British Capture of Port-au-Prince

Background. French colonial commissioner Étienne Polverel had renamed the city Port-Républicain on 23 September 1793, so that inhabitants would be kept mindful of the obligations the French Revolution imposed on them. France had declared war on Great Britain in 1793, and that September about 600 British soldiers from Jamaica landed at Jérémie, where the French population greeted them with cries of "Vivent les Anglais!"

British Position in Saint-Domingue. The British force that landed in Saint-Domingue in 1793 was too small to conquer the colony and could hold only a few coastal enclaves. A main expedition under General Charles Grey and Admiral Sir John Jervis sailed from Portsmouth on 26 November 1793, defying the rule that West Indies campaigning was safest from September to November, when disease-carrying mosquitoes were scarce. After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Grey chose to conquer Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Guadeloupe instead.

Aftermath. Troops under John Whyte did not reach Saint-Domingue until 19 May 1794, shortly before the capture. Later, Rigaud failed in an attempt to retake Port-au-Prince, though on Christmas Day 1794 he stormed and retook Tiburon in a surprise attack. During 1794 most British forces were killed by yellow fever, the "black vomit"; Sir John Fortescue judged it probably beneath the mark to say twelve thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies that year.