Death of President Pétion at Port-au-Prince

One sees on the rue du Centre the ruins of the Senate, and, on the rue de l’Enterrement, the palace of the chamber of deputies, which had been built on the old Sabès site where Pétion, the founder of the Republic, was born on 2 March 1770. When the earthquake that overthrew the town took place, on 3 June 1770, the day of Pentecost, Pétion was only 3 months old. His mother, troubled by fright, by the cries and by the tumult, had left him in her room, asleep in his cradle. The unhappy woman pronounces the name of her child. Terror and danger chill all courages. The nurse rushes, at the risk of her life, into the tottering house, and brings out safe and sound little Alexandre. Pétion died President of Haiti at Port-au-Prince, on 29 March 1818, at the age of 48. His heart was buried at the National Fort, which is also called Fort Alexandre in his honor.

Rouzier tells this under the entry PORT-AU PRINCE [le].