Maurepas seizes the French envoys Breton and Bistaret, who are killed

Two parlementaires, the citizens Breton and Bistaret, landed in a boat beside General Maurepas and summoned him to surrender the place to Captain-General Leclerc, failing which it would be buried under the fire of the French squadron. Maurepas answered them proudly: “I shall receive the troops of your general only on the orders of Governor Toussaint. In the meantime I shall know how to do my duty. I declare to you that you are my prisoners.” He had them both bound and had them taken across the mountain to the Gonaives, where Toussaint was. Their escorts killed them on the way. General Humbert, commander of the French division, seeing his emissaries not return, entered the roads on the following day, 10 February, with a ship of the line, the Watigny, Captain Gourdon, 2 frigates, the Furieuse and the Clorinde, and several transport ships. The four forts of the town fired red-hot shot at the squadron, which for its part vomited death into the redoubts of the place. Citizen Poitevin, a man of color, commander of the port, fired from Fort Pageot, set up on one of the high districts of…

Rouzier tells this under the entry PORT-DE-PAIX.