History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

238
AT THE MISSOURI.
saints reached the Mormon encampments, forbade
further progress, and all prepared to spend the winter
on the prairie. To the Mormon encampment on the
site of the present town of Council Bluffs was afterward
given the name of Kanesville. 4
While the saints were undergoing their infelicities
at Nauvoo, war had broken out between the United
States and Mexico. At that time New Mexico and
California were a part of Mexico, and Utah and Nevada
were a part of California. 5 Journeying west
from Nauvoo, California or Oregon would be reached.
The latter territory was already secured to the United
States; people were there from the United States,
composing religious sects and political parties as jealous
of their holdings as any in Missouri or Illinois.
Vancouver Island 6 was practically unoccupied, but
the Hudson's Bay Company would scarcely regard
with favor its occupation by a large body of American
citizens whose government was at that moment crowding
them out of the Oregon territory and across the
Columbia River.
But had the Mormons known their destination,
had they known what point among the mountains or
* So called after Thomas L. Kane. Here was first issued on Feb. 7, 1849,
the Frontier Guardian, and its publication was continued till March 22, 1852.
Richards' Narr., MS., 65; Richards' Bibliog. of Utah, MS., 13. The paper
was edited by Orson Hyde, and makes a very creditable appearance. The
'
subscription was $2 per year. In the second number we read: Flour nicely
put up in sacks of from 50 to 100 lbs each will be received in exchange for
the Guardian at the rate of $2 per hundred pounds, if good.' The last number
of the Times arid Seasons bears date Feb. 15, 1846.
5 1 frequently find California and Utah confounded by writers of this early
period. The limits of California on the east were not then denned, and it
was not uncommon, nor indeed incorrect, to apply that term to territory east
of the sierra. I find this written in Snow's Voice of the Prophet, 15: 'The
pioneers discovered a beautiful valley beyond the pass of the great Rocky
Mts, being a portion of the great basin of Upper California.' As we shall see
later, the Mormons knew even less about Utah than they did about California.
6 Brigham Young at first suggested Vancouver Island. 'There are said
to be many good locations for settlements on the Pacific, especially at Vancouver
Island.' Circular to the brethren, in Times and Seasons, vi. 1019.
In 1845 the report was current that the Mormons of Illinois had chosen V. I.
as their future home, the metropolis to be situated at Nootka. Xiles' Register,
lxix. 134. The Quincy Whig thinks the Mormons intend to settle at Nootka
Sound. Polynesian, ii. 1S46.