Preparations were soon made to migrate to Utah, although Niels was seriously ill. In addition to his other troubles, he had for years been afflicted with asthma, and he had such difficulty in breathing that for a long time he had not been able to recline, having to sleep, if at all, in a sitting posture. He was also so frail and weak at the time that many of his acquaintances expressed a fear that he would not live to make the journey, and some even predicted that he would die while crossing the ocean. Not at all daunted, however, by these pessimists, he determined to start with the very first company of migrating Saints, and soon arranged with a newly-married couple and a young single man who were ambitious to migrate, to care for him on the journey, carry and look after his luggage, etc., in return for certain financial aid which he was able and willing to afford them. He realized that it would be a long and tiresome trip, and his natural independence was exhibited in thus arranging beforehand for the help he might require, lest he might be regarded as a public burden. The journey, as planned, was not as direct as those commonly pursued in more recent years, nor nearly so expeditious. The company assembled at Copenhagen, whence they proceeded by steamer to Kiel, in Germany, and from there took train for Altonia. At Hamburg, on the river Elbe, they boarded an ocean sailing vessel, the "Kenilworth," bound for New York. The voyage lasted eight weeks, long enough for the passengers to get well acquainted with one another. They had expected to proceed westward from New York, (or rather from the New Jersey side of the Hudson river) by rail, but Thomas Taylor, who was the Church Immigration Agent in New York at that time, had learned before their arrival that all the lines of railway extending westward from that point had entered into a combine to demand a higher rate for transporting companies of Latter-day Saints than those previously prevailing. Determined not to submit to their extortion, he discovered before the company arrived that one line of railway extending westward from New Haven, Connecticut, was not in the combine, and would transport the company at the old rate, and he decided to patronize it. The road was either poorly equipped with cars or lacked time before the arrival of the company to make the necessary arrangements for convenient transportation.