Santo Domingo. Roume arrives as commissioner.

The Executive Directory had just named Citizen Roume commissioner for the former Spanish colony; he embarked at Cádiz and arrived at Santo Domingo on 8 April 1796. He was charged with representing France there until France could take possession of it by sending forces. A man of gentle temper, free of caste prejudice, he learned with sorrow of the animosity that had reigned among the republican chiefs since the affair of 30 Ventôse. He therefore wrote on 11 May 1796 to Generals Laveaux, Villate, Rigaud, Bauvais and Toussaint Louverture, urging them to forget the past and to fraternize as good republicans. These generals sent deputies to Santo Domingo who, in their name, swore before Roume to maintain the most perfect harmony among themselves and to direct all their efforts together, and in good faith, against the English; they embraced one another through their representatives.