"In company with two hundred and fifty saints I embarked on the sailing vessel _Fanny_, and after a tedious passage of six weeks' duration, we arrived in New Orleans. There an unexpected difficulty met us. The steamer _Maid of Iowa_, belonging to the prophet Joseph, and on which the company of saints had expected to ascend the Mississippi to Nauvoo, was embargoed and lashed to the wharf. But Providence came to our aid. A lady of fortune was in the company--a Mrs. Bennett--and out of her private purse she not only lifted the embargo, but also fitted out the steamer with all necessary provisions, fuel, etc., and soon the company were again on their way. "The journey up the river was a tedious and eventful one, consuming five weeks of time. At nearly every stopping place the emigrants were shamefully insulted and persecuted by the citizens. At Memphis some villain placed a half consumed cigar under a straw mattress and other bedding that had been laid out, aft of the ladies' cabin, to air. When we steamed out into the river the draft, created by the motion of the boat, soon fanned the fire into a quick flame. Fortunately I myself discovered the fire and gave the alarm in time to have it extinguished before it had consumed more than a portion of the adjoining woodwork. Perhaps one minute more of delay in its discovery, and that company of two hundred and fifty souls would have been subjected to all the horrors and perils incident to a panic and fire on shipboard. "At another place the pilot decided to tie up the boat at a landing and wait for the subsiding of a furious gale that was blowing. This he accordingly did, and let off steam, thinking to remain there over night. In the meantime a mob gathered. We were Mormons. Too often had mobs shown that the property of Mormons might be destroyed with impunity, in the most lawless manner, and their lives taken by the most horrible means. Had that boat been consumed by fire, 'twould, have been but a pleasing sensation, seeing that it belonged to the Mormon prophet; and the two hundred and fifty men, women and children, if consumed, would have been, in the eyes of their persecutors, only so many Mormons well disposed of. Thus, doubtless, would have thought the mob who gathered at that landing-place and cut the boat adrift _The Maid of Iowa_ was now submitted to the triple peril of being adrift without steam, at the mercy of a treacherous current, and in the midst of a hurricane. The captain, however, succeeded in raising the steam, and the boat was brought under sufficient control to enable her to be brought to, under shelter of a heavy forest, where she was tied up to the trees and weathered the gale.