Azua. Abandoned by its population; Dessalines enters and gives it to Juan Ximenès

A former aide-de-camp of Dessalines under Leclerc, named Daut, now in the service of the French, evacuated a post he commanded between Neiba and Azua and fell back on that town, which the population also abandoned after three cannon shots had given the Spaniards of the countryside the signal to retreat.

The emperor entered Azua on the morning of 1 March and entrusted the command of the place to a Spanish officer, Juan Ximenès, who had gone over to the Haitians. The next day, at 5 in the morning, the army resumed its march and halted at the river of Ocoa. The Spaniards who had been won to the French party fled on every side at the approach of the Haitian troops. The emperor saw clearly that they were irrevocably attached to the French government, and that the consideration he showed them, far from rallying them to his army, was swelling Ferrand’s forces. He ordered his soldiers to treat them as enemies and to burn their dwellings.