Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily JournalsWoodruff, Wilford
Religion
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals
Woodruff, Wilford
Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898
"At 12:30 we came in sight of seventy horses and mules, and soon in
sight of a large Pawnee village on the north side of Loup Fork, and
also one on the south side of it. We drove on by the village, and
soon they began to sally out to meet us. We camped in the form of a
half-moon, the bank of the river forming a parallel line in front. The
Indians, numbering about two hundred on the south side of the river,
came down to the shore. Some waded over and about seventy-five came
into camp, including the grand chief of the nation, with many war
chiefs. We met them and made them presents of four pounds of tobacco,
fifteen pounds of lead, powder, fish-hooks, beads, flour, salt, etc.,
but still they {267} were not satisfied; considering our numbers, they
thought they ought to have more. When we left the ground, the Indians
appeared very dissatisfied, but we harnessed up our horses and drove
on to Looking-glass Creek and camped at its mouth for the night on the
bank of the Loup Fork.
"After our horses were turned out, we were called together; and in
consequence of the dissatisfaction of the Indians, a guard of one
hundred men was called for. The Quorum of the Twelve with nearly the
whole camp volunteered to stand guard, one-half of them the fore part
of the night, and a half the other part. We also had a picket guard of
five men with their mules at each watch.
"I was one of the picket guards. We had a hard wind with rain in the
afternoon which continued a portion of the time that I was on guard. I
rolled myself up in my buffalo robe and let the wind and rain beat on
me. We were released at about one o'clock and went to rest. No Indians
appeared during the night.
"Looking-glass Creek was crossed fifteen minutes before nine on the day
following, April 22nd, and a westerly course continued and Beaver Creek
reached at noon. Prof. O. Pratt took the meridian observation of the
sun by the sextant for the latitude which was found to be 41 degrees 25
minutes and 13 seconds. He also made other observations.
"We crossed Beaver Creek at half past two o'clock and traveled seven
miles and came to the Pawnee missionary station and camped for the
night. The bluff was skirted with oaks on the north side of the road in
the hills. We kept out a guard through the night as we were in danger
of the Sioux on the one side and the Pawnees on the other.
"While watering the horses at the creek at the station this evening,
Brother George A. Smith's horse mired, pitched forward, and jumped on
him, treading upon his feet and breast, and holding him fast in the mud
until I caught the horse by the bit and backed him off. I was fearful
that Brother Smith was badly injured, but found that he was not."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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