Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/229

 8, 1863, had dissolved the House of Representatives. On June 19 General Aimé Legros and his accomplices who had tried to provoke an insurrection were court-martialed and sentenced to death. This severity did not prevent Major Sylvain Salnave from creating fresh disturbances at Cap-Haitien on July 13, 1864. Failing in his attempt, he had left Haiti ; but on the 7th of May, 1865, he suddenly appeared at Ouanaminthe, on the Haitian-Dominican borders; and, accompanied by many Dominican sympathizers, he reached Cap-Haitien, of which he took possession on the 9th of May. Closely surrounded in this town, he nevertheless managed to keep at bay all the forces of the Government. In August the President left Port-au-Prince and assumed the command of the army, whose headquarters were established at l'Acul, at a distance of four leagues from Cap-Haitien.

On the 19th of October, 1865, the Jamaica Packet, a British merchant ship, appeared in the port of l'Acul, loaded with arms, ammunition, and victuals for the Government's troops. The insurgent steamer Providence at once gave chase to the Jamaica Packet, but was prevented from capturing the ship by the intervention of the British man-of-war Bulldog. There ensued a heated altercation between the commander of the Providence and the commander of the Bulldog, the latter being charged with giving his protection to a ship in the service of President Geffrard. When this incident became known at Cap-Haitien there prevailed a very high feeling against the English; and Salnave, whose impetuosity knew no bounds, caused some of his opponents to be arrested at the British Consulate, where they had taken refuge, forbidding at the same time all intercourse between the inhabitants of the town and the crew of the Bulldog.

Captain Walker, of the United States man-of-war De Soto, made use of every means in his power to avoid a conflict. But on the 23d of October, without any warning, the commander of the Bulldog opened fire on the fortifications of Cap-Haitien. The fire was