The company which was the last to leave Nauvoo (on September 17), driven out by the Hancock County forces, endured sufferings much greater than did the early companies who were conducted by Brigham Young. The latter comprised the well-to-do of the city and all the high officers of the church, while the remnant left behind was made up of the sick and those who had not succeeded in securing the necessary equipment for the journey. Brayman, in his second report to Governor Ford, said:—
"Those of the Mormons who were wealthy or possessed desirable real estate in the city had sold and departed last spring. I am inclined to the opinion that the leaders of the church took with them all the movable wealth of their people that they could control, without making proper provision for those who remained. Consequently there was much destitution among them; much sickness and distress. I traversed the city, and visited in company with a practising physician the sick, and almost invariably found them destitute, to a painful extent, of the comforts of life."*
* Warsaw Signal, October 20, 1846.
It was on the 18th of September that the last of these unfortunates crossed the river, making 640 who were then collected on the west bank. Illness had not been accepted by the "posse" as an excuse for delay. Thomas Bullock says that his family, consisting of a husband, wife, blind mother-in-law, four children, and an aunt, "all shaking with the ague," were given twenty minutes in which to get their goods into two wagons and start.* The west bank in Iowa, where the people landed, was marshy and unhealthy, and the suffering at what was called "Poor Camp," a short distance above Montrose, was intense. Severe storms were frequent, and the best cover that some of the people could obtain was a tent made of a blanket or a quilt, or even of brush, or the shelter to be had under the wagons of those who were fortunate enough to be thus equipped. Bullock thus describes one night's experience: "On Monday, September 23, while in my wagon on the slough opposite Nauvoo, a most tremendous thunderstorm passed over, which drenched everything we had. Not a dry thing left us—the bed a pool of water, my wife and mother-in-law lading it out by basinfuls, and I in a burning fever and insensible, with all my hair shorn off to cure me of my disease. A poor woman stood among the bushes, wrapping her cloak around her three little orphan children, to shield them from the storm as well as she could." The supply of food, too, was limited, their flour being wheat ground in hand mills, and even this at times failing; then roasted corn was substituted, the grain being mixed by some with slippery elm bark to eke it out.** The people of Hancock County contributed something in the way of clothing and provisions and a little money in aid of these sufferers, and the trustees of the church who were left in Nauvoo to sell property gave what help they could.
*Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 28.
** Bancrofts "History of Utah," p. 233,
On October 9 wagons sent back by the earlier emigrants for their unfortunate brethren had arrived, and the start for the Missouri began. Bullock relates that, just as they were ready to set out, a great flight of quails settled in the camp, running around the wagons so near that they could be knocked over with sticks, and the children caught some alive. One bird lighted upon their tea board, in the midst of the cups, while they were at breakfast. It was estimated that five hundred of the birds were flying about the camp that day, but when one hundred had been killed or caught, the captain forbade the killing of any more, "as it was a direct manifestation and visitation by the Lord." Young closes his account of this incident with the words, "Tell this to the nations of the earth! Tell it to the kings and nobles and great ones."
Wells, in his manuscript, "Utah Notes" (quoted by H. H. Bancroft), says: "This phenomenon extended some thirty or forty miles along the river, and was generally observed. The quail in immense quantities had attempted to cross the river, but this being beyond their strength, had dropped into the river boats or on the banks."*
* Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 234, note.
The westward march of these refugees was marked by more hardships than that of the earlier bodies, because they were in bad physical condition and were in no sense properly equipped. Council Bluffs was not reached till November 27.