In all these anxieties, labors, fears, hopes and rejoicings, Elder Taylor took part. Many leaned on his strength in those days. When despair settled over the colony he infused it with hope; when the weak faltered, he strengthened them; when the fearful trembled, he encouraged them; those cast down with sorrow, he comforted and cheered. His faith and trust in God, and in His power to preserve and deliver His people were as unshaken in the midst of the difficulties they encountered in settling the desert valleys of Utah, as it had been in the midst of mob violence in Missouri and Illinois; as unmoved as it was amid the confused shouts and curses, groans and shriekings, and murderous bullets which, all mingled together, made up that scene of hell and death in Carthage jail. Though much of his time was occupied in teaching and encouraging others, he was also active in farming, gardening, fencing fields, etc.; and during the summer of 1849, constructed a bridge over the Jordan River, the first that ever spanned that stream. With Parley P. Pratt and others he went on several exploring expeditions. In one of these he visited Utah Valley and Lake. He built the first boat that was launched on that beautiful sheet of water, and ascertaining that there was an abundance of fish in the lake he manufactured a sein a hundred feet long, for which his wives spun the material. The fish caught in this manner materially assisted in eking out the scant supplies of the colonists. In August, 1849, General John Wilson, with a small military escort, visited the colonists. He was on a private mission from the President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, to the Saints. The object of that mission was this: There was trouble anticipated in the then approaching congress, about the territorial question, involving as it did, at that time, the extension of slavery. General Wilson, therefore, was sent to request the settlers in Salt Lake Valley to unite with California and form a state, which it was proposed to admit into the Union, and thus, for the time being, remove the slavery question from congress. The pro-slavery party had been gaining ground rapidly for a few years previous to this time. Texas had been annexed, and was a slave state. So extensive was its territory, that it was capable of being divided into several states, all of which, of course, would tolerate slavery.