| 248 This only increased their distress, for many thousands who were driven there, had no habitations or houses to shelter them, and were huddled together, some in tents and others under blankets, while others had no shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Nearly two months the people had been in this awful state of consternation, many of them had been killed, whilst others had been whipped until they had to swathe up their bowels to prevent them from falling out. About this time, General Parks came out from Richmond, Ray county, who was one of the commissioned officers who was sent out to Diahman, and I myself and my brother Joseph Smith Senior, went out at the same time. On the evening that General Parks arrived at Diahman, my brother, the late Don Carlos Smith's wife came in to Col. Wight's about eleven o'clock at night, bringing her two children along with her, one about two years and a half old, the other a babe in her arms. She came in on foot, a distance of three miles, and waded Grand River, and the water was then about waist deep, and the snow about 3 inches deep. She stated that a party of the mob, a gang of ruffians, had turned her out of doors, had taken her household goods and had burnt up her house, and she had escaped by the skin of her teeth.-Her husband at that time was in Virginia, and she was living alone. This cruel transaction excited the feelings of the people in Diahman, especially Col. Wight, and he asked Gen. Parks, in my hearing, how long we had got to suffer such base violence? Gen. Parks said he did not know how long. Col. Wight then asked him what should be done? Gen. Parks told him "he should take a company of men, well armed, and go and disperse the mob wherever he should find any collected together, and take away their arms." Col. Wight did so precisely, according to the orders of Gen. Parks. And my brother Joseph Smith Sen. made no words about it.-And after Col. Wight had dispersed the mob and put a stop to their burning houses belonging to the Mormon people and turning women and children out of doors, which they had done up to that time to the amount of 8 or 10 houses which were consumed to ashes-after being cut short in their intended designs, the mob started up a new plan. They went to work and moved their families out of the county and set fire to their houses, and not being able to incense the Mormons to commit crimes; they had recourse to this stratagem to set their houses on fire and send runners into all the counties adjacent, to declare to the people that the Mormons had burnt up their houses and destroyed their fields, and if the people would not believe them, they would tell them to go and see if what they had said was not true. Many people came to see, they saw the houses burning, and being filled with prejudice, they could not be made to believe but that the Mormons set them on fire, which deed was most diabolical and of the blackest kind, for indeed the Mormons did not set them on fire, nor meddle with their houses or their fields. And the houses that were burnt, together with the pre-emption rights, and the corn in the fields, had all been previously purchased by the Mormons of the people and paid for in money and with waggons [wagons] and horses and with other property, about two weeks before; but they had not taken possession of the premises; but this wicked transaction was for the purpose of clandestinely exciting the minds of a prejudiced populace and the Executive, that they might get an order, that they could the more easily carry out their hellish purposes, in expulsion or extermination or utter extinction of the Mormon people. After witnessing the distressed situation of the people in Diahman, my brother Joseph Smith Senior and myself returned back to the city of Far West, and immediately despatched a messenger, with written documents, to General Atchison, stating the facts as they did then exist, praying for assistance if possible, and requesting the editor of the "Far West" to insert the same in his newspaper, but he utterly refused to do so. We still believed that we should get assistance from the Governor, and again petitioned him, praying for assistance, setting forth our distressed situation; and in the mean time the presiding Judge of the County Court issued orders-upon affidavits made to him by the citizens-to the Sheriff of the county, to order out the Militia of the county to stand in constant readiness, night and day, to prevent the citizens from being massacred, which fearful situation they were exposed to every moment. Every thing was very portentous and alarming. Notwithstanding all this, there was a ray of hope yet existing in the minds of the people that the Governor would render us assistance; and whilst the people were waiting anxiously for deliverance-men women and children frightened, praying and weeping-we beheld at a distance, crossing the prairies and approaching the town, a large army in military array, brandishing their glittering swords in the sunshine, and we could not but feel joyful for a moment, thinking that probably the Governor had sent an armed force to our relief, notwithstanding the awful forebodings that pervaded our breasts. But to our great surprise, when the army arrived they came up and formed a line in double file in one half mile on the east of the city of Far West, and despatched three messengers with a white flag
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