Haiti: Its dawn of progress after years in a night of revolution — John Shaqi
Haiti: Its dawn of progress after years in a night of revolutionKuser, John Dryden
History
Haiti: Its dawn of progress after years in a night of revolution
Kuser, John Dryden
Haiti -- Description and travel
I have mentioned a caco attempt to raid Port-au-Prince just before
our arrival, in which some of the bandits reached town. By January,
over a month after we arrived, the town had again assumed its
normal state, and fear of another attack was practically eliminated
from the minds of the natives. This was the condition when, on the
morning of January 15th, the telephone rang at 4 a.m. and we heard
that "3,000 cacos are marching into town by the Hasco Road." The
cacos, advancing into town in column and with flags and conch-horns
blowing, divided, a quarter of a mile from town, one column going
along the water front and reaching town by way of the slaughter
house, the other two columns turning farther inland and advancing
around Belleair hill, by the radio station.
When the troops had nearly reached town our marines opened fire
with Brownings and machine guns, but the natives broke ranks and
fired from around corners, and rushing into the houses, fired upon
the marines from the windows. Gradually they were driven back, but
_en route_ they had fired some of the native "_cailles_," in the
poor section of the town and the light from this lit up the entire
surrounding country.
By daybreak many cacos were lying dead along the entrance to the
city, the attack had been completely repulsed and the cacos driven
far from town. Over 150 were captured or killed and but three of the
marines wounded, only one fatally. A large number of caco had been
pressed so hard on their flanks and front that they were forced to
retreat into a closed valley back of Belleair and were there almost
completely wiped out by a volley of machine guns.
All during the day patrols searched the plains and outlying country.
In this way they captured singly or in groups many of the brigands
who were retreating to the hills. One automobile full of townsmen,
arriving from Gonaïves, told of meeting the caco band, or at least
part of it and only escaping by a miracle. The dents and holes made
by the bullets while the car ran the gauntlet between the crowd,
could be seen covering the body of the car when it came into town.
In the afternoon a house-to-house search was made in the district
where the fighting occurred and, asleep in his own house, the police
found and recognized Solomen Janvier. Janvier is a man who formerly
lived in Port-au-Prince in the house where he was found. But he had
always been a revolutionist and for many months previous to the raid
had been out in the hills with the cacos.
Janvier boasted, after he had been taken to prison, that every
attack which had been made upon Port-Au-Prince during recent years
had been led by him; and that in the present raid there had been
three leaders leading the different sections of the caco force, but
that the other two were cowards and had fled before they reached
town, he alone leading the actual attack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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