218 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



whither he had long resolved to emigrate, as from any implicit 

 credence in the faith. His sons were strapping fellows, of the 

 sterhng stuff that the Western pioneers are made of; his daughter 

 Mary, a fine woman of thirty, for whose state of single blessedness 

 there must doubtless have been sufficient reason ; for she was not 

 only remarkably handsome, but was well-known in Memphis to 

 be the best-tempered and most industrious young woman in those 

 diggings. She was known to have received several advantageous 

 offers, all of which she had refused ; and report said that it was 

 from having been disappointed in very early life in an affaire du 

 ccEur, at an age when such wounds sometimes strike strong and 

 deep, leaving a scar difficult to heal. Neither his daughter, nor any 

 of his family, had been converted to the Mormon doctrine, but had 

 ever kept themselves aloof, and refused to join or associate with 

 them ; and, for this reason, the family had been very unpopular 

 with the Mormon families on the Arkansas ; and hence, probably, 

 one great reason why they now started alone on their journey. 



Spring had arrived, and it was time the Mormons should pro- 

 ceed on their march ; but whether already tired of the sample 

 they had had of life in the wilderness, or fearful of encountering 

 the perils of the Indian country, not one among theni, with the 

 exception of old Brand, seemed inclined to pursue the journey far- 

 ther. That old backwoodsman, however, was not to be deterred, 

 but declared his intention of setting out alone, with his family, 

 and risking all the dangers to be anticipated. 



One fine sunny evening in April of 1847, when the cotton- 

 woods on the banks of the Arkansas began to put forth their 

 buds, and robins and blue-birds — ^harbingers of spring- — were hop- 

 ping, with gaudy plumage, through the thickets, three while- tilt- 

 ed Conostoga wagons emerged from the timbered botlora of the 

 river, and rumbled slowly over the prairie, in the direction of the 

 Platte's waters. Each wagon was drawn by eight oxen, and 

 contained a portion of the farming implements and ho'ieehold utcn- 



