L’Arcahaie. The French landing was thrown into the sea by Pétion and the 3rd

The countryside of the parish of the Arcahaie was admirably cultivated. The Arcahaie lies twelve leagues from Port-Républicain by land and four leagues by sea. General Fressinet, who held the chief command of the division of the West, advised Rochambeau to send an expedition there by sea; he persuaded him that the landing would be easy. By this conquest the French expected to secure a rich booty. As early as February they had already tried in vain to seize the Arcahaie. They had been repulsed by General Pétion, who had his headquarters there. Troops were embarked on the ship of the line the Duguay-Trouin, the corvette the Malicieuse, and the schooners the Département du Nord and the Courrier. The command of the squadron was given to Captain Lhermite. On 23 April the French entered the roadstead of the Arcahaie. But far from surprising the independents, they found them ready to fight. General Pétion, who well knew that the French were capable of the boldest strokes, had never neglected to fortify the position he held. The shore batteries at once opened a brisk and sustained fire on the squadron. Pétion laid the guns himself. He could not, however, prevent the French launches from reaching the shore. He launched against the European troops the 3rd Indigenous demi-brigade. The independents of the Arcahaie, who had been the first to begin the national war, fell upon the whites with such fury that they tumbled them into the sea. The French launches picked up, under the musketry, those of the soldiers who could reach them by swimming. The squadron did not, however, set sail for Port-Républicain; for three days more in succession it cannonaded the entrenchments of the Indigenous.