Human Wisdom vs. Divine Guidance.—What availed, after that, the pessimistic forebodings of the mountaineer, James Bridger, who camped with the Pioneers just after they passed the Rocky Mountains, and whose laconic speech, "I would give a thousand dollars if I knew an ear of corn could ripen in Salt Lake Valley," has been often and variously quoted? What availed the roseate account given of the California Coast by the ultra-optimistic Samuel Brannan, who, after sailing with a "Mormon" colony from New York and landing at the Bay of San Francisco, crossed the Sierra Nevada, met the Pioneers on Green River, and endeavored to persuade them that the flowery slopes of the Pacific were a better place of abode for the exiled people than the parched alkali wastes of "The Great American Desert?" Brigham Young knew better than Colonel Bridger or Elder Brannan what was for the best. Looking past the present into the future, he had for all such warnings and persuasions, one reply: "This is the place."
Prophecy Fulfilled and Vision Verified.—Brigham Young was not the man to ignore divine guidance. His own vision was before him, beckoning him on; and Joseph Smith's prediction behind him, urging him forward and pointing out the way. The Latter-day Saints were to "become a mighty people"—not in California, not along the Pacific Coast, but "in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."
Footnotes
[1]. The history of guerilla warfare and its merciless suppression along the Missouri-Kansas border, amply bears out this assertion.
[2]. Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, p. 85.
This prophecy began to be fulfilled early in February, 1846, when the first companies of the migrating Saints left Nauvoo for the West, crossing the frozen Mississippi on the ice. About the middle of June they reached the Missouri River, then the frontier of the Nation, where their further progress was delayed for a whole season by the enlistment of the "Mormon" Battalion—five hundred men—who responded to a call from the Government and volunteered to assist the United States in its war with Mexico.
[3]. "This was followed," continues the Call narrative, "by a vivid description of the scenery of these mountains as I have since become acquainted with it. . . . . It is impossible to represent in words this scene which is still vivid in my mind—the grandeur of Joseph's appearance, his beautiful descriptions of this land, and his wonderful prophetic utterances as they emanated from the glorious inspirations that overshadowed him. There was a force and power in his exclamations of which the following is but a faint echo: 'Oh the beauty of those snow-capped mountains! The cool refreshing streams that are running down through those mountain gorges.' Then, gazing in another direction, as if there was a change of locality: 'Oh the scenes that this people will pass through! The dead that will lie between here and there.' Then, turning in another direction, as if the scene had again changed: 'Oh the apostasy that will take place before my brethren reach that land! But, he continued, 'the priesthood shall prevail over its enemies, triumph over the devil, and be established upon the earth, never more to be thrown down."' Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, pp. 85, 86. Note.
[4]. The journey of the Pioneers began at Winter Quarters (now Florence, Nebraska) about the middle of April, 1847. It ended on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, July 24th of the same year. The company, led by President Brigham Young in person, consisted originally of 143 men, three women, and two children. The men were well armed and equipped, and the company traveled mostly in covered wagons, drawn by horses, mules and oxen. Four large companies of emigrants followed immediately after the Pioneers, arriving in Salt Lake Valley during the autumn.
[5]. See Apostle Snow's discourse of July 25, 1880, reproduced in the "Improvement Era" for June, 1913.