Page:History of Utah.djvu/304

CHAPTER X.

MIGRATION TO UTAH.

1847.

Camp Near the Missouri—Preparations at Winter Quarters—Departure of the Pioneer Band—Elkhorn Rendezvous— Route and Routine—Incidents of Journey—Approach to Zion—In the Cañon—Hosanna! Hallelujah!—Entry into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake—Ploughing and Planting—Praying and Praising—Site for a City Chosen—Temple Block Selected—Return of Companies to Winter Quarters—Their Meeting with the Westward-bound—General Epistle of the Twelve.

In the spring of 1847 we find the saints still in camp in the vicinity of the Missouri. Considering what they had been called upon to undergo, they were in good health and spirits. There is nothing like the spiritual in man to stimulate and sustain the physical; and this result is equally accomplished by the most exalted piety of the true believer, or by the most stupid fanaticism or barbaric ignorance; for all of us are true believers, in our own eyes. There is nothing like religion to sustain, bear up, and carry men along under trying circumstances. They make of it a fight; and they are determined that the world, the flesh, and the devil shall not conquer.

In the present instance it was of course a miracle in their eyes that so many of their number were preserved; it was to this belief, and to the superhuman skill and wisdom of their leader, and partly to their own concert of action, that their preservation was due.

Frequent meetings had been held by the council to consider plans for further explorations by a pioneer