| 788 of the company? The reply was, no one in particular. But said they, is there not some one among you who you call your captain, or leader, or superior to the rest? He answered, sometimes one and sometimes another takes charge of the company so as not to throw the burthen [burden] upon any one in particular. These same spies who had come from the west passed us that same day, or the next.
On Monday, June 2nd, we crossed the Illinois river. The enemies had threatened that we should not pass over here, but we were ferried across without any difficulty. Here we were counted by the ferryman, and he declared we were five hundred in number, although there was only about one hundred and fifty of us. Our company had increased since we started from Kirtland, in consequence of many having volunteered and joined us from the different branches of the church, through which we had passed in our journey. We camped on the bank of the river until next day.
On Tuesday the 3rd, we went up, several of us, with Joseph Smith jr. to the top of a mound on the bank of the Illinois river, which was several hundred feet above the river, and from the summit of which we had a pleasant view of the surrounding country: we could overlook the tops of the trees, on to the meadow or prairie on each side the river as far as our eyes could extend, which was one of the most pleasant scenes I ever beheld. On the top of this mound there was the appearance of three altars, which had been built of stone, one above another, according to the ancient order; and the ground was strewn over with human bones. This caused in us very peculiar feelings, to see the bones of our fellow creatures scattered in this manner, who had been slain in ages past. We felt prompted to dig down into the mound, and sending for a shovel and hoe, we proceeded to move away the earth. At about one foot deep we discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire; and between two of his ribs we found an Indian arrow, which had evidently been the cause of his death. We took the leg and thigh bones and carried them along with us to Clay county. All four appeared sound. Elder B. Young has yet the arrow in his possession. It is a common thing to find bones thus drenching upon the earth in this country.
The same day, we pursued our journey.-While on our way we felt anxious to know who the person was who had been killed by that arrow. It was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle, in the last destruction among the Lamanites, and his name was Zelph. This caused us to rejoice much, to think that God was so mindful of us as to show these things to his servant. Brother Joseph had enquired [inquired] of the Lord and it was made known in a vision.
This day, June 3rd, while we were refreshing ourselves and teams, about the middle of the day, Brother Joseph got up in a wagon and said, that he would deliver a prophecy. After giving the brethren much good advice, exhorting them to faithfulness and humility, he said the Lord had told him that there would a scourge come upon the camp, in consequence of the fractious and unruly spirits that appeared among them and they should die like sheep with the rot; still if they would repent and humble themselves before the Lord, the scourge in a great measure might be turned away; but, as the Lord lives, this camp will suffer for giving way to their unruly temper, which afterwards actually did take place to the sorrow of the brethren.
The same day when we had got within one mile of the Snye, we came to a very beautiful little town called Atlas. Here we found honey for the first time on our journey, that we could buy; we purchased about two thirds of a barrel. We went down to the Snye and crossed over that night in a ferry boat. We camped for the night on the bank of the Snye. There was a great excitement in the country through which we had passed, and also ahead of us; the mob threatened to stop us. Guns were fired in almost all directions through the night.-Brother Joseph did not sleep much, if any, but was through the camp, pretty much during the night.
We pursued our journey on the 4th, and camped on the bank of the Mississippi river.-Here we were somewhat afflicted and the enemy threatened much that we should not cross over the river out of Illinois into Missouri. It took us two days to cross the river, as we had but one ferry boat, and the river was one mile and a half wide. While some were crossing, many others spent their time in hunting and fishing, &c. When we had all got over, we camped about one mile back from the little town of Louisiana, in a beautiful oak grove, which is immediately on the bank of the river. At this place there was some feelings of hostility manifested again by Sylvester Smith, in consequence of a dog growling at him while he was marching his company up to the camp, he being the last that came over the river.-The next morning Brother Joseph said that he would descend to the spirit that was manifested by some of the brethren, to let them see the folly of their wickedness. He rose up and commenced speaking, by saying, "if any man insults me, or abuses me, I will stand in my own
(page 788) |
