The Lectures will be delivered in the near the where seats are provided.”

<​“After breakfast at the tavern on Thursday 29, had a few minutes deliberation, it was determined that those who had animals which were able to continue the pursuit with a reasonable prospect of catching up, should follow at the full speed of their animals; having heard that the posse had taken a westerly direction, as we believed designing to cross [HC 5:454] the at Oquaka ferry, and so through to , raised an excitement and most of us thought we were good for 12 miles an hour; several brethren swapped their worn out animals for fresh ones: others bought, so that in a few minutes about 2/3rds of the detachment were in swift pursuit, on arriving near the farm house where the posse staid last night, we learned they had been gone about two hours, then said “Now boys comes the tug of war, every man and horse try your best” and away we went with our blood at fighting heat. by frequent enquiries, we learned that we were gaining upon them. As we approached the we quickened our pace, which left some far in the rear. At a watering place about three miles from the , Gen: and , Elisha Everett, and two others, took passage in a wagon, having fresh animals we left most of the detachment in the rear, yet and from five to ten others were up with us, positively charged with fight. While in the wagon remarked “we must over haul them before they can get on the ferry boat to cross the , and we must take the stand that Joseph should not be taken over the , therefore prepare yourselves for your best licks, for if Joseph goes into , they will kill him, and that will break us up, as our property in will become useless, or of no value” &c &c During the conversation we emerged from the timber and saw a small village on the bank of the , we put our animals at their full speed and charged in with drawn swords, an Guns and Pistols cocked and primed ready for attack. Our sudden appearance and hostile movements caused such excitement in the village, forced the contents of a bottle of spirits down his horse, some of our horses fell to the ground as soon as we halted, all were foaming with sweat and nearly exhausted. Some of the Citizens refused to give us any information; others declared “I have done nothing” and expressed their fears and anxieties in various ways. I ran down to the , and down the beach, while ran up, each in search of the ferry boat, which happened to be on the other side: no tracks or other evidence could be found by us that any persons had passed the this morning. was at this time making inquiries of the Citizens. Some of the horsemen rode in full speed thro the village of Oquaka in search of the Prophet, while others left their exhausted horses standing, or lying in the Streets, and ran on foot. As soon as and myself returned to the wagon we con[HC 5:455]cluded that the posse knowing that we were near by, to rescue, had taken to the woods to secrete themselves or evade us, therefore and such others as they came in, were ordered to search the Timber, in a short time a way faring man reported he had seen a company passing down the river road below the village, whereupon all hands were ordered to the pursuit and soon the village was clear of the destroying angels (as they called us) and they were left to their own reflections and meditations on the strange scene, my opinion is we were in the village from 30 to 40 minutes until we were all again on the trail. Those who were in the rear of our detachment saw the Posse who had Joseph travelling down the road, they crossed the Prairie and arrived nearly an hour before the advance who missed the Trail about half a mile from the village, at the junction of the Monmouth and river roads. On their arrival Joseph sent a Messenger back to notify us where he was— who met us about a mile from the place where he was stopping.[”]​> [p. 1590]