About this time Elder C. R. Savage, now of Salt Lake City, whose field of labor was at Lausanne, visited us. I was greatly pleased to see him. He was an old acquaintance, as we had been fellow-laborers in the Southampton conference in England.
While daily expecting to hear from the police-authorities, we occupied all the time we could in straightening up Church records and accounts of Church books received from and sent to different places, which was somewhat difficult as we had to estimate values in different kinds of money.
As the time passed, Elder Mayer was busy visiting and preaching to the Saints and strangers, who attended our meetings, and I assisted him to the best of my ability. I had studied hard and was steadily improving in a knowledge and use of the German tongue. We anticipated trouble from the authorities, in consequence of rumors prevailing, but we trusted in the Lord who had sent us to warn this nation, and we waited with confidence coming events.
About December 16th, Elder Mayer and myself received notice from the police to leave the canton of Zurich within eight days. Elder Mayer made application to the American consul, who would do nothing for him, and I wrote to the British ambassador at Berne. In my communication I claimed protection as a British subject and stated how I had been treated by the authorities of the canton in which I then was, they even refusing to give any reason for the unjust course pursued in regard to me.
He gave an almost immediate reply in which he stated that he had asked for explanation concerning the course pursued towards me, and had also used his influence to have the order of banishment suspended for a time. He then asked me to write him fully, as I afterwards did, any and all causes which I might think had led to the action of the authorities.
Elder Mayer, as the American consul would do nothing for him, had to leave and was shortly afterwards honorably released to return home to Zion: and notwithstanding my protest, the act of expulsion against me remained in force and I had also to leave or go to prison, and remembering the advice of the ambassador, to comply with the orders of the police until the matter was fully investigated, I concluded to comply with the requisition.
Brother Mayer was the first missionary sent to Zurich in this dispensation. He was an example of industry and perseverance in his ministry and was the means of accomplishing a great deal of good. He baptized quite a number and organized a branch of the Church in Zurich and another in Weiningen. He left, carrying with him the blessings and good feelings of both Saints and strangers who knew him.
I concluded, waiting the final issue of the ambassador's negotiations, to remove to Badan in a neighboring Catholic canton. Brother Savage, who could not speak German, decided to go with me for a few days before returning to his field of labor in Lausanne. The grief of the Saints was visible on every countenance, they felt discouraged, it seemed to them that, in the departure of the Elders, the last link connecting them with the body of the Church was about to be severed and that they were soon to be left without a shepherd.
The excitement about the "Mormons" had been considerable, the newspapers, as usual, printing all manner of falsehoods concerning us and those of Zurich printing a notice of our expulsion and advising the authorities in neighboring cantons to look after us. The Protestant cantons manifested their opposition to us the most, and the excitement among them was general. The Catholic cantons showed little interest in the matter, therefore we thought it best to take refuge in one of them.
Extremely little has ever been accomplished by the Elders among a Roman Catholic population, in consequence of the dense ignorance, in a general sense, of the mass of the people and their unwillingness to examine anything religious apart from their own faith—the result doubtless of an education which shackles thought and crushes out aspirations which would lead to religious freedom. A few days experience, surrounded by an unfriendly influence, inclined us to accept an invitation to visit a family of Saints in Weiningen, the same with whom I had lodged at a former period and in whose house I had been mobbed. That place was, however, within the boundaries of the canton of Zurich and therefore dangerous to our liberty. We had been considering the propriety of Brother Savage returning to Lausanne and my going into one of the other Protestant cantons where there were a few scattered Saints, but I thought it would be better to reserve my visit in that direction until the excitement was somewhat allayed that I might be able to remain for a season.