The Navajos carried on quite an extensive trade with our people, principally in exchanging blankets for horses.
In 1875, a number of brethren were called to again establish a mission at Moancoppy.
The winter of 1875-6 I had the privilege of remaining at home. My family was destitute of many things. Some mining prospectors came along, and offered me five dollars a day to go with them, as a protection against the Indians. To go with them could not injure the interests of our people. It seemed like a special providence to provide necessaries for my family, and I accepted the offer. I was gone sixty days, for which I received three hundred dollars.
CHAPTER XXIV
In May, 1876, Brothers D. H. Wells, Erastus Snow and other leading men among the Saints, were sent to visit the new settlements in Arizona. I was sent with them as a guide. The Colorado was then high—a raging torrent. The current shifted from side to side, and the surging of the waters against the rocks caused large and dangerous whirlpools.
We put three wagons and some luggage on the ferry boat. We were under the necessity of towing the boat up stream one mile, to give a chance for landing at the proper place on the other side of the river. When taking the boat around a point of rock, the water poured over the bow. Word was given to slacken the tow rope. In doing so, the rope caught in the seam of a rock, and the draft on the boat continuing, the bow was drawn under water.
In a moment the rapid current swept the boat clear of its contents. Men, wagons and luggage went into the surging waters.
When I plunged into the cold snow-water to swim, my right arm cramped, which caused me to almost despair of getting ashore. A large oar was passing me, and I threw my arm over it to save myself from sinking. About the same time Brother L. John Nuttall caught the same oar, so I thought it best to try to swim with one arm. However, I was soon able to use both, and went safely to shore.
I ran down the river bank, got into a skiff with two others, pulled out to the head of the rapids, and saved a wagon and its contents on an island. The other two wagons, with all the valuables they contained, including the most of our supplies, passed over the rapids into the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.