The next day I took passage on the mail boat for the North Island, where I again had the privilege of meeting with the Saints for prayer and praise before the Lord.
On my arrival I received a package of letters from friends abroad. One was from Kirtland, and gave an account of the apostasy and tribulations which the Saints were passing through. Joseph the Prophet and others, with their families, had gone to Far West, and the Saints were following them.
Brother Townsend returned home, and I was again left alone in the ministry.
On the afternoon of the 22nd of March, Brother Sterrett and I, accompanied by our wives, went several hundred yards from shore to a sand bar (it being low tide), to dig clams. The ground near the shore was very much lower than the bar we were on, and while we were all busy digging clams and talking "Mormonism," the dashing of the waves of the incoming tide against the shore suddenly made us conscious that we had fifty yards of water between us and the shore.
The surf waves also added to our difficulty, and as we had no boat, our only alternative was to cross our four arms, thus forming a kind of arm-chair for our wives to sit upon, and carry them in turn to the shore, wading through two-and-a-half feet of water.
By the time we got our wives and clams safely landed, the truth of the maxim was firmly impressed upon our minds, that "Time and tide wait for no man," not even for a preacher of the gospel.
CHAPTER XIV.
COUNSELED TO GATHER WITH THE SAINTS—REMARKABLE MANIFESTATIONS—CASE OF HEALING—EFFORTS OF APOSTATES—VISIT FROM ELDERS—A CONFERENCE—CLOSING MY LABORS ON THE ISLANDS FOR A SEASON.
On the 28th of March I received a letter from Zion, requesting me to counsel the Saints I had baptized to sell their property and gather up to Zion.