"On arriving at New Orleans on my return, I found the representatives of Love had withdrawn their claim against those thirty-two negroes that were left there, thirty-one of which Lieutenant R. expressed himself satisfied belonged to the claim.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.