Jacmel. Entered by Toussaint’s troops; its guns found spiked; prisoners massacred by Christophe.

On 13 March, in the morning, Toussaint’s troops entered Jacmel. Christophe, without leaving his headquarters, was of the opinion that the town should be razed and every inhabitant found in it destroyed. Dessalines opposed this view with success. Christophe loudly showed his displeasure at it and refused to enter the place. He did in fact remain in his camp until the army left for the South. Three hundred prisoners had fallen into Dessalines’s power, and throughout the 13th and 14th soldiers, women and children, prostrate with hunger, who had been found lost in the woods, were brought to him without cease. He saved a great number of them. But all who fell into Christophe’s hands were pitilessly slaughtered. Except for those of the hospital, he found every gun in the place spiked. On 17 March 1800 (26 Ventôse) Toussaint, who had just arrived at Jacmel, announced the capture of the town to the colony. Although he had said in his proclamation that a single man had been shot, one Charles, a former officer of gendarmerie who had abandoned Port-au-Prince to go over to the enemy, he deceived no one, and the massacres of Jacmel deeply stirred the colony. But fortune had declared in his favor; in many writings flattery extolled his great generosity toward the rebels and compared him to the virtuous Titus.