84 ARRIVAL AT GREAT SALT LAKE CITY. 



all night, lest, in search of food, they should damage the crops of 

 this surly Nabal. From a neighbouring plantation we procured 

 what we needed ; otherwise we should have been obliged to go sup- 

 perless to bed. I afterward learned that the proprietor had been 

 a sort of commissary or quartermaster in Colonel Cook's Mormon 

 Battalion, in California, and had some reason to expect and to 

 dread a visit from the civil officers of the United States, on ac- 

 count of certain unsettled public accounts ; and that he had 

 actually mistaken us for some such functionaries. Subsequent 

 acts of a similar nature, however, fully evinced the ungracious 

 character of the man, strongly contrasted as it was with the frank 

 and generous hospitality we ever received at the hands of the 

 whole Mormon community. 



The following day we reached the City of the Great Salt Lake, 

 and found that the train had arrived safely on the 23d, and was 

 now encamped near the Warm Springs on the outskirts of the city, 

 awaiting my coming. 



The result of the reconnoissance we had thus completed was 

 such as to satisfy me that a good road can be obtained from Fort 

 Bridger to the head of the Salt Lake ; although I incline to the 

 opinion that it should pass farther north than the route taken by 

 me, entering the southern end of Cache Valley, probably by Black- 

 smith's Fork, and leaving it by the canon formed by Bear River 

 in making its way from that valley into the lake basin. A more 

 minute examination than the pressure of my other duties allowed 

 me time to make will, I think, result in the confirmation of this 

 view and the ultimate establishment of this road. Should such 

 prove to be the case, it will, in addition to shortening the distance, 

 open to the emigration, at the season they would reach it, the inex- 

 haustible resources of Cache Valley, where wood, water, abundance 

 of fish, and the finest range imaginable for any number of cattle, 

 ofier advantages for recruiting and rest possessed by no other point 

 that I have seen on either side of the mountains. 



Before reaching Great Salt Lake City, I had heard from various 

 sources that much uneasiness was felt by the Mormon community 

 at my anticipated coming among them. I was told that they would 

 never permit any survey of their country to be made ; while it was 

 darkly hinted that if I persevered in attempting to carry it on, 

 my life would scarce be safe. Utterly disregarding, indeed giving 

 not the least credence to these insinuations, I at once called 

 upon Brigham Young, the president of the Mormon church and 



