Trois-Rivières. Nicolas Louis attacks the French column at its ford; Colin Suberby killed.

We must remember that the first right-hand column had left Port-de-Paix to attack General Maurepas in the rear. It was five hundred strong. After crossing the Aubert plantation, it had followed the Gros-Morne road, led by two guides: Cadiac, a white colonist, a Creole of Port-de-Paix, and Colin, a Black man of the Suberby plantation. It had gone to Chansolle, called Rivière Froide, had crossed the Merlé plantation and had come out at Delaunay. It had spent the whole day on this march, along paths made almost impassable by the overflowing waters of the Trois Rivières and by the rains, which had not ceased to fall heavily. When it reached Payette Petite Place, where it was to begin its attack on Maurepas, it was night; during its march it had been unable to see the signals made by Debelle, who toward the middle of the day had returned to Port-de-Paix. Maurepas, learning that a new column had appeared in his rear, and having no enemy left to fight either in front or on his flanks, ordered Nicolas Louis to put himself at the head of forty grenadiers of the 9th and a battalion of the militia of Saint-Louis du Nord, commanded by Prudent, and to go and fight the French. At the approach of the Indigenous, in the middle of the night, the European troops entrenched themselves in the great house of the Payette Petite Place plantation, a vast dwelling surrounded by walls. Nicolas Louis established himself on a height that commanded them. All night he fired on them: they returned his fire; on both sides the balls went astray. The French were in the heart of the mountain, surrounded on every side. At daybreak, hearing nothing of the fire of the other columns, whose fate they did not know, they came out of the house as skirmishers, crossed the Bion plantation, and came out on the great road to Le Gros-Morne, where they formed in close column. Nicolas Louis, who was at their heels, attacked them on both sides of the road, now at the head, now at the rear; and after each volley of musketry he went ahead to wait for them farther on, along narrow paths covered with thick trees. As soon as they reappeared, he attacked them again. They answered the fire of the Indigenous, but their balls were lost in the foliage. The militiamen of the mountain, scattered in the bushes, shot them down at leisure. Nicolas Louis, still running ahead at the double, went to lie in ambush at one of the fords of the Trois Rivières, along the road. He let almost the whole column cross the river without troubling it; but he attacked its rear while it was still in the water. A great number of French and Poles, struck down by the musketry, were swept away by the swift current with arms and baggage: Colin Suberby, who was serving as their guide, was killed in the middle of the river. Nicolas again went ahead by cross paths and posted himself at the Aubert ford. A lively and sustained fire took in flank the French column, which crossed the river with the greatest difficulty. The town of Port-de-Paix, hearing the musketry, sent two hundred men to meet it. Nicolas did not judge it prudent to pursue them farther. He contented himself with setting fire to the canefields of the plantation while the French were passing through them. The flames and smoke threw their ranks into disorder, and many more fell under the blows of the Indigenous. They returned to Port-de-Paix, one hundred in number, protected by the reinforcement that had come to meet them. They were crushed with fatigue, covered with mud and blood, their faces distraught, like men who had lost their wits.