At the Three Crossings of the Sweetwater we met a company of apostates, who were in full retreat from the Valley, unwilling to trust God's providence to screen them from the wrath of our enemies, and anxious to get back to the States. The night following we encamped at the eastern end of what is known as the Seminole cut-off. The company intended to travel on this cut-off in the morning. That evening the chaplain of our company, a young Elder who had a fondness for adventure, proposed that he should travel on the old route, for the purpose of meeting a man for whom he had transacted some business in the States, and who, he was informed, was returning in a company of apostates. Captains Berry and Brinton thought he ought not to attempt to go by that route alone; at this, one of the other Elders volunteered to accompany him. But when morning came the latter had changed his mind; for it had stormed during the night, snow had fallen and it still snowed very hard, and he thought the weather too disagreeable for so lonely a trip. Mr. Chaplain, however, in opposition to all remonstrances, was resolved to go, and he started out alone, on horseback, taking with him some blankets and a few crackers. It was the eleventh day of June--a strange time, you would think, for snow to fall, yet it continued to descend until the middle of the afternoon, and was so deep that when he came to a place on the Sweetwater, called the Rocky Ridge, he was obliged to dismount and lead his pony. It was a lonely trip which he took, and through a wild, desolate country; it was with considerable pleasure, therefore, that he came in sight of the camp which he sought just as the sun was going down. It was encamped on what is known as Quaking-Aspen Creek. The man whom he expected to meet was not in the company; but he found others whom he had known, persons who did not love the gospel sufficiently to endure the trials promised to the Saints; but were desirous to return to that Babylon from which they had been gathered. When the chaplain rejoined his companions, the Elders, he related the incidents of this trip and I was permitted to take the following account from his journal: