Santo Domingo. The Dominican government refuses Céligny Ardouin’s letter and releases Haitian prisoners.

The government had resolved to endeavor to bring the inhabitants of the eastern part back into the bosom of the Republic; it hoped that, Rivière Hérard having been overthrown, it would not meet very great resistance on the part of the Dominican rulers. To fulfil the mission it chose citizen Céligny Ardouin, who had lived at Santo-Domingo and had numerous connections there. The choice had not been a happy one, above all because of those very connections in the circumstances, for the enterprising nature of citizen Céligny Ardouin was known at Santo-Domingo, and he was judged capable, once he had put himself in touch with a good many persons of Haitian origin, of leading them to attempt a reaction in favor of Haiti. In the mind of the Dominican he was no conciliator. On 18 May general Hyppolite, secretary of state for War, the Navy and Foreign Relations, handed him a letter addressed to the authorities established at Santo-Domingo. He left Port-au-Prince and embarked on 28 May at Jacmel for Santo-Domingo, where he arrived on 2 June. The Dominican government took offense at the address of the letter of which citizen Céligny Ardouin was the bearer; it would not accept it, objecting that it ought to have been addressed to the Central Governing Junta: this was a polite refusal, so as not to recognize Céligny Ardouin as Commissioner of Haiti. The Dominican government nonetheless proposed to citizen C. Ardouin that he address the letter to the Central Governing Junta; but he refused, not being authorized to recognize the independence of the Eastern Part. He was able to obtain from the Dominican government that a good number of Haitian prisoners interned at Santo-Domingo should embark with him for Jacmel, where he arrived, having seen his mission fail completely. General Geffrard, commandant of the arrondissement of Jacmel, welcomed the prisoners eagerly and had the best of care lavished upon them.