Boudet’s division took possession of Port-Républicain.

Rigaud, Villatte, Léveillé, Pétion, Birot, Mars Belley and their other companions were therefore landed at the Cap, where they remained in inaction. But on 27 pluviôse (16 February), Pétion, Birot, Dupuche, Boyer, etc., received the order to go aboard the frigate the Franchise, to join the Boudet division (2). This division, in spite of the efforts of Lamartinière, chief of the 1st battalion of the 3rd demi-brigade (3), had, on 16 pluviôse (5 February), taken possession of Port-Républicain.

General Boudet had taken possession of Port-Républicain very easily, thanks to the treason of Bardet, who, chief of the 3rd battalion of the 13th demi-brigade (1), surrendered Fort Byzoton without striking a blow, thus uncovering the town of which it was the first sentinel. Bardet’s conduct arose from the resentment which he had kept, as his soldiers had, over the atrocities ordered by Toussaint during the civil war (2). Soon the two other battalions of the same corps, in garrison at Baya-Hunda, in the bay of Neybe, where Toussaint had laid the foundations of a town, carried along by their chiefs Moreau and Jean-Louis François, came likewise to make their submission.