The National tribune., 1890-11-06
nRnpPFn ON 1rs-

and injured ais considerably, while it would
hardly have swamped US, as the matches were
closed. lie never knew of q vessel being
lost through waterspout, although he had
heard of such, and in the old times they
were terror to small craft. We reached
Jacmel after night, having rough sea all
the way, and entering the pretty little circu-
lar harbor, anchored on the flank of the bat
terry near the entrance
Next day Gen. Hudson ] and party
started over the mountains to Miragoanes,
and when we reached there found the camp
in great state of excitement. 1t appeared
that after La Patrie left that point, the
Dessalines, Solomon and Liberte came down
from Port au Prince looking for her, and not
finding her pushed on after. suppose they
must have delayed, looking for us in Jeremie
and along the coast, and then night coming
on and the storm, they missed us. However,
as they had not returned, and word had come
that we had been attacked and captured,
our revolutionary President BaZelais in fl
of dependency, aud believing in the story,
went into room in his headquarters, left
note designating his successor, and bidding
adieu to beloved Hayt and friends, killed
himself by shooting himself in the head,
like an exCitable Frenchman, whose blood
he had in his veins.
Gen. Epaminondas Desroches then became
President, and affairs began TO look gloomy.
The Solomon party having now obtained
MASTERY OF THE COAST,
which they patroled, and having the ap-
parent sympathy and support of the French
and Americans, as we'll as other foreign
nations the doubtful ones went with them,
while our friends fell off every day, so that
in November they were able to- organize an
army of 10000 10 $1,000 men, aud send
bodies of ZOO men each to invest the points
Of Miragoanes, Jeremie and Jacmel by land,
while their vessels watched them by water,
the Dessalines being on duty at Jacmel
when La Patrie was there A battery es-
tablished by them on the sand bar below
Mragoanes raked that town, where now but
250 men remained, and who had to burrow
into bombprO0is.
Hudson and / were at Jeremie with 100
men, and allowed them to plant no batteries
so as 10 rake us. At Jacmel there were 800
men, and 1T being a very defensble place,
they held their own. Provisions could be run
into either of the other places better than
Jeremie, until Solomon established battery
commanding the harbor entrance at Jacmel,
which made it difficult to slip in with COLE
tes except at night.
and would have been before but for the
fishing, but ion that day we were sent a
blessing in the shape of two devil fish, which
got stranded between the bar and the coast
when the tide ran out. They were most
peculiar fish, and were broader than long,
about 16 by 18 feet,
HIDEous MONSTERS,
and each weighed over four tons. We
bnuled down gun from the fort and shot
them, fearful they might get out when the
tide came in again, and they houndered
around In the shallow water and worked up
the sand considerably before they died. We
had to whit until the water got to about
three feet before the men could cut them up
with machetes, axes and knives, as they
stranded in over six feet of water; but we
quickly had them up to the fort and our
works and were feastlng on them.
! had never heard OF these fish before
the devil ish that | had seen preserved in
the Smithsonian Institute and other muse
ums being OF a different species, of the kind
described by Victor Hugo as attacking
Gailard in :" The ToileTs OF the Sea- That
devil fish has long tentacles covered with
smokers, and il dangerous creature; while
this, though powerful and hideous looking
| Is timid and harmless creature. Being
such huge fish, with n head nearly five
feet wide, enormous eyes four feet apart a
mouth two and half feet wide, OF brown
ish black color, and with horns of two and
a half feet long, aud nearly foot ia width.
projecting from its head, one would take it
TO he savage aud ferocious.
We had nothing to divert ourselves with
but slxirmishing, for while hope seemed gone
we were constantly buoyed up by dispatches
from Desroches to hold on, that onr friends
in Jamaica were acting, and that reyolu-
tion of public feeling in our favor might be
expected Mt any time. Our force being so
small now, we kept out n
VERY THIN sKiRMIsH-LINE
! during the daytime in our former breast
works, and at night retired to the fort and
| two square log buildings back of the town,
| which resembled bloelhOuses, and which we
/ perforated for mu>ketry.
| On the afternoon OF New Years eve a
/ general attack was made on us by about
| 5000 blaeks. Our skirmish-lne fell back
and we all got ready for work-1O0 men
! In the fort and 40 men in each of the block
| houses. What purpose these buildings were
! erected for / never knew. / don't think
| took the trouble TO inquire then, but they
| were very convenient for us. The Solomon
artillery opened FIRE and their lines advanced,
! fired on the fort and blockhouses, then re-
tired, came up on n charge again to within
| about 300 yards, fred few rounds aud
fell back to our line OF breastworks.
| Gen. Mathurin Legros commanded the
town. and held the blockhouse next the fort.
| was in charge at the fort, in which we had
! two six FOUNDER Napoleons, and Hudson was
with me, the infantry in the fort being in
| imnediate chargeof Gen. Cassave, the emer-
gency requiring Hudson and myself to
attend to "a gun each. The right blockhouse
was commanded by Col. Morignon.
After several charges of the kind described,
the Salomon troops opened rapid fire from
their four pieces of artillery on the fort,
at about 600 yards, and then their infantry
came on at double time, preserving very
| good line until within about 300 yards of
us, when their left right-obliqued just as
we
COMMENCED FIRING,
! aud the whole 5000 made rush for the fort
| Then came desperate work. We fired as
rapidly as possible, but in spite of our efforts
they sealed the parapets and although our
men shot, hayoneted and macheted them
they forced us back out of the works, Just
as Gen. LegTos ut the head of his 40 men
from the blockhouse charged them on the
flank and doubled them back, opening the
gorge or passageway so that we could escape.