L’Acul. Five leagues west of Le Cap; its fields fed Le Cap; ravaged by Romain and Daut Brave, retaken by Clausel

While Rochambeau was abandoning himself in the West to every kind of horror, General Clausel in the North was protecting the environs of Le Cap against the attacks of the independents with rare intrepidity. The French, no longer holding any position in the interior of the province, had had immense fields of plantains and maize cultivated at L’Acul, a village on the shore five leagues west of Le Cap, and these fed the capital of the colony. General Daut Brave set out from the Sicard plantation, having left the environs of the town of Fort-Liberté, which General Charles was besieging, and joined his forces with those of Romain at Le Limbé to lay waste the French establishments at L’Acul. The Indigenous, 3,000 strong, came and camped on the Jacquinville plantation. They burned and sacked the whole district. Clausel, who commanded at Le Cap, learned of this at once. On 2 May he took the field at the head of a strong division. Before he had reached the village of L’Acul, which Toussaint Brave already held, he met General Romain barricaded in the middle of the high road and attacked him. At the same time another French division, sent out from Le Cap, landed at L’Acul and drove Toussaint Brave from it, and he fell back on General Romain. But the two French columns, having joined, fell furiously upon the Indigenous on the high road and put them to complete rout. Romain and Toussaint Brave did not stop until they reached Le Limbé. Clausel returned to Le Cap after leaving a garrison at L’Acul. Le Cap would already have fallen under the repeated attacks of the independents had not the militia of that town, composed largely of Black men and men of color, shown until then a prodigious intrepidity. This fidelity to the French government was kept alive by Generals Clausel and Claparède, who, for the goodwill they showed the Indigenous, had drawn upon themselves the hatred of Rochambeau. Rochambeau had long been watching for an occasion to send them to France, an occasion that would not be slow to present itself. General Claparède was heard several times saying to young Indigenous men who came to him with complaints against young whites, favorites of Rochambeau: “In what are these whites your superiors? Settle your differences with them by the duel. We are all French, free and equal.” Claparède was expressing his noble sentiments; but when his advice was followed, Rochambeau had the Indigenous who answered the insults of the whites hanged or drowned.