In a very few minutes they were quieted, and they seemed now as friendly as they had a few minutes before been enraged. Liquor was procured, and we all had to drink in token of friendship. This took place in the court-room (a small log cabin about twelve feet square), during the adjournment of the court; and from that time until we got away, they could not put a guard over us who would not become so friendly that they dare not trust them, and the guard was very frequently changed. We were seated at the first table with the judge, lawyers, etc., and had the best the country afforded, with feather beds to sleep on--a privilege we had not before enjoyed in all our imprisonment. On one occasion, while we were there, the above-named William Peniston, partly in joke and partly in earnest, threw out a rather hard insinuation against some of the brethren. This touched Joseph's feelings, and he retorted a good deal in the same way, only with such power that the earth seemed to tremble under his feet, and said, "Your heart is as black as your whiskers," which were as black as any crow. He seemed to quake under it and left the room. The guards, who had become friendly, were alarmed for our safety, and exclaimed, "O, Mr. Smith, do not talk so; you will bring trouble upon yourself and companions." Brother Joseph replied, "Do not be alarmed; I know what I am about." He always took up for the brethren, when their characters were assailed, sooner than for himself, no matter how unpopular it was to speak in their favor. Yours as ever, Alexander McRae. {260} CHAPTER XVIII. The Exiled Saints Gather At Quincy, Illinois--Proposition To Settle At Commerce. Some time this month there was a conference of the Church at Quincy, a report of which is as follows: _Minutes of a Conference of the Church Held at Quincy_. At a meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held in the town of Quincy, February--, 1839, to take into consideration the expediency of locating the Church in some place, Brother William Marks was chosen president and Robert B. Thompson, clerk. Elder John P. Greene, by request, then stated the object of the meeting, and stated that a liberal offer had been made by a gentleman, of about twenty thousand acres, lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers, at two dollars per acre, to be paid in twenty annual installments, without interest; that a committee had examined the land and reported very favorably respecting it, and thought it every way suited for a location for the Church. Brother Rogers then made some statements, and gave information respecting the land, being one of the committee appointed to examine it.