I feel the most perfect satisfaction with the manner of our reception and entertainment among you as men of God. I also feel that we have, as far as time would permit, accomplished the work for which we came, and that the utmost success and prosperity has attended our labors. The Church universally has manifested a spirit of confidence and obedience to the instructions we had to impart, and the measures we were sent to purpose for their prosperity and deliverance, both temporally and spiritually.

We have also been received and entertained in the most kind and hospitable manner in every place we have been permitted to visit. We have been lodged, fed, comforted and cheered as if we had been angels of glad tidings, and we feel the utmost satisfaction in expressing our most grateful thanks for all the kindness and assistance rendered unto us while in your midst; and, in the name of Jesus Christ, and by authority of the Holy Priesthood and Apostleship vested in us, we bless the congregations of the Saints throughout this land, with all the officers and members thereof, with the blessings of time and eternity in all their fullness. We also bless the Queen, ministers, magistrates, and people of this realm, while they continue to administer equal justice for the protection of every subject, without respect of persons; and we pray that Heaven's choicest blessings may rest upon the Saints, and upon all that fear God and work righteousness in this land. Ye sons and daughters of Zion, be of good cheer; for God will deliver you in due time, and gather in one the children of God. Pray for us and for the camp of the Saints in the wilderness. Farewell.

P. P. PRATT.
LIVERPOOL, January 29, 1847.

Elder Hyde did not sail with us, but stayed a few days longer to complete the business in the office. Soon after we set sail Elder Joseph Cain, returning missionary, was married on board to Miss Elizabeth Whittaker. It was a fine affair, and we had a good dinner on the occasion. The wind was now fair continually, and we were only thirty-five days in coming to anchor off the port of New Orleans—having sailed some seven or eight thousand miles. Here we were delayed a day or two by a dense fog, but as the weather cleared, a tug steamer soon got hold of us, and took us into port.

Here, as soon as we could get clear of the custom house, we took a steamer, and, in about six days, arrived in St. Louis.

Here I left Brother Taylor to pass up the Missouri River on a steamer, with the company and baggage, while I took a horse and rode through the northwestern portion of Missouri, and into Iowa, by land. I went incog. for fear of my old enemies in that State.

I struck the wagon trail we had made the year before, near Garden Grove, and tarried there with the Saints one day. It was then quite a flourishing place the farms which I helped to open and enclose the previous year having yielded abundance of provisions, and other farms having been opened.

Being a little refreshed I passed on to "Mount Pisga," where I found another flourishing settlement of the Saints, and stayed over night. Thence I passed on to the Missouri River, finding Saints to entertain me every night. In making the journey from St. Louis to Missouri River, near Winter Quarters, I had probably travelled near four hundred and fifty miles on horseback. I crossed over the ferry at noon of a fine April day, and came suddenly upon my friends and family. This was April 8, 1847. I found my family all alive, and dwelling in a log cabin. They had, however, suffered much from cold, hunger and sickness. They had oftentimes lived for several days on a little corn meal, ground on a hand mill, with no other food. One of the family was then lying very sick with the scurvy—a disease which had been very prevalent in camp during the winter, and of which many had died. I found, on inquiry, that the winter had been very severe, the snow deep, and, consequently, that all my horses (four in number) were lost, and I afterwards ascertained that out of twelve cows I had but seven left, and out of some twelve or fourteen oxen only four or five were spared.

President Young and Council, with a company of pioneers, were then encamped on the Elk Horn River, twenty miles west, ready to start for the mountains. Some of them, however, returned to Winter Quarters on business, and I had an interview with them. I then gave a relation of our European mission, and delivered to them an account of our hundred and sixty-nine sovereigns in gold, collected in England as tithing, which had crossed the sea in my charge, and was then in charge of Elder Taylor on the Missouri River, and might be expected soon. This small sum proved a very acceptable and timely relief in aiding the Presidency to relieve some of the distress, and to fit out as pioneers for the mountains.

The President and Council seemed well pleased with our mission and management. They expressed an earnest wish for me to accompany them on the pioneer trip to the mountains; but my circumstances seemed to forbid, and they did not press the matter.