After some further parleying, the mob gave the Saints ten days in which to leave, threatening that if they were not gone in that time, they would return with increased forces, kill every man, woman and child, and throw their goods into the Missouri. This affair having ended for the time being, Elder Taylor continued his journey, and finally reached Far West, where he met the Prophet Joseph, several of the Twelve and other leading brethren. The mob did not return in ten days upon the people of De Witt, but they did return early in October and the Saints at last had to abandon their homes there, although they had purchased their lands from the general government. The history of the prominent men in the Church is so closely interwoven with that of the Church, that it is difficult to write the one without also writing the other; and in order to understand the scenes which the subject of this writing was now in the midst of, it will be necessary to relate as briefly as may be, the events which befell the Saints in the state of Missouri up to the time that Elder Taylor joined them, in the autumn of 1838. From the Book of Mormon, [1] the Saints learned that upon the continent of America the people of God, in the last days, are to build a holy city, the "New Jerusalem," or "Zion." In July, 1831, the Lord revealed the place where the city should be located and a temple built. That place was Independence, near the western boundary of Missouri; and there the Saints were commanded to gather, purchase the land and dedicate it unto the Lord. This commandment they began to fulfill, whereupon the jealous rage of the old settlers was aroused against them. It was the meeting of two elements that had little or no affinity with each other. The old settlers were from the slaves states of the south, the Saints were from the free states of the north, and many of them from New England. The former were idle, indifferent to their surroundings, and the development of their lands; the latter were industrious, frugal, eager to make good homes, develop, build up and beautify the country--in short, make it the Zion of God in very deed. The Missourians were habitual Sabbath breakers; horse racing, cock-fighting and gambling being the "pleasures" they indulged in on that day, attended with the drunkenness and blasphemy which usually go hand in hand with such sports. Of course the Saints could not engage with them in this kind of life, their early training, no less than their religion, forebade it. The result was a coolness between the Saints and the old settlers, followed by suspicion on the part of the latter that they would be supplanted by the new comers. From that conviction to a resolution to prevent it was a short step, and they made haste to take it.