Les Cayes. Meeting of the insurgent chiefs; Mécerou arrested

Meanwhile the troops of the garrison of Les Cayes were growing impatient to be paid. The pay sheets were not yet drawn up. But on Sunday the 12th the quartermasters presented them; as they had not been prepared according to the instructions given, it was decided that they would be redone and that the garrison would be paid the next day. The same day, the 12th, the leaders of the insurgents met at Papalier’s house to agree on the final measures to be taken. Anarchy was at its height; Papalier commanded the arrondissement in name only, and the leaders of the first insurgents exercised all authority. Present at the meeting were Bauregard, Vancol, Boisquenez, Racolier, Wagnac, Voltaire, Sully and many others. Squadron Commander Racolier observed that no decision should be taken without hearing Mécerou, who had given the signal for the revolt. He was sent for, and he arrived at Les Cayes the same day, in the afternoon. He entered the council room nearly drunk. He wished to make a distribution of all the offices; he spoke of naming as minister of finance his cousin Sully, whom Dessalines had appointed director of customs. He was offered the rank of colonel, which he refused; he left the assembly saying that he wished to be a division general, and announcing that he would go out to the plain and come back to sack the town at the head of the cultivators. He committed so many extravagances in the streets that the conspirators decided he should be arrested. By his shouting he had already spread alarm through the whole town. The town adjutant Lacoule searched for him in vain at first; at last he was found shut up in a large trunk at the house of his cousin Sully, where he had taken refuge at the approach of the guard. The soldiers plundered Sully’s house, and Mécerou was taken to prison. Thus the leader of the revolt of Port-Salut disappeared from the scene.