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.