Setting out then from Silver Creek our course lay by Indiantown in Cass county, of which we heard frequent mention; and as it would be difficult to get grain for our horses on the way, we purposed to give them a good feed at Indiantown. Our own provisions we carried with us, also two blankets and a buffalo robe. On we went, stopping only to lunch and graze, till the sun had far descended the western sky, when on looking forward we discovered a log house and deemed that we were coming into the vicinity of Indiantown, but as that house was several rods from the track of our road, we concluded to pass on until we came to the town before feeding. that house stood in the forks of Indian creek and the East Nishnabotna, where we saw also poles, crotches, and bark, arranged in Indian style, for lodges. These doubtless gave rise to the name Indiantown, for we saw no more houses in the region. We fed no grain, for the good reason there wan none to feed. Still on we rode, until darkness closed down around us, and the pressing, practical question was, "Where shall we lodge?" On looking ahead we discerned, as we descended a hill to cross a stream, a fire of logs in a grove on the opposite bank, and a number of people gathered about it enjoying themselves apparently. On asking them if we might share their fire with them for the night, they refused, and we rode on. they had their teams out in the direction we were going, grazing. When, therefore, we passed on, they followed us, until we were quite by, evidently judging us to be horse thieves, and deciding to give us no chance to steal theirs. On we went several miles further in the dark, then turned down in a hollow, several rods from the road, we camped, if camping it could be called, when we had neither tent nor wagon - not a tree, or stake, or bush to tie to - the blue concave above bespangled with stars, and the howl of the prairie wolf in the distance, from different points of the horizon. We had not learned to tie our horses, each to the other's tail. There seemed no alternative but that one of us hold the horses, while the other slept. Arranging the saddles so as to ward off the wind, and the blankets and robe for comfort and warmth, my comrade was soon in dreamland, while I kept vigils. About midnight we exchanged places; but as the moon rose at two or three in the morning, it was thought best to push forward, as we would with difficulty reach a resting place for the Sabbath. So we packed up and mounted, finding, as the day dawned, both frost and ice. We journeyed on through all that day with scarcely the sight of a human being, until we were glad to see and speak with any man, be he Mormon, horse thief, or Indian. The road seemed long. We traveled hours in the morning by moonlight - all day long with as little stop as possible - and to 9 o'clock at night, always supposing that we went not less than seventy miles. We came upon campers by the wayside sometime before we reached our destination, and sweeter music the writer never heard than was the tinkling of that first cowbell that Saturday evening. the place was called Pisgah, and we took quarters with Elder York of the church of Latter Day Saints, until the following Monday. We were well entertained although we were not treated to all the luxuries of a Boston market. From our Pisgah we were more desirous just then to see the land of Nod than the land of Canaan. Whether this settlement has a place or a name on modern maps I know not, but my remembrance of it was that of a little valley among hills by a small stream, in which were a few log dwellings, with a small, plain house of worship on higher ground. After seeing our horses cared for, and satisfying the inner man, we were prepared to test Soloman's truthfulness when he said, "The sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much." Surely the Sabbath is a godsend to weary mortals! So dark was the night, that not until morning dawn could we form any adequate conception of either the place or the people.

Many utterly refuse to hallow or keep holy God's Sabbath, yet comparatively few fail to be benefited, even by their very imperfect observance of it. To most persons it breaks in upon the monotony peculiar to other days, and by change brings rest. there may be no thankful, prayerful, worshipful heart - no reading or study of the Bible - no going to church or joining in public divine worship - little thought of God, and less of obligations to Him, and yet the Sabbath is to man, as an animal, a blessing - a rest as it is to his horse or his ox. the day is by most persons treated restfully. They lie longer in the morning - are freer from care through the day - business presses less heavily - fathers renew their acquaintance with their families - children return from toil, and gather around the home circle - flurry and hurry are wanting - a leisurely, deliberate gait attends every movement. this itself tends to lengthen life, and promote health. The Sabbath evidently brought a change in Pisgah.

As we entered the common apartment in the morning our host greet us with a hearty "good morning," and we sat down to entertain his guests by conversation, while the breakfast was in course of preparation. Among other things, the writer inquired of him the views of Mormons in regard to the Sabbath. He replied that they believed in the Sabbath just as Christians generally do - that they regard it as of divine appointment - a day of rest and worship, but that they had been so unsettled that they had not been able to observe it so strictly as they otherwise might have done. some of them, he said, took the liberty to hunt prairie chickens on sunday, and justified themselves by saying, "Anyone having domestic fowls would think it no wrong to go to his hen house and get a chicken to satisfy hunger on the Sabbath. The prairie is our hen house. The only difference is ours is less convenient." As we passed out of the gate to go to church, some of the boys were playing ball in the street. The Elder ordered them into the house, and asked, "Where is John?" They replied, "He is gone hunting." The whole tone and manner of the boys showed very plainly that they were not used to having their play broken up in that way. the meeting house, a small very plain structure, stood on the top of a hill or bluff near by, where were gathering the residents of the settlement, and travelers camping near. there were present that day two Elders who had just returned from the valley of Salt Lake to inform the brethren on the way of the prospect that awaited them there, and encourage them to go forward. The first speaker, among other things, commented on some passages of scripture in the following style: Gen.2: 16-17, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "Now, how is this? This command was given to our first parents near the beginning of their existence. They remained obedient but a short time manifestly, and yet Adam lived 930 years. How are we to understand it? Peter tells us that 'one day is with the Lord as thousand years,' and Adam didn't live a thousand years. So you see he died the same Lord's day that he ate of the forbidden fruit. It is by comparing scripture with scripture that we may hope to understand the Bible."

After he had finished and sat down, his brother arose and discoursed upon the attractions of Salt Lake valley thus: "You needn't be afraid to go on to the valley, lest you want for bread. They have had excellent crops there. Nothing but the pure wheat grows there. They have raised wheat in abundance to supply all that are likely to go on, and more too; so that none who go on need fear coming to want. You many have heard that the crickets injured the corn. Well, they did eat some of the outside rows, but by and by the gulls came along and ate up the crickets, and so made a good job of it all around. But before I stop I want to tell you a story. A man at the east invented a gun which possessed properties of sufficient worth to get it patented. He accordingly had a model constructed, preparatory to applying for a patent. but before he sent it off he undertook to exhibit its extraordinary qualities to a friend of his, and, while looking at it, it began to shoot - and it shot! - and shot! - and shot! - until it shot itself all away but the lock, and that lay snapping; and now lest I be like that gun, I will sit down, for I don't want to be snapping." These were the remarks, the application, and conclusion, of this peculiar discourse, and the speaker sat down.

An item of business was brought forward at the close. Some of the poor saints had reached them on their way westward, and lacked means to proceed farther. A collection was accordingly taken, and arrangements made to forward them on their way to Council Bluffs (then Kanesville).

As there were no farther public services, we returned to Elder York's, and improved the remainder of the day in reading and resting. that night it rained, which Deacon Hall always spoke of as a special providence to prevent the stealing of our horses. We were hospitably received, well entertained, and not exorbitantly taxed. On the morrow we passed on our way rested and refreshed, both we and our horses.

We were now so near "the three river country," that in conversation with Elder York, we learned that some of his neighbors had gone there in the early spring to make sugar. I proposed, therefore, to Deacon Hall that we leave the Mormon trail, and visit that country often so highly commended. But he would not hear of it at all, contemptuously saying, "Do you think the Lord would send us round by the Missouri river, if He wanted us to go to the three river country?"

The rain during sunday night rendered the road somewhat muddy, nevertheless after breakfasting and settling our bills, we again mounted our steeds, and set our faces eastward. Our roadway was for the most part discreetly chosen. As the country was generally well watered by rivulets, whose flow had commonly cut deep channels through the soft alluvial soil, which required bridging, economy often prompted a crossing just above a break off where the confluent water of a marsh began to form its channel. The safe way here was usually a narrow way. To go too near the brink or waterfall on the one hand, was attended with danger, and to venture out among the cat tail flags on the other, was hardly less perilous. Fortunately for us, we were on horseback, and not cumbered with a wheeled vehicle. Once we found a deep stream, where the bridge had been carried off by a freshet, leaving only the stringers. the problem to solve was, how to get across. The could not walk the stringers, and to attempt to ford so deep, swift and swollen a current, with banks almost perpendicular, involved great risk. By carrying our saddles over on the stringers, and by means of a lariat, one drew the horses from the farther side, while the other urged them into the stream on this side. Thus we got safely over, and were enabled to pursue our lonely way. Although houses were few in this part of Iowa at that time, we always found lodging under shelter. One night in the vicinity of the White Breast stream we stopped over night with a Mr. Wilson of perhaps threescore years, who with his wife had the year before come from the region of Savannah, Mo., taken a claim, and made a new start in frontier life. They had built a log cabin, and made some improvements, and entertained us right hospitably. From our hose we learned of his experience the following:
     In beginning a home with everything to be done, it is always wise to do first, what is most necessary. His team was an indispensable helper, yet at first he could fed his horses only by tying them out on the prairie at the end of a rope to graze. One morning he rose early to get his horses to go to mill, as they were about out of flour; and went out hatless, and lo! his horses were gone. By tracking them he ascertained the direction they had taken and hoped to find them in the next hollow. so he followed, lured on still by hope of seeing them from the top of the next rise. On and on he went - drawn by hope, and impelled by necessity; for what could he do without a team? He could not go to mill, and two persons would sooner starve on the little they had than would one, and so on he pushed hatless and coatless, in the dishabille in which he sallied forth in the morning. After many disappointments, hope of overtaking them began to fail; but as he was already far from his home, wheat better could he do than to follow on to the place, from which he had bought them? And so he did, and found them there, after a tramp of not less than one hundred and twenty-five miles, and most of the way across trackless prairie.

Before reaching the Des Moines river we left the Mormom trail, and crossed the river at Eddyville on ferryboat, which was propelled across by the force of the current.

At Fairfield we found a member of the Iowa legislature. and entrusted to him the petition sent by us from the Gentile mass meeting held in Wabonsie to the legislature, asking for the organization of a new county in southwestern Iowa. We found Hon. Mr. Baker, a member of the Iowa legislature, at work in his blacksmith shop, and as we asked an interview on business, he dropped his hammer, folded his arms, seated himself on his anvil, and gave audience. We presented the petition, related the circumstances in which it was drawn up, and requested him to bring the matter before the legislature at its next meeting. We understood him to promise that he would, but never heard from the papers afterward. After a lapse of many years, I incidentally met the same Mr. Baker in Council Bluffs, when on inquiring about the matter, he replied that he never presented the petition at all - that he took us to be Mormons, and considered the whole to be a Mormom device.

From Fairfield, passing through Mt. Pleasant, Burlington (where we ferried the Mississippi river), and Monmouth, we spent the Sabbath, and worshipped with a good Methodist brother, in a country place, about six miles south of Galesburg.

On Monday morning we passed on to Galesburg, called on Rev. Lucius H. Parker, and thence directed our course toward Granville in Putnam county, where found my father, brother, sister and brother-in-law, Mr. French. As it was getting late in the season, and cold weather seemed imminent, we only stayed over night, and passed on in the morning. It had rained and snowed, so that the puddles along the road were frozen over. Near Valparaiso, Indiana, we passed the polling place, where a crowd was gathered holding the presidential election of November, 1848. Our third Sabbath on the way was spent at a hotel in Wheatland, Michigan. We attended service in a schoolhouse, where the writer preached in the evening. We found the road very bad through the Maumee swamp, but in the course of the week we reached our homes in Ohio, without sickness, accident or any farther remarkable occurrence. Soon after, we met in public meeting at Oberlin, the friends interested in our enterprise, and presented a detailed statement of what we had learned about the country, and the feasibility of the contemplated settlement. Some though favorably of the project and others unfavorably.

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