Jérémie. Toussaint orders Dommage to hold it.
At the same time General Pamphile de Lacroix, unaware of the events in the Artibonite and the North, seriously expected to be attacked by Dessalines. Two letters had been intercepted and had just been delivered to him, seized on Captain Chancy, a man of color and Toussaint’s nephew, who had been arrested in the mornes of Petit-Goâve. Chancy, having failed to meet Dessalines, had tried to reach Jérémie and Dommage. These letters had been written by the former governor when he had just learned that General Boudet had taken Port-Républicain.
Liberty, Equality. Headquarters, Les Gonaïves, 19 Pluviôse, Year 10 (8 February 1802). The Governor-General to General Dessalines, commander in chief of the army of the West.
Nothing is lost, citizen general, if you can succeed in taking from the landed troops the resources that Port-Républicain offers them. Try by every means of force and skill to set fire to that place; it is built of wood; it needs only a few faithful emissaries to be sent in. Will there not be found under your orders men devoted enough to render this service? Ah! my dear general, what a misfortune that there was a traitor in that town, and that your orders and mine were not carried out there; watch for the moment when the garrison is weakened by expeditions into the plains, and try then to surprise that town and carry it from the rear.
Do not forget that, while we wait for the rainy season that is to rid us of our enemies, we have no resources but destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the earth, bathed in our sweat, must not furnish our enemies with the least nourishment. Carabinez* the roads; have corpses and horses thrown into all the springs; have everything destroyed and everything burned, so that those who come to put us back in slavery may always have before their eyes the image of the hell they deserve. Greetings and friendship. Toussaint LOUVERTURE.
Liberty, Equality. Toussaint Louverture, Governor of Saint-Domingue, to Citizen Dommage, general of brigade, commander in chief of the arrondissement of Jérémie. Headquarters, Saint-Marc, 20 Pluviôse, Year 10 (9 February 1802).
I am sending you, my dear general, my aide-de-camp Chancy. He is the bearer of this letter, and he will tell you on my behalf what I have charged him with. The whites of France and of the colony, united together, mean to take our liberty from us. Many ships have arrived, and troops that have seized Le Cap, Port-Républicain and Fort Liberté. Le Cap succumbed after a vigorous resistance; but the enemy found only a town and a plain in ashes; the forts were blown up and everything was burned. The town of Port-Républicain was delivered to them by the traitor General Agé, as was the fort of Bizoton, which surrendered without a blow through the cowardice and treason of the chef de bataillon Bardet, a former officer of the South. The general of division Dessalines is at this moment holding a cordon at the Croix-des-Bouquets, and all our other places are on the defensive. As the place of Jérémie is very strong by the advantages of nature, you will hold it and defend it with the courage I know you have. Distrust the whites; they will betray you if they can: their very evident desire is the return of slavery.