Colonial troops’ defections doomed French offensives against rebel camps

Evidence

In late May a French mission sent against Mapou ended in disaster. It was weakened before it began when some of the colonial troops who were to accompany it defected to Sylla’s side. The remaining troops tried to attack a position high up on a group of rocks as they were fired on from above, seeking to avoid the rocks rolled down toward them, and falling into the murderous traps that were all around. From the camp women shouted “cries of joy” every time a French soldier fell. Eventually Sylla was dislodged from the Mapou by a force that included colonial troops, though he regrouped elsewhere. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 980