"While Brother Luke Johnson was digging, the cholera attacked him with cramping and blindness. Brother Brigham laid hold of him and pulled him out of the grave, and shook him about, talked to and prayed for him, and exhorted him to jump about and exercise himself, when it would leave him for a few moments, then it would attack him again; and thus we had the greatest difficulty to keep the destroyer from laying us low. Soon after we returned another brother was taken from our little band; thus it continued until five out of ten were taken away.
"After burying these five brethren I was seized by the hand of the destroyer, as I went in the woods to pray. I was instantly struck blind, and saw no way whereby I could free myself from the disease, only by jumping and thrashing myself about, until my sight returned to me and my blood began to circulate in my veins. I started and ran some distance, and by this means, through the help of God, I was enabled to extricate myself from the grasp of death. This circumstance took place in a piece of woods behind Brother Gilbert's house.
"On the 26th Algernon Sidney Gilbert, keeper of the Lord's storehouse, signed a letter to the governor, in connection with others, which was his last public act, for he had been called to preach and he said he would rather die than go forth and preach the Gospel to the wicked Gentile nations. The Lord took him at his word; he was attacked with the cholera and died about the 29th.
"Brothers Erastus Budd and Jesse Johnson Smith, a cousin of the
Prophet, died at Brother Gilbert's about the same time.
"While we were here, the brethren being in want of some refreshment, Brother Luke Johnson went to Brother Burgett to get a fowl, asking him for one to make a broth for Elder Wilcox and others; but Brother Burgett denied him it, saying, 'In a few days we expect to return back into Jackson County, and I shall want them when I get there.' When Brother Johnson returned he was so angry at Burgett for refusing him, he said, 'I have a great mind to take my rifle and go back and shoot his horse.' I told Luke to never mind; that such actions never fail to bring their reward.
"Judge how we felt, after having left the society of our beloved families, taking our lives in our hands and traveling about one thousand miles through scenes of suffering and sorrow, for the benefit of our brethren, and after all to be denied of a small fowl to make a little soup for brethren in the agonies of death. Such things never fail to bring their reward, and it would be well for the Saints never to turn away a brother who is penniless and in want, or a stranger, lest they may one day or other want a friend themselves.
"I went to Liberty, to the house of Brother Peter Whitmer, which place I reached with difficulty, being much afflicted with the disease that was among us. I stayed there until my return home, receiving great kindness at the hands of the brethren.
"The destroyer having afflicted us four days, ceased. Sixty-eight were attacked by the disease, of which number fourteen members of Zion's Camp died.
"June 30th I started for home in company with Lyman Sherman, Sylvester
Smith, Alexander Badlam, Harrison Burgess, Luke Johnson and Zera Cole.
They elected me their captain.
"We proceeded on our journey daily, the Lord blessing us with strength and health. The weather was very hot, but we traveled from thirty-five to forty miles a day, until about the 26th of July, when we arrived in Kirtland; having been gone from home about three months, during which time, with the exception of four nights, I slept on the ground.