Le Maniel (?). Reached by the French for the first time; on 15 March Kerverseau finds its camp amid immense fields of plantains, yams and sweet potatoes, with 600 pounds of powder and 200 muskets; he lays waste the plantations, but its independents keep camps in a hundred places.

It was at this time that the French made their way for the first time to the summit of the high mountains of the Maniel. General Kerverseau, commandant of the former Spanish colony, learning that some independents who, it was said, acknowledged the authority of Lamour Dérance had a considerable store of provisions in the mornes of the Maniel, resolved to take this important point from them. He divided his troops, who numbered 2,000 men, into three columns. The center column was entrusted to Battalion Commander Camberlin, the right to Mirdonday and the left to Wives. He spent eight days reaching the summit of these almost inaccessible mornes. Amid the greatest difficulties the army crossed deep ravines and climbed rocks that hung over dark abysses. Had the French been attacked on their march, they would all have perished, crushed under enormous masses of stone. On 15 March Kerverseau reached the camp of the Maniel; there he found a handsome population cultivating immense fields of plantains, yams and sweet potatoes. At the first volley the French fired, the independents took flight and vanished into the forests. In one of the huts on the plateau Kerverseau found 600 pounds of powder, 200 muskets and a few pistols. A few days later he came down from the mountain after laying waste all its plantations. This foray of General Kerverseau’s remained fruitless. The independents of the Maniel had camps in a hundred different places.