"SIR: Having been notified by the Creek Delegation that they have appointed you their agent and attorney in fact, to receive the negroes captured by their warriors in Florida, which, by the decision of the Secretary of War, are to be delivered up to them, in conformity to the agreement made with them by General Jessup, I have the honor to transmit herewith the copy of a communication to the Secretary of War on the subject, which has received his approval. Orders will be given to the officers therein named to carry the measure into effect, in conformity to the recommendation. Captain Morrison, Superintendent of Seminole Emigration at Tampa Bay, and Lieutenant Reynolds, engaged in removing a party of the same, at New Orleans, have been instructed to assist and coöperate in the matter. Herewith you will receive the copy of a list of negroes captured by General Jessup, which, it is believed, embraces the negroes to which the Creeks are entitled; but as this is not certain, much caution should be used in identifying them. It is supposed that all these negroes now alive are at Fort Pike; but some of them may be at Tampa Bay, or other places: it will be for you to find them. No expense of any nature whatever, growing out of this matter, will be paid by the United States. C. A. HARRIS, _Comm'r._ N. F. COLLINS, Washington, D. C." Preparations being now perfected, and the whole matter being fully understood, Mr. Collins left Washington on the following morning, prepared to bring those fathers, and mothers, and children, back to servitude in Georgia, from which their ancestors had fled nearly a hundred years previously; and this nefarious work was thus encouraged and sanctioned by our Government. Of these movements the Exiles were ignorant. Many hearts were moved in sympathy for them, and many of our military officers were active in their endeavors to defeat the machinations of the President and the War Department. Lieutenant Reynolds found it necessary to return to Florida before leaving New Orleans with his party of Emigrants. While he was absent, the efforts of slaveholders to reënslave these people appeared to increase, and they became more bold, although Collins had not yet appeared, clothed with the authority of Government, to effect their enslavement. General Gaines, commanding the Western Military District of the United States, and residing at New Orleans, as if premonished of the arrival of this national slave catcher, issued his peremptory order (April 29), directing Major Clark, Acting Quarter-Master at New Orleans, to make arrangements for the _immediate_ embarkation and emigration of the Seminole Indians and _black prisoners of war_, at that time in Louisiana, to the place of their destination on the Arkansas River, near Fort Gibson.