138 



of three years the term of their imprisonment expired 

 and they were to be sent back to their tribes. Twenty- 

 two of the young men expressed a wish to be further 

 educated before their return. Funds to cover the cost 

 for three years were soon raised, partly from those who 

 had been personally acquainted with them at St. Augus- 

 tine, and partly from benevolent individuals at a dis- 

 tance. General Armstrong, superintendent of the Hamp- 

 ton Normal and Agricultural Institute, for training col- 

 ored teachers for the South, was willing to take sixteen 

 of them into his establishment. Arrangements were 

 made for the remaining six to go to other schools in 

 the North, Captain Pratt, wishing the older Indians 

 to see the place where their young men were to be left 

 to be educated, availed himself of an opportunity of 

 bringing them all North by a steamer that was return- 

 ing to Norfolk, and landed them at the school wharf. 

 They seemed pleased with the place, bade their young 

 men farewell, and, after visiting Washington, were set 

 at liberty in the Indian Territory. Accounts of these 

 returned prisoners have been very encouraging. They 

 have mostly joined themselves to the missionaries, having 

 charge of the schools on the reservations, persuading their 

 people to give up their nomadic life, and settle down to 

 the cultivation of the soil, and have their children edu- 

 cated. Those left at Hampton are very exemplary in 

 their conduct, remarkably neat and cleanly in their per- 

 son, and are making good progress in their education. 

 They are extremely affectionate ; when Captain Pratt left 

 them to take the old folk home, they all embraced him in 

 tears, and were greatly delighted on his return. I have 

 often thought, on viewing their manly forms, and inter- 

 esting countenances, of the exclamation, I think of St. 

 Augustine, when he beheld the British youths captives in 



