773 - PORT-AU-PRINCE.

PORT-AU-PRINCE. City of Port-au-Prince. Small folio manuscript, on loose paper, 45 lines long, signed “Louis” and countersigned by Moulut, the Brigade Commander of the Corps of Engineers acting as Director of Fortifications. Port-au-Prince, 4 Prairial, Year XI [May 24, 1803]. ATTACHED: 1 hand-drawn watercolor map (350x600 mm) titled “Excerpt from the map of Port-au-Prince showing the location of the Three Islets granted by the Commander-in-Chief, Captain General, to Madame Roberjot Lartigue.” Report by Captain Louis of the Corps of Engineers, chief surveyor and road inspector of Port-au-Prince, concerning the concession of three islets similar to and parallel with those bordering the Quay between Rue des Casernes and Rue de Bonne Foi, in accordance with the petition of Madame Roberjot Lartigue. These Trois Islets, located on the new quay, in front of Rue de Rochambeau (planned…), across from the Banc de Mangles, are ideally situated for maritime trade. They are granted to Madame Roberjot Lartigue, likely the wife of the slave owner Roberjot Lartigue, former treasurer of Port-au-Prince and French agent in Saint Thomas and the Danish Islands; Less than a week before this highly favorable concession, Dessalines had removed the white from the French flag, and the island’s independence was drawing near. BEAUTIFUL, VERY LEGIBLE MANUSCRIPT and SUPERB WATERCOLOR MAP.