RUMOURED HOSTILITY OF THE MORMON AUTHORITIES. 85 



the governor of the commonwealth, stated to him what I had 

 heard, explained to him the views of the Government in directing 

 an exploration and survey of the lake, assuring him that these 

 were the sole objects of the expedition. He replied, that he did 

 not hesitate to say that both he and the people over whom he 

 presided had been very much disturbed and surprised that the 

 Government should send out a party into their country so soon 

 after they had made their settlement ; that he had heard of the ^ 

 expedition from time to time, since its outset from Fort Leaven- 

 worth ; and that the whole community were extremely anxious as 

 to what could be the design of the Government in such a move- 

 ment. It appeared, too, that their alarm had been increased by 

 the indiscreet and totally unauthorized boasting of an attache of 

 General Wilson, the newly-appointed Indian Agent for California, 

 whose train on its way thither had reached the city a few days be- 

 fore I myself arrived. This person, as I understood, had declared 

 openly that General Wilson had come clothed with authority from 

 the President of the United States to expel the Mormons from the 

 lands which they occupied, and that he would do so if he thought 

 proper. The Mormons very naturally supposed from such a de- 

 claration that there must be some understanding or connection 

 between General Wilson and myself; and that the arrival of the 

 two parties so nearly together was the result of a concerted and 

 combined movement for the ulterior purpose of breaking up and 

 destroying their colony. The impression was that a survey was to 

 be made of their country in the same manner that other public 

 lands are surveyed, for the purpose of dividing it into townships 

 and sections, and of thus establishing and recording the claims of 

 the Government to it, and thereby anticipating any claim the Mor- 

 mons might set up from their previous occupation. However un- 

 reasonable such a suspicion may be considered, yet it must be 

 remembered that these people are exasperated and rendered 

 almost desperate by the wrongs and persecutions they had pre- 

 viously suffered in Illinois and Missouri ; that they had left the 

 confines of civilization and fled to these far distant wilds, that they 

 might enjoy undisturbed the religious liberty which had been prac- 

 tically denied them ; and that now they supposed themselves to 

 be followed up by the General Government with the view of 

 driving them out from even this solitary spot, where they had 

 hoped they should at length be permitted to set up their habitation 

 in peace. 



