1683 to 1691 · Pre-Revolutionaryspan
The French governor dies at Limonade and the northern plain is sacked
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Pierre-Paul Tarin de Cussy became governor in 1683 with two standing problems: colonists who would not submit to authority, and a Spanish neighbour that regarded the entire French presence as illegal. In June 1689 he chose to strike first and led a raid on Santiago in the Spanish east. The retaliation came in early 1691 and was overwhelming. On 21 January the French were broken at Limonade, near Cap Francais, where Spanish lancers killed de Cussy and his deputy. The victorious force then went through the Plaine du Nord, the richest agricultural district in the French sector, and left it wrecked with nearly 500 dead. This was one theatre of the European war of the Grand Alliance, fought out by men who would never see Europe. It also shows how provisional French control still was after twenty seven years. The plain they burned in 1691 is the plain that rose in 1791 and burned again.
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