LITMIR.BIZ

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every man use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a Stake of Zion; and if ye do this with a pure heart, with all faithfulness, ye shall be blessed in your flocks, and in your herds, and in your fields, and in your houses, and in your families." * * On the 7th of April, 1847, the day after the general conference, the pioneers started from Winter Quarters.

      As soon as they got fairly on the journey, they were organized as a military body, into companies of hundreds, fifties and tens. The following order of the officers will illustrate:

      Brigham Young, Lieutenant-General; Stephen Markham, Colonel; John Pack, 1st Major; Shadrach Roundy, 2nd Major; Captains of hundreds, Stephen Markham and A. P. Rockwood.

      Captain of Company 1, Wilford Woodruff; Company 2, Ezra T. Benson; Company 3, Phineas H. Young; Company 4, Luke Johnson; Company 5, Stephen H. Goddard; Company 6, Charles Shumway; Company 7, James Case: Company 8, Seth Taft; Company 9, Howard Egan; Company 10, Appleton M. Harmon; Company 11, John Higbie; Company 12, Norton Jacobs; Company 13, John Brown; Company 14, Joseph Mathews.

      The camp consisted of 73 wagons; 143 men, 3 women and 2 children— 148 souls. Nothing could better illustrate the perfection of Mormon organization than this example of the pioneers, for they were apostles and picked elders of minute companies, and under strict discipline.

      Lieutenant-General Young issued general orders to the regiment. The men were ordered to travel in a compact body, being in an Indian country ; every man to carry his gun loaded, the locks to be shut on a piece of buckskin, with caps ready in case of attack; flint locks, with cotton and powder flask handy, and every man to walk by the side of his wagon, under orders not to leave it, unless sent by the officer in command, and the wagons to be formed two abreast, where practicable, on the march. At the call of the bugle in the morning, at five o'clock, the pioneers were to arise, assemble for prayers, get breakfast, and be ready to start at the second call of the bugle at seven. At night, at half-past eight, at the command from the bugle, each was to retire for prayer in his own wagon, and to bed at nine o'clock. Tents were to be pitched on Saturday nights and the Sabbath kept.

      The course of the pioneers was up the north bank of the Platte, along which they traveled slowly. They crossed Elk Horn on a raft, forded the Loup Fork with considerable danger in consequence of the quicksands, and reached Grand Island about the 1st of May.

      This was the day on which the pioneers had their first buffalo hunt. There was much exciting interest in the scene, for scarcely one of the hunters had chased a buffalo before. They killed four cows, three bulls, and five calves.

      While on a hunt, several days after, the hunters were called in, a party of four hundred Indian warriors nearby having shown signs of an attack. The Indians had previously been threatening and were setting fire to the prairie on the north side of the Platte. The pioneers fired their cannon twice to warn the Indians that they were on the watch.

      A council was now held to consider whether or not it were wise to cross the river and strike the old road to Laramie, there being good grass on that side, while the Indians were burning it on the north. In view, however, of the thousands who would follow in their track, it was concluded to continue as before, braving the Indians and the burning prairies; for, said the pioneers: "A new road will thus be made, which shall stand as a permanent route for the Saints."

      Thus the pioneers broke a new road across the plains, over which tens of thousands of their people have since traveled, and which was famous as the "old Mormon road," till the railway came to blot almost from memory the toils and dangers of a journey of more than a thousand miles, by ox teams, to the valleys of Utah. (It is a curious fact that for several hundred miles the grade of the great trans-continental railway is made exactly upon the old Mormon road).

      The pioneers were wary. Colonel Markham drilled his men in good military style, and the cannon was put on wheels. William Clayton, formerly the scribe of the Prophet, and, in the pioneer journey, scribe to President Young, and Willard Richards, the Church historian, invented a machine to measure the distance. General Young himself marked the entire route, going in advance daily with his staff. This service was deemed most important, as their emigrations would follow almost in the very footprints of the pioneers.

      Those were days for the buffalo hunt, scarcely to be imagined, when crossing the plains a quarter of a century later. Some days they saw as many as fifty thousand buffalo.

      They came to the hunting ground of the Sioux, where, a few days before, five hundred lodges had stood. Nearly a thousand warriors had encamped there.

      They had been on a hunting expedition. Acres of ground were covered with buffalo wool and other remains of the slaughter. No wonder the Indian of the plains bemoans his hunting grounds, now lost to him forever. Several days later there were again fears of an Indian attack, and the cannon was got ready.

      The pioneers were within view of Chimney rock on Sunday, the 23rd of May. Here they held their usual Sabbath service.

      On the first of June they were opposite Laramie. Here they were joined by a small company of Mormons from Mississippi, who had been at Pueblo during the winter. They reported news of a detachment of the battalion at Pueblo that expected to start for Laramie about the first of June and follow the pioneer track. This addition to the camp consisted of a brother Crow and his family (fourteen souls, with seven wagons).

      The next day President Young and others visited Fort Laramie, then occupied by thirty-eight persons, mostly French, who had married the Sioux.

      Mr. Burdow, the principal man at the Fort, was a Frenchman. He cordially received General Young and his staff, invited them into his sitting-room, gave them information of the route, and furnished them with a flat-bottom boat on reasonable terms, to assist them in ferrying the Platte. Ex-Governor Boggs, who had recently passed with his company, had said much against the Mormons, cautioning Mr. Burdow to take care of his horses and cattle. Boggs and his company were quarreling, many having deserted him; so Burdow told the ex-Governor that, let the Mormons be what they might, they could not be worse than himself and his men.

      It is not a little singular that this exterminating Governor of Missouri should have been crossing the Plains at the same time with the Pioneers. They were going to carve out for their people a greater destiny than they could have reached either in Missouri or Illinois—he to pass away, leaving nothing but a transitory name.

      It was decided to send Amasa Lyman, with several other brethren, to Pueblo, to meet the detachment of the Battalion, and hurry them on to Laramie to follow the track.

      At the old Fort they set up blacksmith shops and did some necessary work for the camp. Then commenced the ascent of the Black Hills, on the 4th of June.

      Fifteen miles from Laramie, at the Springs, a company of Missouri emigrants came up. The pioneers kept the Sabbath the next day; the Missourians journeyed. Another company of Missourians appeared and passed on. A party of traders, direct from Santa Fe, overtook the Pioneers, and gave information of the detachment of the battalion, at Santa Fe, under Captain Brown.

      The two Missouri companies kept up a warfare between themselves on the route. They were a suggestive example to the Mormons. After they had traveled near each other for a week, on the Sunday following, President Young made this the subject of his discourse. He said of the two Missourian companies: "They curse, swear, rip and tear, and are trying to swallow up the earth; but though they do not wish us to have a place on it, the earth might as well open and swallow them up; for they will go to the land of forgetfulness, while the Saints; though they suffer some privations here, if faithful, will ultimately inherit the earth, and increase in power, dominion and glory."

      General Young called together the officers, to consult on a plan for crossing the river. He directed them to go immediately to the mountains with teams, to get poles. They were then to lash from two to four wagons abreast, to keep them from turning over, and float them across the river with boats and ropes; so a company of horsemen started to the mountains with teams.

      The "brethren" had previously ferried over the Missourians, who paid them $1.50 for each wagon and load, and paid it in flour at $2.50; yet flour was worth ten

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