History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

218
EXPULSION FROM NAUVOO.
a people making few pretensions to civil or religious
liberty. It was from these same people who had fled
from old-world persecutions that they might enjoy
liberty of conscience in the wilds of America, from
their descendants and associates, that other of their
descendants, who claimed the right to differ from them
in opinion and practice, were now fleeing. True, the
Mormons in various ways had rendered themselves
abominable to their neighbors: so had the puritan
fathers to their neighbors. Before this the Mormons
had been driven to the outskirts of civilization, where
they had built themselves a city; this they must now
abandon, and throw themselves upon the mercy of
savages.
The first teams crossed about the 10th, in flat
boats, which were rowed over, and which plied forth
and back from early dawn until late into the night,
skiffs and other river craft being
passengers and baggage. The cold
also used
increased.
for
On
the 16th snow fell heavily; and the river was frozen
over, so that the remainder of the emigration crossed
on the ice. Their first camp, the camp of the congregation,
was on Sugar Creek, a few miles from Nauvoo
and almost within sight of the city. 7
All their movements
were directed by Brigham, who with his family
and a quorum of the twelve, John Taylor, George A.
Smith,
Hyde,
Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Orson
Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, and Amasa
Lyman, joined the brethren on Sugar Creek on the
15th. Wilford Woodruff, who had been sent to preside
over the mission to England, joined the emigration
later at Mount Pisgah.
On the morning of the 17th, all the saints in camp
being assembled near the bridge to receive their lead-
er's instructions, the president stood upright in his
wagon, and cried with a loud voice, "Attention! the
7 ' We encamped at Sugar Creek, in the snow, while two of my children
were very ill. We slept in our wagons, which were placed close to our tents.'
Home's Migrations, MS., 1G.