Pres. Brigham Young writes:
I arrived at the last crossing of the Sweetwater on the 20th and tarried to return the borrowed teams and wagons to Winter Quarters; On hearing of the heavy loss of cattle in Elder Kimball's company I returned 25 miles and met him where we wrote the Epistle to Pottawattaomie [Pottawattamie], from which the above is extracted. In said Epistle, which we dated 28th, we proposed to send our mountain teams next season to Fort Laramie and take to the Valley all the emigration that the Pottowattaomie [Pottawattamie] saints could forward to that point. As we were finishing our epistle we had the pleasure of announcing the arrival of Bros Lorenzo and Abraham O. Smoot from the Valley in charge of 47 wagons and 124 yokes of oxen that had been sent for our assistance; this relieved our feelings much.

Elder Kimball and I returned from this point, 48 men and boys, 59 wagons, 121 yokes of cattle, 44 mules and horses in charge of Allen Taylor to Winter Quarters.

We also wrote to Elders Richards and Lyman and sent by Bros. Ben Rolfe, <John> E. Forsgren and <Ephraim> K. Hanks, giving them a copy of <the> epistle from the Valley and requesting them to read our epistle to Bro. Hyde and forward the same by Captain Taylor; also wishing them, if in straightened circumstances through loss of cattle, to keep their companies together and continue moving, so as to get west of the South Pass, and send word what their circumstance were and what help they required.

We also sent a mail of 61 letters back for the U. S. and 2 letters for England.

Captain Daniel Thomas with the first return teams met the companies of Bros. Richards and Lyman on the Platte river on the 23rd. Bro. Richards drove round to Bro. Lyman's quarters and read to him the letters from the valley and from Elder Kimball and me. Bro. Lyman's health was improving, though he was unable to speak loud enough to be heard.

The brethren in these companies received frequent communications from Elder Kimball's company and mine, which we left by the way. Sometimes we wrote a copy of camp journal and cut a notch in a tree in some notable place and deposited it there; sometimes in a post stuck in the ground; but more generally short notices were made of our progress on buffalo skulls and other bones which we left by the way.