Le Cap. Anniversary of 14 July celebrated; thousands demand general liberty.

Taking advantage of the confusion that the affair of Galbaud had spread among the republican troops, Jean François attacked the fort of La Tannerie, which was held by twenty gunners of the Morbihan and a few companies of free troops of the most undisciplined kind, under the orders of Commandant Lallemand. He took it after a light engagement. At the same time a man of color named Charles, at the head of a band that had gone over to the Spanish, carried the camp Lesec, where he found three thousand pounds of powder. It was a real loss; for since the affair of Galbaud the town of Le Cap had been almost stripped of munitions of war. Jean François thus found himself master of the cordon of the West; he threatened Le Cap and spoke of seizing the civil commissioners. A few days later Le Dondon, La Marmelade and Plaisance surrendered to the Spanish. This news somewhat cast down Polvérel and Sonthonax; they even feared they might be unable to make liberty triumph in Saint-Domingue. Yet they did not let themselves be mastered by adversity; they had the anniversary of 14 July celebrated with pomp. The former freedmen and those emancipated on 21 June gave vent to a prodigious enthusiasm. Thousands of men demanded general liberty; at their head was a white republican named Guillaume Henri Vergniaud. Sonthonax would have proclaimed it that very day had Polvérel not checked his impulse. Polvérel told him to leave to the National Convention the glory of that immortal act.