On the following day, October 26th, Elder Woodruff went to New Bedford with Brother Nathaniel Coray. It was there he read with feelings of deep sorrow the burning of the Nauvoo Temple by a mob. He then went to Maine where he had parted from his wife earlier in the year, and returned with her to Cambridgeport on the 17th of November. Here he took a house for his family, and finished the labors of the year in Boston and its vicinity. Here he compiled a brief account of the current events among the nations of the earth. He read history in the light of God's recent revelations, and out of it he extracted the signs of the times.
The year had been a trying one to the Saints in Utah who were greatly distressed because of the cricket plague, from which, however, they were measurably relieved by the miraculous destruction of these insects by the sea-gulls.
Gold had been discovered in California by members of the Mormon Battalion, and by others, a circumstance which created a feverish excitement throughout the Eastern States. The rush to California again brought the Saints in Utah into conspicuous relations with the outside world. That meant financial relief to the people in Salt Lake City.
In his journal he records the fact that Captain Dan Jones by his labors in Wales was adding to the Church many persons each month. Elder Orson Spencer gave very encouraging accounts of the work throughout the British Isles.
It was at this time that Almon Babbit called upon Elder Woodruff and sought to induce him to go to Washington for the purpose of accomplishing certain things which he said would be favorable to the Latter-day Saints. "After hearing him, I concluded that he was working on his own account and without the counsel of the President of the Church. I therefore concluded that my health, calling, and the spirit within me would not permit me to leave the mission upon which I was sent, to go to Washington." Subsequent events proved the correctness of his impressions.
Concerning the events of the year he remarks: "At home new towns were laid out, both to the north and south of Salt Lake City. Elders were arriving from the Sandwich Islands. Walker, the Indian chief, visited the Saints in the Valley and expressed friendship for them and his antipathy toward the Spanish. Brothers Brown, Browett, Allen, and Cox were killed by the Indians in the California mountains, while they were exploring the country. These brethren I baptized in Herefordshire soon after I commenced preaching at John Benbow's. Brother Browett had been an especially earnest, true Latter-day Saint, and I know nothing to the contrary of the others. They went into the army as soldiers in the Mormon Battalion and died in the cause of their country."
CHAPTER 31.
ELDER WOODRUFF'S RETURN FROM THE EAST.