Drouillard. Lavalette dispersed Lamour Dérance’s men near it; a blockhouse was built there

At the same time General Rochambeau was having Port-Républicain supplied from every quarter, for its garrison had grown considerably since he had moved his headquarters there. He ordered Colonel Lux, commandant of the Croix-des-Bouquets, to make an excursion into the district of the Pays-Pourri, five leagues from the town, which was covered with pastures where numerous herds grazed. Lux entrusted this expedition to Battalion Commander Viet, who came out of the Croix-des-Bouquets on 26 April at the head of a column of troops. Viet, a Creole of the Grands-Bois, knew all the roads and paths of that district. He took from the men of Lamour Dérance the posts of Robillard and Bauge, and laid waste the plantations of the Indigenous. His soldiers returned to the town laden with provisions and driving before them 24 oxen they had taken. Viet had shown such activity in this expedition that he was back at the Croix-des-Bouquets the same day. In the night of the 26th to the 27th Lux informed Rochambeau of the success of the enterprise. Rochambeau, fearing that the convoy might be carried off by about a hundred of Lamour Dérance’s men, who had had the boldness to show themselves in the neighborhood of the Drouillard plantation, dispatched to the Croix-des-Bouquets a column charged with escorting the cattle to Port-Républicain. Lavalette came out of that town on 27 April at four in the morning at the head of two battalions, one of troops of the line under the orders of Commandant Bertet, the other of the National Guard, and with 40 dragoons. At five o’clock he discovered Lamour Dérance’s men near Drouillard. He dispersed the independents after killing thirty of them, advanced as far as the Croix-des-Bouquets, and returned to Port-Républicain in the afternoon with a considerable convoy of provisions and cattle. It was then that Rochambeau had blockhouses raised on the Drouillard and Santo plantations to protect the French convoys that used the road to the Croix-des-Bouquets.