ACCIDENT TO BE AVOIDED.
In another case La Barge’s evidence, as an expert steamboat man, was decisive. It was a case of collision in which the pilot of the boat that was lost had not followed strictly the recognized signals and rules in passing the other boat. The owners had sued for damages. The defense was that the defendant’s pilot had followed the strict rules of steamboating, and the other pilot had not. The main question was whether the defendant’s pilot, when he saw the danger, should not have given way if possible, even if the other pilot was violating the rules, whether through willfulness or ignorance. La Barge was asked what course he would have pursued in the premises. He replied that, under any circumstances, it was a pilot’s duty to avoid accident, if possible. The court agreed with this view.
The rest of the voyage of the Nimrod passed off without noteworthy incident. The boat reached Fort Union on June 22, started back June 24, and reached St. Louis July 9, after an absence of seventy-one days.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHANGED CONDITIONS.
Down to the date to which our narrative has now arrived, the steamboat business of the Missouri was mainly that of the fur trade. A small traffic was carried on with the settlements along the lower river and with the government establishment at Fort Leavenworth. In 1829 a regular packet was put on between St. Louis and Leavenworth, and this was kept up at intervals during the next fifteen years. But still the main business was the trade with the Indians or with Santa Fe and the parties of white hunters who roved all over the Western country. Its single noteworthy feature, as late as 1845, was the annual voyage of the Fur Company’s boat to the mouth of the Yellowstone.
FROM PILLAR TO POST.
At about the date last mentioned a profound change came over the business—a change inseparably connected with the foundation of civilization in the Far West. The emigration of the Mormons to Great Salt Lake was one feature of this new development. That singular sect, whose origin and doctrines have excited the contempt of the civilized world, as its marvelous growth and material achievement have commanded its admiration, was at this time about fifteen years old. Its founder was Joseph Smith, its birthplace Fayette, in New York State, and the year of its birth 1830. For causes which are differently stated by the friends and enemies of the church, Smith and his followers found it expedient to emigrate from New York. They went to Kirtland, O., where they laid the foundations of their New Jerusalem, and where they flourished with varying fortune for several years. In the meantime another location was also chosen, possibly as a refuge in case of expulsion from Kirtland—a situation on the very frontier of civilization, twelve miles west of Independence, Mo. Here the corner-stone of Zion was laid, under the sanction of divine revelation, and here the church began to erect its earthly temple. Hither in a few years came the faithful from Kirtland, having been expelled by the community, to whom their doctrine and practices had rendered them obnoxious.
JOSEPH SMITH.
In western Missouri their experience was even more discouraging than in Ohio. The neighboring communities would have none of them. The State authorities were appealed to by both sides, and finally entered the contest; the militia was ordered out, and things assumed the aspect of civil war. Blood was shed, and the Mormons were finally compelled to flee from the country, leaving Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon prisoners in the hands of their enemies. These worthies, however, soon escaped and joined the refugees near Commerce, Hancock Co., Ill.