Cibao. Ferrand’s act authorizes raids from its frontiers

About ten days after the generals’ departure, Dessalines received at Marchand an infamous act of General Ferrand, dated at Santo Domingo, 6 January 1805. This document decided him to undertake without further delay the conquest of the former Spanish part. We must remember that he had already announced this campaign. The French general, who took the title of acting captain-general, had declared by his act “that the inhabitants of the frontiers of the departments of the Ozama and of Cibao, together with the troops employed on the cordon, were authorized to spread over the territory occupied by the rebels, to fall upon them, and to take prisoner all those of both sexes who were not over the age of 14; that the prisoners taken in these expeditions would be the property of their captors; that captured male children under ten years of age, and Black and mulatto girls under twelve, must expressly remain in the colony and could not be exported from it on any pretext; that the captors might at their pleasure either attach them to their plantations or sell them to inhabitants residing in the departments of the Ozama and of Cibao;