets, and four pickup Cuban revolutionaries who added color and considerable confusion since they spoke little French. Their objective was Miragoâne, chosen because it dominated the road net of the southern peninsula and was old Boileau Laforest’s hometown, whose piquet hinterland had been his men. Before dawn on March 27, the landing party scrambled ashore at Source Salée, a mile west of town — most participants simply took off their shoes in the boats or let them float out to sea, leaving this elegant force, surely the first Haitian army where all hands wore shoes, barefooted from the start. By the best count ninety-two rebels got ashore and were reinforced by sixty or seventy enthusiastic recruits; the garrison had fled and the town was secured without resistance.