After these things I joined with brother Kimball in purchasing some land in the contemplated city of Nauvoo, which was then a wilderness and both of us went to work together with our own hands to build us a log house each. After toiling a few days in this manner I sold out my improvement and prepared for a mission to England, as our quorum were now appointed to visit that country. On the 29th of August, 1839, I took leave of my friends in Nauvoo and started for a foreign land. I was accompanied by my wife and three children (having obtained my son Parley from his nurse, Mrs. Allen), and Elders Orson Pratt and Hiram Clark. We journeyed in our own private carriage, drawn by two horses. Our route lay through the wild and but partially inhabited countries of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, for about five hundred and eighty miles, to Detroit, the capital of the State of Michigan, situated at the head of Lake Erie. The first day we rode seventeen miles through a beautiful plain, or prairie. Our route was a most delightful one. On all sides, as we turned our eyes, we beheld a boundless field of grass and flowers, with here and there a small grove of timber; the landscape was level or diversified with gentle swells; the surface smooth as a garden; the soil extremely rich; and, although there was no road marked by art, yet our carriage rolled as smoothly and easily as if it had been on a railway. Most of this delightful prairie was without inhabitants, and could, probably, have been purchased for one dollar and a quarter per acre. It is well calculated for the purposes of agriculture, producing in richest profusion, when cultivated, almost every kind of grain and grass, and every vegetable suited for the climate. After travelling seventeen miles through this delightful scenery, we arrived in Carthage, a flourishing village. Here we stopped for the night with a member of our Society, who received us kindly; and at evening preached in a large court room to an attentive audience. Next day we rode some twenty-five miles through a similar country, and at evening arrived at a fine village called Macomb. Here we were kindly entertained over Sabbath by a brother Miller. We preached in the court house. My brother Orson and brother Clark went still ahead about thirty miles, where they preached on Sunday. On Monday morning we started and rode thirty miles through a delightful country. Sometimes we were in the midst of flourishing farms and villas, and sometimes the wild deer would startle from their grazing at our approach, and go bounding over the wild expanse till lost in the distance.