All these proceedings were reported to the proper Department at Washington. About the time, or soon after, they would naturally reach that city, William Armstrong, Acting Superintendent of the Indians in the Western Territory, evidently in the joint service of our Government and of the Creek Indians, addressed a note to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated at Washington City, April twenty-third, 1838, saying, "When General Jessup called upon volunteers to go to Florida, he promised them all the _property_ they could capture. Accordingly, the Creeks captured near _one hundred negroes_, which they left in possession of the officers of the United States. _What has become of these negroes?_ Will they receive them, or their value, as promised?" The difficulty attending the transformation of men into chattels now increased so much, that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs addressed a letter to the Hon. Secretary of War, which is so characteristic of the manner in which the administration of our Government was then conducted, that we give the letter in full: "WAR DEPARTMENT, "_Office of Indian Affairs_, May 1, 1838. "SIR: I have the honor to submit for the consideration and decision of the Department a question that has been presented by the Superintendent of the Western Territory, (Captain Armstrong.) "In September last, General Jessup advised the Department that he had purchased from the Creek warriors all the negroes (about eighty in number), captured by them, for $8,000, and this purchase was approved on the seventh of October. At a subsequent date, he wrote that he had supplied Lieutenant Searle with funds, and directed him to make the payment. It is believed, however, that the warriors refused to take the sum named, Lieutenant Searle having made no such payment, and the delegation here asserting that they never received it. It is now asked, whether they will be permitted to take the negroes, or be paid their value? It was suggested by General Jessup, that the consideration for the captives would be a proper charge on the Seminole annuity. But this would deprive the friendly portion, who have emigrated, of what they are justly, and by law, entitled to, and to a certain extent would be paying the Creeks with their own money; for the fourth Article of the Treaty with the Seminoles, of May ninth, 1832, provides, that 'the annuities then granted shall be added to the Creek annuities, and the whole amount be so divided that the chiefs and warriors of the Seminole Indians may receive their equitable proportion of the same as members of the Creek confederation.' Independently of this difficulty, I would respectfully suggest, whether there are not _other objections to the purchase of these negroes by the United States_? It seems to me, that a proposition to Congress _to