L’Arcahaie. Evacuated and devastated by Lapointe; occupied by Dessalines.

On 6 May General Maitland had finished embarking all the munitions and the English merchandise, together with the English merchants, the cast guns and the French mortars. He also received aboard his squadron those of the French who wished to follow the British troops. By his orders Colonel Lapointe evacuated the town of the Arcahaie on 7 May at noon. Lapointe bore Toussaint Louverture so implacable a hatred that in withdrawing he destroyed everything at the Arcahaie: fortifications, barracks, provisions and even the horses. He thought that were he to recognize the newly free as his equals, they would soon become his masters. Lapointe withdrew to the Môle Saint-Nicolas with most of the officers of the York legion. As for the Queen’s regiment, commanded by the Chevalier de Peste, it was taken in its entirety to Jérémie. General Dessalines came into the mountains of the Matheux, put himself at the head of the Republican army and took possession of the Arcahaie.