"On the 11th of May I visited Charleston and the Bunker Hill Monument, and spent several hours in the city of Boston, which then contained a population of one hundred thousand. I ascended to the cupola of the courthouse, from which I had a fine view of the city; then I visited several of the Saints, and walked over the long bridge to Cambridge and Cambridgeport. I visited the jail there to have an interview with Brother A. P. Rockwood, who had been cast into prison on a charge of debt, to trouble and distress him because he was a Mormon. This was the first time he and I had met. The jailer permitted me to enter the room where he was. It was the first time in my life that I had entered a prison; the jailer turned the key upon us, and locked us both in. {90} I found Brother Rockwood strong in the faith of the gospel. He had the Bible, Book of Mormon, Voice of Warning, and Evening and Morning Star as companions, and read them daily. We conversed together for three hours in his solitary abode. He informed me of many things which had occurred at the jail while he was confined there as a prisoner. Among other things he related that the jail had taken fire a few days previous to my visit. He said it looked a little like a dark hour; the fire was roaring over his head, while uproar and confusion were upon every hand; fire-engines were playing rapidly around the building; the water was pouring into every room; the people were hallooing in the streets; prisoners were begging for mercy's sake to be let out, or they would be consumed in the fire; one was struggling in the agonies of death; while others were cursing and swearing. Brother Rockwood said he felt composed in the midst of it all. The fire was finally extinguished. At 8 o'clock the jailer unlocked the prison door and let me out, and I gave the parting hand to the prisoner. We had spent a pleasant time together, and he rejoiced at my visit; and who would not, to meet with a friend in a lonely prison? I left him in good spirits, and wended my way back to Boston. "After spending several days in Boston, holding meetings with the Saints, I walked to Providence, Rhode Island, preaching by the way. There I took steamer, and arrived in New York on the 18th of May, where I met Elder Orson Pratt, his family, Elijah Fordham and nearly one hundred Saints who had been baptized in the city of New York. I remained in New York three days, visiting the Saints and holding meetings; several new converts were baptized while I was there. Leaving New York, I traveled through New Jersey and returned to Farmington, Connecticut, to the residence of my father, where I arrived on the 12th of June. It was with peculiar sensations that I walked over my native land where I had spent my youth, and cast my eyes over the Farmington meadows and the hills and dales where I had roamed in my boyhood with my father, stepmother, brothers, and sister.