Lamarre rose at Petit-Goâve, seized the fort and drove the frigate Franchise out of the roadstead.

On 26 ventôse, Year XI (17 March 1803), at five o’clock in the afternoon, the garrison, as was its custom, stood drawn up in battle order in the Grande-Rue, opposite the Grand-Fort; whether Delpech had got wind of Lamarre’s plan, or had received the order from Port-au-Prince, he ordered the white troops to enter the fort and to remove its munitions. Lamarre fears some treachery. Hurriedly approaching his brothers: “*Nègres* and *mulâtres*, do you wish to be free?” he said to them. But let us hear him give an account himself of the circumstances of this event in a letter that he addressed on 27 ventôse (18 March) to Desrance: “At these words: Do you wish to be free? they all answered me: ‘We prefer death to seeing this dear liberty torn from us.’ Then we at once seized the fort; and, turning our cannon and our muskets upon the scoundrels, they all fled aboard the *Franchise*. I did not lose time; I had a piece of 18 placed in one of the embrasures, and I forced the frigate to leave the roadstead. Here, citizen general, is the report that I owed you on the capture of this town. The courage of our Black and red brothers has been beyond all praise. We have in our possession six to seven thousand weight of powder, in cartridges as well as in cartridge-bags of every caliber, a piece of 4, a bronze howitzer, and various pieces of 8, 18 and 24. I believe that, after such a display, the town of Léogane will not hold out for long. Do me the kindness of replying to me. I am, with fraternity, (Signed) Lamarre (1).”