On the twenty-second of April, 1839, the Prophet Joseph joined the exiled Saints at Quincy. After a cruel imprisonment of over five months, he had escaped from his persecutors while en route from Liberty prison, Clay County, to Columbia, Boone County, to which he and his companions in prison had taken a change of venue for trial. The guards got drunk and were evidently willing for their prisoners to escape. At any rate, the Prophet, in stating the circumstance in his history, says: "We thought it a favorable opportunity to make our escape; knowing that the only object of our enemies was our destruction; and likewise knowing that a number of our brethren had been massacred by them on Shoal Creek, amongst whom were two children; and they had sought every opportunity to abuse others who were left in the State; and that they were never brought to an account for their barbarous proceedings, but were winked at and encouraged by those in authority. We thought that it was necessary for us, inasmuch as we loved our lives, and did not wish to die by the hand of murderers and assassins; and inasmuch as we loved our families and friends, to deliver ourselves from our enemies." And so the Prophet and his companions escaped and arrived in Quincy as already stated. I need not stop to undertake a description of the scenes of this exiled people welcoming their youthful Prophet into their midst, after such trials as they had passed through, in which the strength of each man's soul and love for his brethren had been tested. The Saints had seen their Prophet and his fellow prisoners betrayed into the hands of a merciless enemy, and knew that a court-martial of the Missouri State militia had condemned him and his companions to be shot in the public square at Far West. They had seen him and his fellow-prisoners torn away from their parents and families, and their people, under circumstances the most distressing. They had been told by the haughty commander-in-chief of the mob militia forces which invested Far West--General Clark--that the doom of their leaders was sealed, and they need not expect, nor even let it enter into their hearts that they would be permitted to see them again. Many of them had seen him chained like a felon, standing before unjust judges, whose hearts were filled to overflowing with hatred towards him. Contrary to every principle of justice, he had been sent to languish in prison in the midst of his enemies; while they themselves, with bursting hearts and blinding tears, were compelled to sign away their lands and homes at the muzzle of the musket and flee from the Christian State of Missouri, under the exterminating order issued by Governor Boggs. Yet in all these trials, from the dangers of the murderous militia camps, from the malice of corrupt courts, and the injustice of drunken juries, and at last from the prison's gloom, a kind Providence had delivered him, and he was