Sia IN THE OLD WEST 



Mountains, and to seek a home and resting-place 

 in the remote regions of the Far West. 



This, the most extraordinary migration of mod- 

 ern times commenced in the year 1845 ; but it was 

 not till the following year that the great body of 

 the Mormons turned their backs upon the settle- 

 ments of the United States, and launched boldly 

 out into the vast and barren prairies, without any 

 fixed destination as a goal to their endless journey. 

 For many months long strings of Pittsburgh and 

 Conestoga wagons, with herds of horses and do- 

 mestic cattle, wound their way towards the Indian 

 frontier, with the intention of rendezvousing at 

 Council Bluffs on the Upper Missouri. Here 

 thousands of wagons were congregated, with their 

 tens of thousands of men, women, and children, 

 anxiously waiting the route from the elders of the 

 Church, who on their parts scarcely knew whither 

 to direct the steps of the vast crowd they had set 

 in motion. At length the indefinite destination of 

 Oregon and California was proclaimed, and the 

 long train of emigrants took up the line of march. 

 It was believed the Indian tribes would immedi- 

 ately fraternize with the Mormons on their ap- 

 proaching their country; but the Pawnees quickly 

 undeceived them by running off with their stock 

 on every opportunity. Besides these losses, at 

 every camp, horses, sheep, and oxen strayed away 

 and were not recovered, and numbers died from 

 fatigue and want of provender; so that, before 



