| 362 parents. Some had the good fortune to escape with their family, household goods, and some provisions; while others knew not the fate of their friends and had lost all their goods. The scene was indescribable, and would have melted the hearts of any people upon earth except the blind oppressor and prejudiced and ignorant bigot. Next day the company increased, and they were chiefly engaged in felling small cottonwood trees and erecting them into temporary cabins, so that when night came on they had the appearance of a village of wigwams, and the night being clear, the occupants began to enjoy some degree of comfort.
"Lieutenant Governor Boggs presented a curious external appearance; yet he was evidently the head and front of the mob; for, as may easily be seen by what follows, no important move was made without his sanction. He certainly was the secret spring of the [proceedings of the] 20th and 23d of July, and, as will appear in the sequel, by his authority the mob was molded into militia, to effect by stratagem what he knew, as well as his hellish host, could not be done by legal force. As Lieutenant Governor he had only to wink, and the mob went from maltreatment to murder. The horrid calculations of this second Nero were often developed in a way that could not be mistaken. Early on the morning of the 5th, say at one o'clock a. m., he came to Phelps, Gilbert, and Partridge, and told them to flee for their lives. Now, unless he had given the order so to do, no one would have attempted to murder, after the church had agreed to go away. His conscience vacillated on its rocky moorings and gave the secret alarm to these men.
"The saints who fled took refuge in the neighboring counties, mostly in Clay County, which received them with some degree of kindness. Those who fled to the county of Van Buren were again driven and compelled to flee, and those who fled to Lafayette County were soon expelled, or the most of them, and had to move wherever they could find protection.
"November 13. About four o'clock a. m. I was awakened by Brother Davis knocking at my door, and calling on me to arise and behold the signs in the heavens. I arose, and to
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