But at no period had the Seminole Indians regarded the Exiles with greater favor than they did when removing on to the territory assigned to the Creeks. Although many of them had intermarried with the Seminoles, and half-breeds were now common among the Indians; yet most of the descendants of the pioneers who fled from South Carolina and Georgia maintained their identity of character, living by themselves, and maintaining the purity of the African race. They yet cherished this love of their own kindred and color; and when they removed on to the Creek lands, they settled in separate villages: and the Seminole Indians appeared generally to coincide with the Exiles in the propriety of each maintaining their distinctive character. During the summer and autumn both Indians and Exiles became residents within Creek jurisdiction; and the Executive seemed to regard the trust held under the assignment made at Indian Spring, twenty-four years previously, as now fulfilled. Regarding the Creeks as holding the equitable or beneficial interest in the bodies of the Exiles, under the assignment from their owners to the United States, and they being now brought under Creek jurisdiction, subject to Creek laws, the Executive felt that his obligations were discharged, and the whole matter left with the Creeks. This opinion appears also to have been entertained by the Creek Indians; for no sooner had the Exiles and Seminoles located themselves within Creek jurisdiction, than the Exiles were claimed as the legitimate slaves of the Creeks. To these demands the Exiles and Seminoles replied, that the President, under the treaty of 1845, was bound to hear and determine all questions arising between them. The demands were, therefore, certified to the proper department for decision. But this setting in judgment upon the heaven-endowed right of man to his liberty, seemed to involve more personal and moral responsibility than was desirable for the Executive to assume, and the claims remained undecided. The Creeks became impatient at delay; they were a slaveholding people, as well as their more civilized but more infidel brethren, of the slave States. The Exiles, living in their own villages in the enjoyment of perfect freedom, had already excited discontent among the slaves of the Creek and Choctaw Tribes, and those of Arkansas. The Creeks appeared to feel that it had been far better for them to have kept the Exiles in Florida, than to bring them to the Western Country to live in freedom. Yet their claims under the treaty of 1845, thus far, appeared to have been disregarded by the President; they had been unable to obtain a decision on them; and they now threatened violence for the purpose of enslaving the Exiles, unless their demands were peacefully conceded.