Fort-Dauphin. Dumont released at Bligh’s request.

Meanwhile the town of Fort-Liberté was closely blockaded by both the English and the Indigenous. The French garrison was suffering the most dreadful famine. General Dumont, who commanded the place, proposed to the Indigenous general an interview on the Sicard plantation, which was accepted. The French general went to the place of the interview, met the chief of the independents there, and proposed to him that a market be opened at the gates of the town on the same conditions as that of La Petite-Anse. The Indigenous, instead of answering him, seized him, bound him, and led him into the interior, to the Blancourt plantation in the district of Le Trou. The Indigenous general then approached the ramparts and told the French that he would send their chief back to them if they evacuated the place. The garrison was so weak that it could not have withstood an assault. The French nevertheless answered that they would accept this proposal only after Dumont’s return. At the same time the commander of the English squadron, John Bligh, was resolving to capture the French frigate Sagesse, commanded by Lieutenant Baruetche and lying at anchor in the harbor of Fort-Liberté. He had three ships under his orders, the Theseus, the Hercule and the Cumberland. He had noticed that it was almost impossible to prevent small vessels from going from Fort-Liberté to Le Cap with provisions, because of the many coves that line the North coast of the island. He felt the necessity of compelling the French to evacuate that place. It was 8 September. As the breeze that day did not allow the French vessels to weigh anchor, John Bligh ordered the Hercule and the Cumberland to hold their position, and himself entered the bay of Mancenille on the Theseus. He saw that the water was deep enough for him to take station within musket shot of Fort Labouque, built at the entrance of the harbor. He opened fire, and in less than half an hour of cannonade the fort struck its colors. John Bligh then turned his attention to the other fort that protected the harbor and to the frigate anchored there. The Theseus, towed by boats, entered the roadstead. She loosed her broadside on the frigate Sagesse, which at once struck her colors. The frigate carried 35 guns and had a crew of 65 men. The French, who dreaded the vengeance of the Indigenous, asked John Bligh for his protection against implacable enemies and put themselves at the discretion of the English. John Bligh had the guns of the place spiked and its munitions destroyed. The garrison and the inhabitants were embarked on His Britannic Majesty’s squadron. The English officer had the generosity to carry all his prisoners to Le Cap and hand them over to Rochambeau. He had learned from the French officers of General Dumont’s captivity, and had promised them to try to obtain his release from the Indigenous general who commanded the army before Fort-Liberté. The independents had taken possession of that town immediately after the departure of the English. The next day, 9 September, John Bligh was back at Fort-Liberté. He sent an officer to the Indigenous general charged with asking for General Dumont’s release. Humanity had moved him to take this step, for he was convinced that Dumont would end by being sacrificed by the Indigenous. Daut Brave received the English officer with distinction and exhorted his companions not to deliver the French general to the ultimate punishment; he reminded them that they had promised to send him back safe and sound if the place held out no longer. He was applauded by most of the Indigenous, and battalion commander Charles Pierre got into a boat and took General Dumont aboard the Theseus. Dumont was sent to Jamaica as a prisoner of war. This act is all the more remarkable in that the Indigenous at that time put to death nearly all the French who fell into their power. Dumont owed his life solely to the influence that General Daut Brave exercised over his own people, Daut Brave who had the good fortune to pass through that cruel time without stain of a single crime. Rochambeau declared that the arrondissement of Monte Cristi, in the former Spanish part, which had depended on the arrondissement of Fort-Liberté, would henceforth come under that of Santiago.