To follow the believers in the divine mission of Joseph Smith through the terrible storms of persecution, to which they were subjected, would consume volumes. Wherever they established themselves they were beset on very side by mobs, who burned or despoiled their homes, in many cases murdered them in cold blood, and committed upon helpless women revolting crimes against chastity. This was particularly the case in Missouri, in which state they subsequently settled, and where they were driven from county to county, and abused with such merciless cruelty, that nothing short of the power of God saved them from annihilation, as an organized body. In fact, the Governor of the state, a wretched person named Boggs, issued an order for the extermination of the Saints, and several thousand volunteers were raised and sent to execute this execrable decree. Joseph Smith and numbers of the leading Elders were thrown into prison where they were offered for food the flesh of their brethren who had been murdered by the mobs. A council of the Volunteer Militia Mobocrats was held in relation to the disposal of Joseph Smith and his brethren. Seventeen sectarian priests, who took part in the murderous work, were urgent in the demands that they be shot. The commission of this cold-blooded deed was only prevented by General Doniphan threatening to withdraw his regiment and free himself from such devilish doings. Being driven by ruthless, relentless persecution, having been expelled from their homes and last refuge in Missouri, the Saints wended their weary steps to Illinois. Hundreds of them perished during the winter from hunger, cold, and general exposure. They built the beautiful city of Nauvoo, with a population of over 20,000, in Hancock county, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi, where they also erected a beautiful temple. They flourished for a time, their numbers being greatly swelled by inflowing immigration from different parts of the Union and from Great Britain.