adjacent, to declare to the people that the Mormons had burned up their houses and destroyed their fields, and if the people would not believe them, they would tell them to go and see if what they had said was not true. Many people came to see they saw the houses burning and being filled with prejudice, they could not be made to believe but that the Mormons set them on fire, which deed was most diabolical and of the blackest kind for indeed the Mormons did not set them on fire nor meddle with their houses or their fields. And the houses that were burnt, together with the pre-emption rights, and the corn in the fields, had all been previously purchased by the Mormons of the people and paid for in money and with waggons and horses and with other property about two weeks before; but they had not taken possession of the premises; but this wicked transaction was for the purpose of clandestinely exciting the minds of a prejudiced populace and the , that they might get an order, that they could the more easily carry out their hellish purposes, in expulsion or extermination or utter extinction of the Mormon people. After witnessing the distressed situation of the people in , my brother Joseph Smith, Senior and myself returned back to the city of , and immediately dispatched a messenger with written documents to , stating the facts as they did then exist, praying for assistance if possible, and requesting the editor of the Far West to insert the same in his newspaper, but he utterly refused to do so. We still believed that we should get assistance from the and again petitioned him, praying for assistance, setting forth our distressed situation; and in the mean time the presiding of the Court issued orders— upon affidavits made to him by the citizens— to the of the , to order out the militia of the to stand in in constant readiness, night and day, to prevent the citizens from being massacred which fearfull situation they were exposed to every moment. Every thing was very portentous & alarming. Notwithstanding all this there was a ray of hope yet existing in the minds of the people that the the would render us assistance; and whilst the people were waiting anxiously for deliverance— men women & children frightened, praying and weeping— we beheld at a distance— crossing the prairies & approaching the , a large array <​army​> in military array, brandishing their glittering swords in the sunshine, and we could not but feel joyful for a moment, thinking that probably the had sent an order armed force to our relief, notwithstanding the awful forebodings that pervaded our breasts. But to our great surprise, when the army arrived they came up & formed a [p. 65]