Heureaux, however, became a despot once he assumed the presidency. Luperón felt betrayed and went again into exile in Saint Thomas. Eventually he died of cancer, not before visiting Betances in France for a last time and being allowed to return to the Dominican Republic to die, as a gesture of good will from Heureaux. Due to Heureaux's protracted presidency and blatant acts of corruption, Betances (who had called Heureaux his "grandson" in letters he had previously written to him) was forced to cut ties to the Dominican Republic for good (two plots of land that he owned both there and in Panama were used for agricultural experiments, but were later left unattended). Betances writes in his letters that he had spent the equivalent of US$20,000 (in 1880 dollars, roughly equivalent to US$400,000 in 2010) on expenditures on behalf of the Dominican diplomatic office. He did not expect the Dominican government to be able to reimburse him.