All the French corpses went on to Borisov where a strategic bridge to cross the Berezina was destroyed by the Russian army. Daendels' division of 4,000 men was involved in the Battle of Berezina and seems to have been decisive. Polish forces under general Daendels defended the Modlin Fortress (NW of Warsaw) from February 1813 until December 1813. It was the last of the French fortresses along the Vistula to capitulate. Governor-general of the Dutch Gold Coast After the fall of Napoleon, king William I and the new Dutch government feared that Daendels could become an influential and powerful opposition leader and effectively banned him from the Netherlands by appointing him Governor-general of the Dutch Gold Coast (now part of Ghana). In the aftermath of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Daendels tried to redevelop the rather dilapidated Dutch possessions as an African plantation colony driven by legitimate trade. Drawing on his experience from the East Indies, he came up with some very ambitious infrastructural projects, including a comprehensive road system, with a main road connecting Elmina and Kumasi in Ashanti. The Dutch government gave him a free hand and a substantial budget to implement his plans. At the same time, however, Daendels regarded his governorship as an opportunity to establish a private business monopoly in the Dutch Gold Coast. In 1817, the British accused Daendels of aiding and abetting the slave trade – which had by then been prohibited by both the British and the Dutch nations – from his position at the Elmina fort which was then under Dutch control. "We deem it our duty to inform you of the conduct of General Daendels who is acting independent of his Government", the British governor of Cape Coast, John Smith, wrote to the African Committee in Parliament in London on 5 March 1817. "Portuguese vessels are furnished with canoes, and Spaniards supplied with water. The beginning of last month a large Spanish ship was four days at anchor in Elmina roads, receiving water and bartering dollars for such goods as were suited for the purchase of slaves." Eventually none of the plans came to fruition, as Daendels died of malaria in the castle of St. George d'Elmina, the Dutch seat of government, on 2 May 1818. His body was interred in the central tomb at the Dutch cemetery in Elmina. He had been in the country less than