But President Harrison and Mr. Blaine were not discouraged by this failure. Still bent upon acquiring a naval station in the West Indies, they applied in 1892 to the Dominican Republic. Mr. Durham, who had replaced Mr. Douglass as Minister at Port-au-Prince and Charge d'Affaires at Santo Domingo, was instructed to lease Samana Bay for a term of ninety-nine years, for which the sum of $250,000 was to be paid. General Ignacio Gonzales, who was at that time Secretary of State for Exterior Relations in President Heureau's Cabinet, hesitated at taking upon himself the responsibility of signing such a lease, consequently, having disclosed the request made by the United States, he was obliged to fly from Santo Domingo into a self-imposed exile. These events caused both Presidents, Harrison and Heureau, to give up the negotiations.
The affair of Môle Saint-Nicolas once disposed of, Hyppolite's Government had to come to an understanding with the French Legation at Port-au-Prince concerning the practice it had been indulging in of late, of granting naturalizations on Haitian territory. Natives of Haiti who were able to lay claim to being of French descent would go to the legation and have themselves registered as French citizens. The Haitian Secretary of State of Foreign Relations undertook to put an end to this abuse, which could not be tolerated. After a long and tedious discussion on the subject, France at last yielded, and fully admitted Haiti's contention; she ordered her Minister at Port-au-Prince to cancel the names of all those who had not had the right to have them registered.
Hyppolite held friendly intercourse with all the Foreign Powers. In 1892 the Holy See proved its good will, toward the Republic of Haiti in accrediting a Delegate and Envoy Extraordinary to Port-au-Prince.
