At times we were compelled to drive our wagon for miles outside the beaten road, everywhere hearing and seeing evidences that increased my gentile companions' wonderment of the marvelous power held by Brigham Young over his people; and added to my curiosity to see the outcome of Mr. Cooper's colonizing scheme. Surely everything looked favorable for the promoters of that idea.
At last we reached Provo, where the Church leaders had made their temporary headquarters. In the evening I visited President Young, and made known to him the object of Mr. Cooper's visit. Two days later he gave audience to Messrs. Cooper, Mathewsen, and Hardin. They held a lengthy conversation, in which Mr. Cooper, in glowing language, told the Mormon leaders what a splendid opportunity it was for them to lead their people to Central America, where, he said, they could found an empire that would crown the stirring life of Brigham Young and his associates with endless glory.
I can still hear the ringing words of Brigham Young's answer: "Gentlemen," said he, "God Almighty made these everlasting hills to be bulwarks of liberty for the oppressed and down-trodden of the earth. We shall never leave here and go to a country where we should have six hundred miles of sea coast to defend, and where any nation at their pleasure could send war ships to bombard our cities. Furthermore, gentlemen, should the desire ever come, we have hundreds of boys, just as capable of going to Nicaragua, and of taking possession and holding it, too, as General Walker of New York. Gentlemen, you have our answer."
On June 23, 1858, my cousin, Brigham Young, Jr., carried me in his one-horse buggy to Salt Lake City. At Draper I received the kiss of welcome from my dear sister, Harriet M. Brown, and from my dear aged mother. At the city I met my father, who, like a lion in his lair, was watching the coming fate of his deserted home. He and a few fearless, trusted men had been left behind to see that Johnston's army kept its pledges not to quarter in the city. Had they broken their pledge the city would have been burned.
I sat with the guards in the upper room of the Lion House, and saw that army in death-like silence march through the deserted streets of the dead city, a few of the officers with uncovered heads, as if attending a funeral. To us western mountain boys, the solemnity of the march was oppressive; and glad relief came to our strained feelings, when we saw the soldiers' camp fires kindled on the "other side of Jordan."
Chapter 16.
Home Activities.—Counseled Not to Study Law.—Called to Uinta, and Dixie.
As soon as I had seen the army "pass through," I returned to Provo to report myself to President Young. I had been gone on my mission a little over four years, as before recorded. When Apostle John Taylor set me apart for this mission he said, "You shall be cast upon the bosom of the sea; but fear not, the hand of the Lord shall be over you, and you shall return in safety to your father's home;" also in parting President Young had said: "If you will be humble, live near the Lord, and not commit sin, when you return you will take me by the hand and tell me that you know Mormonism is true." I had kept the conditions, and I knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored to the earth, and that it is the power of God unto salvation to all who receive and obey it.
About this time peace was restored by President Buchanan's proclamation of pardon to the Mormons. I took hold with energy to help move my father's families back from the south, whither they had fled, at the near approach of the army. That task accomplished, I made arrangements to go to San Francisco, intending to live with my cousin, Lorenzo Sawyer, and go to school and study law.