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They left their country with great regret, and I do not think they will ever be satisfied elsewhere. The men seemed moody, but occasionally uttered sentences in their own tongue with great feeling. The lamentations of the women Were pitiful to hear. (Extract from a Letter to the Secretary at War, in Relation to the Removal of the Seminoles.)
Moonlight plays on the waters and all silently they glide,
Though swiftly by a mighty ship that swingeth in their tide,
And the gentle winds of summer are bearing from the land
In whispering tones a sad farewell to an exiled band.
The perfume of the jasmine and the magnolia flowers
Mingles with the odors borne from distant orange bowers,
The music of the mock-bird’s song they hear across the deep,
Whose glassy ripples murmuring a cadence with it keep.