Robert plantation. Fort taken by Larose’s men, retaken by Gilbert Néraud

Although Larose was subject to the authority of Lamour Dérance, his troops showed Dessalines every kind of sympathy. Several times they loudly demanded to be placed under his orders. To turn them away from that chief, Larose deceived them. He told them that Dessalines had ordered him to burn all the plantations of the plain, massacre all the infirm old men, abandon the Arcahaie and make for the mornes of the Cahos. Hearing these perfidious words, his men passed from enthusiasm for Dessalines to indignation against him. Charles Courjol, the cruel guerrilla who had cut off Lamartinière’s head, was working on their minds in Dessalines’s favor. Seeing that the mass remained loyal to Larose, he fell upon him without warning, struck him several times with a dagger, knocked him down, fled and vanished into the woods. He withdrew to Dessalines. He was soon followed by Commandant Robert, an influential officer. From then on desertion began in the troops of the Arcahaie. To keep his soldiers busy and stop the desertions, Larose undertook to make conquests. He rashly determined to invade the vast plain of the Cul-de-Sac, full of strong French garrisons. One of his divisions got as far as Les Varreux, three leagues from Port-Républicain, and raised some of the plantation work gangs there. It attacked the fort on the Robert plantation near the Grande Rivière and took it on 10 frimaire (1 December). Colonel Gilbert Néraud, who commanded at the Croix-des-Bouquets, marched against the Indigenous and drove them from the fortification after a stubborn fight. The men of the Arcahaie suffered considerable losses and did not halt until Boucassin. Larose placed himself at the head of the soldiers of the 3rd and 8th who formed his guard and a few days later came in person to attack a position the French held at Sibert, four leagues from Port-Républicain on the Arcahaie high road. He made himself master of it. As soon as this new attack was known at the Croix-des-Bouquets, Gilbert Néraud came out of the town at the head of the grenadiers of a battalion of the 86th of the line and of the gendarmerie of the plain, commanded by Saint-James. He attacked the Indigenous with impetuosity, overthrew them and put them to complete rout. Larose left a hundred dead on the field of battle. Saint-James, at the head of the cavalry, cut down the fugitives and drove a great number of them into the sea. Back in the town of the Arcahaie, Larose learned that during his absence many of his men had gone over to Dessalines in the Artibonite. Among them were two intrepid warriors, Jean Toussaint Labarre and Auguste Labarre. Hemmed within the bounds of the parish of the Arcahaie by the French of Saint-Marc on one side and by Dessalines on the other, Larose had fortifications raised to put himself in a state to resist these two enemies. To attach the population to himself, he gave his care to agriculture and strove by a regular administration to make the countryside flourish again. The plantations were worked, and the inhabitants of the Arcahaie sold syrup and tafia to advantage to the people of the Artibonite who came to the town to trade. By treating these last well, Larose for his part won many of them to his side.