Transcript

. . . and in company with the Saints of God, seek a new home in the unknown regions of a new desert country.

The night before crossing the [Missouri] river we experienced the most severe hail-storm I had ever witnessed; the suffering from cold and exposure tongue or pen cannot describe. But what can not the Saints of God endure while in the discharge of their duties.

On the 24th. I was taken sick with inflamation of the lungs and was near unto death; the brethren, notwithstanding they had administered to me thought that my labors were over and while collected a number of them in a body around my tent conversed about my being consumed by the wolves. I heard them and made up my mind that I would be buried six feet deep in order to cheat the ravenous wolves of their prey. I called to Brother Norton to make known to him my wishes, but could not make him hear. My wife came in and I told her what I wanted. She began crying and said that she could not get along without me and that I must not die. I studied a moment and then told her that I would not. I immediately began to recover and four days later was driving my team. How plain was the power and mercy of God manifested unto me.

On arriving near the Elk Horn River we found a perfect sea of water. This year, 1851, almost the entire country was flooded with water; consequently, we had to go around the Elk Horn River and explore an entirely new route, traveling North so far that we got into the Bluffs and hills of deep sand, Sage Brush, Greasewood.

But our most serious difficulties were in encountering enormous herds of wild Buffalo. It seemed sometimes as if the whole face of the country was, covered with them. We had to send men ahead to disperse them in order that we might drive through with our teams. We succeeded in doing so without serious accident and after traveling as near as we could judge about three hundred miles, we again struck the road about one hundred eighty miles from where we had left it about two months after having done so, we continued our journey for Great Salt Lake City, blessed in every undertaking and good spirit prevailing all of the time. All enjoyed good health, met with no losses of consequence and on the fifteenth day of September, 1851, we arrived in Salt Lake City.