"We spent the next day in visiting the people of Belfast, and in the evening preached in a brick schoolhouse, provided by Mr. Teppley. Many wished to hear more from us. We next visited Northport and Frankfort, holding meetings at both places. On the 1st of March, 1838, we entered Bangor, which at that time had a population of ten thousand. This was my birthday, I being thirty-one years of age. I visited some of the leading men of Bangor. They granted me the use of the city hall, where I preached to good audiences for two successive evenings. This was the first time a Latter-day Saint elder had preached in that town. Many were anxious to learn more about our principles, but our visits through all the towns from Thomaston to Bangor were necessarily brief, owing to our appointments upon the islands. It was like casting bread upon the waters and trusting in God for the result. "On the 5th of March we sailed from Penobscot for the Isle of Holt, where I held a meeting the following evening. The next day I took passage on the mail boat for North Fox Island, where I again had the privilege of meeting with the Saints for prayer and praise before the Lord. On my arrival I received a package of letters from friends. One was from Kirtland, and gave an account of the apostasy and tribulations which the Saints were passing through. Joseph, the Prophet, and others, with their families, had gone to Far West, Missouri, and the Saints were following him. At North Island, Brother Townsend left me and returned home, and I was again alone in the ministry. "On the afternoon of the 22nd of March, Brother Sterrett and I, accompanied by our wives, went several hundred yards from the shore to a sandbar (it being then low tide), to dig clams. The ground near the shore was much lower than the bar, and while we were busy digging clams and talking Mormonism the dashing of the waves of the incoming tide against the shore suddenly made us conscious that we had fifty yards of water between that desirable place and ourselves. The surf waves added to our difficulty, and, as we had no boat, our only choice was to {87} cross our four arms, thus forming a kind of armchair for our wives to sit upon, and carry them in turn to the shore, wading through two and a half feet of water. By the time we had our wives and clams safely landed, there was impressed firmly upon our minds the truth of the old saying, that 'time and tide wait for no man,' not even for a preacher of the gospel.