_Tuesday, June 17_.--At noon we crossed the Wakenda; it being high, we had to be ferried over. We were informed here that a party of men were gathered together on the Missouri river with the intention of attacking us that night. The prairie ahead of us was twenty-three miles long without any timber or palatable, healthy water. Some of the brethren wished to stop near the timber, and were about making arrangements to pitch their tents. We had but little provisions. I proposed to get some wood and water to carry with us, and go on into the prairie eight or ten miles. My brother Hyrum said he knew, in the name of the Lord, that it was best to go on to the prairie; and as he was my elder brother, I thought best to heed his counsel, though some were murmuring in the camp. We accordingly started. When Lyman Wight crossed the river he disapproved of our moving on to the prairie, upon which Sylvester Smith placed himself in the road, turned back all that he could by saying, "Are you following your general, or some other man?" and twenty staged behind with Lyman Wight. We drove about eight miles on the prairie and encamped out of sight of timber. {101} The sun apparently went down, and rose again next morning in the grass. Our company had filled a couple of empty powder kegs with water; it tasted so bad we could not drink it, and all the water that we had was out of a slough filled with red living animals, and was putrid. About eleven o'clock Lyman Wight arrived with the company that had remained with him. I called them together and reproved them for tarrying behind, and not obeying my counsel, and told Lyman Wight never to do so again. He promised that he would stand by me forever, and never forsake me again, let the consequence be what it would; but Sylvester Smith manifested very refractory feelings. [5] [Sidenote: The Prophet's Illness.] _Wednesday, June 18_.--As Hyrum Stratton and his companion were taking up their blankets this morning, they discovered two prairie rattlesnakes quietly sleeping under them, which they carefully carried out of the camp. This day my health was so poor I left the affairs of the camp to the management of General Wight. Having no provisions, we traveled seventeen miles before breakfast, and I rode in Elder Kimball's wagon. We crossed a slough half a mile wide through which most of the brethren were obliged to wade waist deep in mud and water. General Lyman Wight, who had traveled from Kirtland without a stocking on his foot, carried Brother Joseph Young through on his back. Our breakfast consisted entirely of corn meal mush, or hasty pudding. We had not meal enough in our company to make the mush of the consistence of good starch. [Sidenote: The Prophet's Anxiety for the Safety of the Camp.]