Fort Bélair. Taken by Toussaint and retaken by the English.

We have seen that during the interview at the dike of the Artibonite, Toussaint had won over Brisbane’s secretary, Morin, a man of color, who enjoyed the full confidence of the English major. Morin drew into a vast conspiracy against His Britannic Majesty all the mulattoes of Saint-Marc and of Montrouis, whose loyalty to England had already been shaken by the patriotic writings of Pinchinat and by the ill treatment they suffered from the white colonists, almost as under the old regime. He wrote to Toussaint Louverture that if he appeared before Saint-Marc its gates would be opened to him. There were in that town only eighty European soldiers, 200 men of the Dillon battalion, the legion of Saint-Marc commanded by Colonel Dessources, 300 Spaniards who had evacuated Les Verrettes, and the militias of the neighboring countryside: 1,500 men in all. Toussaint, at the head of 11,000 men, approached Saint-Marc during the night and was let in by 300 mulattoes who had seized the gateways; it was the 6th of September. His army entered on the side of Les Guêpes. Brisbane, taken by surprise, had only time to withdraw into Fort Libre with a few hundred soldiers. The Republicans, most of them naked, instead of assaulting him vigorously, set about plundering the town. Nevertheless, at daybreak, he was on the point of succumbing when an English frigate, coming out of the Môle, entered the harbor, at once moored broadside opposite Les Guêpes and cannonaded the Republicans without respite. The next day another frigate arrived. Toussaint, losing many soldiers, abandoned his prey and left the town with a rich booty, accompanied by Morin, who from then on attached himself to his fortunes. Colonel Dessources pursued him and killed some of his stragglers. The three hundred men of color who had taken up arms for France had not the energy to abandon their properties and follow the Republicans, who were in the direst privation, living on nothing but maize and sour oranges. They sent Brisbane an address in which they begged him to allow them to return to the town. The English major granted their request. But as soon as they had dispersed to their houses he had them disarmed, arrested and put in chains aboard three warships lying in the roads. The next day twenty of the most guilty were shot, among whom were noted Bonbon Hugueville, Archin, Lacase, Couyo and others. The white colonists of Saint-Marc took advantage of this circumstance to put a greater number to death. On a dark night they went aboard the three warships, had sixty of the prisoners put ashore, and killed them with sabers and bayonets.

Lapointe, a man of color, on learning of this crime, came to Saint-Marc and complained of it with indignation to Major Brisbane, telling him that the old free, in giving themselves up to the English, had not supposed they would find themselves once more under the yoke of the white colonists. The harm was done. Brisbane listened to him, but he prosecuted none of the murderers. He even sent the rest of the prisoners to Jamaica, where most of them perished in foul prison hulks. Such is the fate of nearly all who, in giving themselves up to the foreigner, betray their country.

Lapointe hastened back to the Arcahaie, where the Republicans were conspiring; they had been denounced by a woman of color. The three Leroux brothers, Burette, Basquia and Prosper, had resolved to deliver the town to Toussaint Louverture. The whole gendarmerie of the district was in the conspiracy, which was to break out on the day after Lapointe’s return. He at once ordered into the town the Chevalier de Peste, colonel of the royal militia quartered in the mountains, Colonel Laval, commandant of the Boucassin, and Captain Arthur Dubourg, commandant of Les Vases. The troops of these three officers entered the Arcahaie. They held the gendarmerie in check and arrested all the conspirators. Lapointe, who had just condemned the crime committed at Saint-Marc, nevertheless took advantage of this circumstance to rid himself of a great number of his personal enemies: he had thirty of them slaughtered at the landing place of the town. The Leroux brothers, Burette, Basquia and Prosper, were put aboard a frigate that sailed for Port-Républicain; they were to be sent to the hulks of Jamaica. Lapointe himself went aboard a brig and also set sail for Port-Républicain. There were fourteen prisoners aboard the vessel, among them men named Mathurin Greffin, Pierre Lachimbo, Louis Petit and Rauz; he had them slaughtered and threw their bodies into the sea.

Toussaint, having gathered at Les Verrettes nearly all the troops of the Artibonite, set out from that town and went to lay siege to Saint-Marc. Although the town was protected by the fire of the English warships, he took Fort Bélair (5 October) and set up a battery on the morne Diamant. He worked with his own hands alongside his soldiers to haul a gun up to it, and the piece, in falling, crushed several of his fingers. No longer able to direct the operations himself, he entrusted them to Blanc Cassenave, Guy and Morin and withdrew a league from Saint-Marc. The English assailed the morne Diamant and Fort Bélair, drove the Republicans out of them, and came on to attack the headquarters of Toussaint Louverture, who owed his safety only to the stubborn resistance of the 6th legion of the free companies. The Republicans raised the siege of Saint-Marc and went to recover at the Gonaïves. Toussaint soon learned that Jean-François, who had heard of the check he had just suffered, was preparing to seize La Marmelade and was threatening Saint-Michel and Saint-Raphaël. He reinforced the western cordon and flew to meet the enemy, whose ardor he checked. Jean-François had recruited many Republican cultivators by giving each of them a portugaise (8 piastres).