Elder Alexander McRae, who was a prisoner with Joseph at this time, says that it was the Prophet's characteristic to always defend his companions no matter how unpopular it might be to speak in their favor. He was much more solicitous for them than for himself. And as an illustration Brother McRae says that while they were at Gallatin, Peniston began to insult one of the captive brethren. Joseph darted a glance of lightning upon the wretch and said in tones of thunder: "Your heart is as black as your whiskers."
Peniston threw his hand over his beard, which was as black as a crow and rushed from the room quaking in every limb.
Elder Markham had left with the brethren a recent statute which enabled them to secure a change of venue upon their own affidavit; and after the mock examination in Gallatin the Prophet and his companions procured a change of venue to Boone County, for which place they departed on the 15th day of April, 1839, under charge of a strong guard. On the evening of the 16th, while pursuing their journey, all of the guards became intoxicated. It was a favorable moment for an escape, and the brethren seized the opportunity. The Prophet's reasons for consenting to this escape were stated by him at the time in the following language:
Knowing the only object of our enemies was our destruction, * * * we thought that [escape] was necessary for us, inasmuch as we love our lives, and did not wish to die by the hands of murderers and assassins; and inasmuch as we love our families and friends.
By this act the brethren took their change of venue from the state of Missouri to the state of Illinois. After indescribable hardships, traveling by night and suffering all manner of privations, they arrived in Quincy, Illinois, and met the congratulations of their friends and the embraces of their families.
Reviewing the awful experience through which he and his fellow captives had passed, Joseph wrote on the day of his arrival at Quincy as follows:
We were in their hands, as prisoners, about six months; but notwithstanding their determination to destroy us, * * and although at three different times (as we were informed) we were sentenced to be shot, without the least shadow of law (as we were not military men) and had the time and place appointed for that purpose, yet through the mercy of God, in answer to the prayers of the Saints, we have been preserved and delivered out of their hands, and can again enjoy the society of our friends and brethren, whom we love and to whom we feel united in bonds that are stronger than death, and in a state where we believe the laws are respected, and whose citizens are humane and charitable.
During the time we were in the hands of our enemies, we must say that although we felt anxiety respecting our families and friends, who were so inhumanly treated and abused, and who had to mourn the loss of their * * * slain, and, after having been robbed of nearly all that they possessed, be driven from their homes, and forced to wander as strangers in a strange country, in order that they might save themselves and their little ones from the destruction they were threatened with in Missouri, yet as far as we were concerned, we felt perfectly calm, and resigned to the will of our Heavenly Father. We knew our innocency, as well as that of the Saints, and that we had done nothing to deserve such treatment from the hands of our oppressors. Consequently, we could look to that God who has the hearts of all men in His hands, and who has saved us frequently from the gates of death, for deliverance; and notwithstanding that every avenue of escape seemed to be entirely closed, and death stared us in the face, and that our destruction was determined upon, as far as man was concerned, yet from our first entrance into the camp, we felt an assurance that we, with our families, should be delivered. Yes, that still small voice, which had so often whispered consolation to our souls, in the depths of sorrow and distress, bade us be of good cheer, and promised deliverance, which gave us great comfort. And although the heathen raged, and the people imagined vain things, yet the Lord of Hosts, the God of Jacob, was our refuge, and when we cried unto Him in the day of trouble, He delivered us; for which we call upon our souls to bless and praise His holy name. For although we were troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE EXODUS COMPLETED—A FRAGMENT OF ITS AGONIES—THE WOES OF A MARTYR'S WIDOW, A TYPE OF THE GENERAL SUFFERING—THREAT THAT ONE OF JOSEPH'S PROPHECIES SHOULD FAIL—BUT IT IS FULFILLED BY COURAGEOUS APOSTLES—MISSOURI'S PUNISHMENT AND ATONEMENT.
The agony of the exodus from Missouri cannot be described. Many of the brethren had been killed; many more were in prison; and all the rest were pursued with vindictive hate and threats of death. But for the spirit of mutual help which prevailed, the half of the stricken Saints must have perished by massacre or starvation in Missouri. A pitiful picture of some of the trials they endured was drawn by Sister Amanda Smith, a survivor of the Haun's Mill massacre. The mob had killed her husband and one son and had dangerously wounded another of her children.