Fort Ça-Ira. Taken by Cangé, then retaken by the sailors of the Poursuivante.

The following night the gallows was torn down and thrown into the sea. This took place a few days after Geffrard’s defeat at Anse-à-Veau, at the time of his first entry into the South. General Darbois, who was then at Miragoâne, had been informed of it at once. He had come to Petit-Goâve at the head of 800 men. But the day after his arrival he had learned of Férou’s insurrection, as we have seen, had hurried back to Jérémie, and had left Delpêche to his own resources. The national volunteers then spent nearly two months in the keenest anxiety. Lamarre had become odious to the French, who had him closely watched. Certain of being arrested and executed sooner or later, he resolved to rise. In the middle of a night he gathered his principal friends at his house, among them the Eveillards, the Romains, the Brouards and the Frémonts. He told them that their only salvation lay in revolt; that the French would undoubtedly slaughter them at the first favorable opportunity. They swore to dare everything to drive the whites from their town. “If the French,” Lamarre went on, “send forces to Petit-Goâve, we shall be arrested; if they do not, this is the moment for us to rise.” He sent an emissary, Jeuari, a man of color, to Cangé in the plain of Léogane, to inform him of his plan and urge him to draw near the town, which he would enter as soon as the conspiracy broke out. A Black woman named Joute César, who belonged to a family that had been free for many years before the revolution, had overheard the conspirators’ oath. The next day she denounced them to Commandant Delpêche. It was about the middle of March. Delpêche ordered the national volunteers to assemble at the fort on the shore, the post they usually held. The following morning he announced that a grand review would be held on the parade ground. Lamarre learned that the European troops were to surround the national volunteers and try to put them to the sword. He resolved to rise before Cangé arrived. At three in the afternoon the white troops, three hundred strong, were drawn up on the parade ground, which was commanded by the fort, armed with several cannon. Delpêche sent the national volunteers the order to come and take their place in line of battle. Then Lamarre said to his companions: “Negroes and Mulattoes, which do you prefer? To die as free men, or to become slaves of the French again?” “Long live liberty!” cried the Indigenous. Lamarre at once ordered them to open fire. The grapeshot of the fort spread death through the ranks of the French, who made for the shore with Commandant Delpêche. Captain Jurien, who was on station in the roadstead aboard the frigate Franchise, at once put his boats into the sea and took the fugitives aboard. At sunset he fired several cannon shots at the fort. Lamarre had a twenty-four-pounder trained on the frigate, whose fire so galled the French that they were forced to stand out to sea. Lamarre remained master of the town. There fell into his hands seven thousand pounds of powder in cartridges and cannon charges, a four-pounder, a bronze howitzer, and various pieces of 8, 18 and 24. In the night that followed, the insurgents of the mountain, drawn by the sound of the cannon, entered the town under the orders of Giles Bambara; and the next day General Cangé arrived there. He entrusted Lamarre with the command of the quarter of Petit-Goâve and ordered him to have all the munitions of war carried to Fort Liberté, a position on a height outside the town. It was certain that the French would try to retake Petit-Goâve, whose superb bay offered warships a safe anchorage. In case of war with England, it was the only point that could give merchant ships a quick and easy refuge in the bay of La Gonâve. Cangé returned to Narbonne, resolved to seize Léogane. He assailed the town, drove the French back into the arsenal, and took Fort Ça Ira on the shore. But two days later, on 27 March, the frigate Poursuivante, commanded by Willaumez, coming from Port-Républicain, landed on the shore at eleven in the morning three hundred European troops and 600 Black and mixed-race national guards. Battalion Commander Lacombe pushed along the high road in spite of the fire of the Indigenous and marched on a four-pounder that Cangé had set up near the gate of the town. A young officer named Drouville, followed by a few grenadiers, rushed upon the cannon and took it. While the French, entering the town, relieved Commandant Laucoste, the sailors of the Poursuivante carried Fort Ça Ira.