His honor the Judge, in delivering his opinion discharging the rule, disregarded all claims to right on the part of the Exiles. They being black, under the laws of Louisiana, were presumed to be slaves to some person; and he spoke with exultation of the fact, that neither General Gaines nor the United States had claimed them as slaves; and he declared it would be infinitely more wise and natural for the United States to hold them as lawful prize to the captors, than it would be to send them with the Indians to cultivate their lands in time of peace, and swell the number of our enemies in times of war; but, on this motion, he thought the court bound to regard the facts set forth in the plaintiff’s claim as true, and he therefore discharged the rule, and made the order of sequestration absolute.
There now appeared no hope of escape for these people; they seemed to be the sport of fortune. For more than a century they and their ancestors had set at defiance the efforts of slaveholders, assisted by Government, to reënslave them; but they now appeared to be within the power of those who were anxious to consign them to bondage.
On the fifteenth of May, Lieutenant Reynolds, having returned to New Orleans, wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, “I arrived at this place from Tampa Bay yesterday; was detained longer than I expected to be, in consequence of the absence of General Jessup from Fort Brooke. Arrangements are made for the embarkation of the party for ‘Fort Gibson,’ with the exception of sixty-seven of the negroes, who are claimed by persons from Georgia. The civil authorities, I understand, require that these negroes be not removed. It appears that General Gaines presented himself as defendant, and contended, that as the negroes were prisoners of war, the civil authority had no right to wrest them from the Government’s hands. The court however decided contrary, acknowledging the Indians alone as prisoners, and the negroes as the property of the Indians. The case will not come on for some time, and, deeming (from all that I can learn) that the claim is fraudulent, it will be necessary that they remain.”
Lieutenant Reynolds was delayed until the twenty-first of May before he was able to embark the other prisoners. One steamer left on the nineteenth; and on the twenty-first, he wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, “Thirty-one of the negroes, out of the sixty-seven, have been selected by the claimants. These negroes, I am informed, do not belong to the Indians on whom the claims have been made.”
This opened up new hopes for those to whom the claimants admitted they had no title. There is, however, something about this surrender which we are not able to explain. It is certain that Lieutenant Reynolds left New Orleans on the twenty-first of May with all the prisoners, both Indians and negroes then at that city, except thirty-one left in charge of the sheriff, and seven Spanish maroons, whom he discharged. The remaining thirty-one were left in the charge of the sheriff, with the slave-catching vultures watching, and eager to fasten their talons upon them so soon as opportunity should permit. The separation was painful. Families were again severed: parents were torn from their children, and brothers and sisters compelled to bid adieu to each other; and as they could see no escape for those left at New Orleans, they regarded the separation as final.
But the other prisoners were on board. Lieutenant Reynolds and other officers had done what they could, and they desired soon as possible to get the hapless Exiles, who yet remained in their possession, beyond the reach of slave-hunters and slave-catchers. That mysterious power, steam, was now applied; and rapidly the vessel was driven against the strong current of the Mississippi, as the sable passengers cast their last, lingering look toward their friends who remained behind, the victims of a tyranny—an oppression—which yet disgraces the civilization of the age in which we live. The Indians were also thoughtful and sad, as they cast their eyes back towards their beloved Florida, the scenes amidst which they had been born and reared; where they had fought; where their brethren had been slain; where their fathers rested peacefully in their graves. Many bitter sighs were heard, and many tears fell from the eyes of those prisoners as they resumed their voyage, for unknown homes in the Western Country.
CHAPTER XV.
DIFFICULTIES IN ENSLAVING EXILES CONTINUED.
Collins, Agent for the Slave-dealer, reaches Fort Pike—Prisoners gone—He repairs to New Orleans—reaches that City one day after the Exiles and Indians had left—He follows them up the River—Whole number of Prisoners on the two boats—They stop a few hours at Vicksburg—Collins overtakes them—Hands his Order to Reynolds—They consult together—Difficulty in separating Indians from Negroes—They all proceed together—Reynolds and Collins endeavor to persuade Indians to deliver over Negroes—They refuse—They reach Little Rock—Call on Governor Roane for military aid—His emphatic Answer—They proceed to Fort Gibson—Call on General Arbuckle to separate them—He refuses—Collins gives up all as lost—His Letter to Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Collins, the agent of Watson, left the City of Washington on the tenth of May with full powers to act for the Creek chiefs as well as for his principal; fully provided, also, with orders from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, directing all officers of the United States, in whose custody the Exiles might be, to deliver them to this agent of the slave-dealer. Expecting to find his victims at Fort Pike, he repaired to that place; but on his arrival found they had left for New Orleans some days previously. He forthwith followed them, and reached that city on the twenty-second of June, being one day after Reynolds and his prisoners had left that city for Fort Gibson.
Thus it will be seen, that the efforts of General Gaines, and the active vigilance of Major Clarke and Lieutenant Reynolds, had barely succeeded in getting these people under way for their western homes, when the authority for their reënslavement arrived.