Messeroux and about thirty residents arrested general Moreau at the morne Karatas, which began the rising of the South.

But it was to the city of Les Cayes that the glory was reserved of dealing the oppressor the first blow: Moreau, rich with the spoils of Geffrard, was making his way toward Tiburon to have the 19th demi-brigade recruited; Messeroux, military commandant and justice of the peace (1) of Port-Salut, put himself at the head of some thirty residents and, on 8 October, arrested this general at the morne Karatas (2). He had him taken to the Taverne plantation. Papalier, commandant of the district, sends colonel Wagnac (3) out to reconnoiter; but the latter takes the side of the insurgents. Colonel Etienne Mentor, inspector of cultivation, is cut down with sabers without pity for the vexations he had until then made the residents undergo (1).