The members of the municipal council were hung, naked, on the balcony of the city hall; the people who had sought refuge in the main church were put to the sword and their bodies mutilated; and the priest was burnt alive in the church, the furniture of the edifice constituting his funeral pyre.

A desperate sortie was made on March 28, the twenty—third day of the siege, with such success that Dessalines precipitately retired, abandoning his stores.

In Moca, 500 inhabitants deceived by the promises of Christophe, returned from their hiding places in the hills and assembled for divine service in the parish church, where they were summarily executed.

In La Vega and Santiago the Haitian troops made prisoners of numerous families, aggregating 900 persons among men, women and children in La Vega and probably more in Santiago, and forced them to accompany the army to northern Haiti, where they were kept in captivity, working practically as slaves for their captors, for four years.

The march was full of horrors for the prisoners, who were prohibited from wearing hats or shoes and were brutally treated by their guards.