The slaughter was ordered and carried out at Les Cayes, while Geffrard sheltered the hunted in his house.

Dessalines grows impatient at not seeing the order of the general slaughter carried out more spontaneously. The repugnance of his lieutenants accused his barbarity. He takes the field. He arrives at Les Cayes on 5 February (1). After a long struggle with Geffrard, a struggle in which the latter more than once came near to triumphing, despite the perverse counsels of Boisrond, of Chanlatte, of Bazelais and of Loret, the slaughter is ordered and carried out on the 19th (2). Geffrard, powerless, paralyzed in the noble movements of his heart, has only the supreme resource of gathering and hiding in his house all the unfortunates who come knocking at his door. He took under his special protection the Polish soldiers whom the French evacuation had left in our hospitals. To make their safety even more certain, he had them enter the 17th demi-brigade, of which he had been the chief when, under Rigaud, that corps bore the number 4 among the regiments of the South (3).