Babcock boarded the steamship "Tybee" in New York and departed for the Dominican Republic on July 17, 1869. He was accompanied by Fabens and annexation supporter California Republican Senator Cornelius Cole. On the voyage the "Tybee" stopped at Samaná Bay and observed there was a "splendid coal station" on an island. The indigenous people were upset over a recent raid by the rebel warship "Telégrafo". Noting the soil to be fertile, Babcock believed the Dominican Republic could feed 4 million people. Babcock, however, said the people of the Dominican Republic were "indolent and ignorant." Babcock's view, however, of the mixed-race black people, did not impede his vision of Santo Domingo's inclusion by the United States. Babcock was a Reconstruction man, who was "nicely color-blind" to opportunism, in the post Civil War world.