Although feeble, I walked to the banks of the Mississippi river. There President Brigham Young took me in a canoe (having no other conveyance) and paddled me across the river.
When we landed, I lay down on a side of sole leather, by the post office, to rest.
Brother Joseph, the Prophet of God, came along and looked at me.
"Well, Brother Woodruff," said he, "you have started upon your mission."
"Yes," said I, "but I feel and look more like a subject for the dissecting room than a missionary."
Joseph replied: "What did you say that for? Get up, and go along; all will be right with you!"
I name these incidents that the reader may know how the brethren of the Twelve Apostles started upon their missions to England, in 1839.
Elder John Taylor was going with me, and we were the first two of the quorum of the Twelve who started on their mission.
Brother Taylor was about the only man in the quorum that was not sick.
Soon a brother came along with a wagon, and took us in. As we were driving through the place, we came to Parley P. Pratt, who was stripped to the shirt and pants with his head and feet bare. He was hewing a log, preparing to build a cabin.