In the meantime, Lieutenant Reynolds having accomplished his mission, so far as the emigration of the captives shipped on board the two boats which left New Orleans on the nineteenth and twenty-first of May were concerned, returned to that city in order to complete the duties assigned him in regard to the thirty-one prisoners who had been detained there by legal sequestration. Collins, faithful to the trust reposed in him, also returned to New Orleans with the full purpose of securing those people as slaves to Watson. They reached the city on the twenty-third, and found the slaves still in the possession of the Sheriff; as the time assigned by the court within which the plaintiff was to enter bail had not expired.
On the twenty-fifth of June, Mr. Collins addressed a note to Mr. Reynolds, inquiring whether there had been any decision of the court upon the claim of Love to the Seminole negroes left at that place; and what number he (Reynolds) was satisfied belonged to the Creek Indians; and demanding that such as belonged to them should be delivered to him, under the order of the Commissioner of “Indian Affairs.”
Mr. Reynolds replied that he understood the case had been dismissed; but as he (Reynolds) was then acting under a superior officer (Major Clark), he would refer Mr. Collins to him.
On the following day, Collins addressed Major Clark on the subject; but receiving no answer, and becoming vexed and disgusted with the business, he left the city on the twenty-seventh for his home in Alabama. In justice to Mr. Collins, we let him speak for himself, and quote the remainder of his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, being that portion which relates to his efforts to get possession of these thirty-one Exiles. It reads as follows:
“On arriving at New Orleans on my return, I found the representatives of Love had withdrawn their claim against those thirty-two negroes that were left there, thirty-one of which Lieutenant R. expressed himself satisfied belonged to the claim. I addressed a note to Lieutenant R. requesting that such of the negroes as he was satisfied of the identity might be turned over to me; he in turn referred me to Major Clark who was his senior officer, and who had received similar instructions to his own. I had, in company with Lieutenant R. the day before, called upon Major Clark, and learned his determination in relation to the negroes. He did not recognize the validity of his order, inasmuch as ‘By order of the Secretary of War’ did not precede your signature, and had even the hardihood to state, that, by an examination of the lists, none of those negroes in New Orleans were embraced in the claim I presented, and subsequently ordered Lieutenant Reynolds to send the negroes forthwith to Arkansas. After I saw a settled and determined purpose to thwart me there as well as elsewhere, I left New Orleans on the next day for this place, and since my arrival here, I have learned by a letter from Lieutenant Reynolds, that the negroes were sent off the next day after I left.”
“Captain Morrison I did not see. Not perhaps being as fruitful in expedients as some others of them, he stopped at Fort Jackson, and sent to New Orleans for transportation outfit, etc., and passed the city on his way up, without but few knowing who he was, or anything else in relation to him. I learned indirectly from Major Clark, (who probably did not intend this admission for me,) that he had between twenty and thirty of the negroes on board belonging to this claim.”
“I am, sir, with the highest respect,
Yours, etc.,
N. F. COLLINS.
C. A. HARRIS, Esq.,
Comm’r Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C.”
It is most obvious that Collins believed that the military officers of Government, who were serving at a distance from Washington, viewed his mission with no particular favor, and he evidently retired from New Orleans with some degree of indignation.
In the meantime, the claimant Love, despairing of obtaining the negroes, refused to enter bail for costs and damages, in case the suit should be determined against him in the higher court, and the sheriff delivered them over to Mr. Reynolds on the same day that Collins left the city. On the next day, Mr. Reynolds wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, “The thirty-one negroes who were arrested, seized from me and lodged in the jail of this city, were last evening surrendered to me. The Creek attorney (N. F. Collins, Esq.) nor any authorized agent being present, and not wishing to detain them at the expense of the Government, they were immediately embarked and dispatched West, with twenty-five days’ provisions, under the charge of Assistant Conductor Benjamin, who, to satisfy the Indians, had been left with the negroes at the period of the service of the process; of which fact I informed the Department at the time.”