to him that should Joseph Smith comply with his request, it would be extremely unsafe, in the present excited state of the country to come with out an armed force; that we had a sufficiency of men and were competent to defend ourselves; but that there might be danger of collission should our forces and that of our enemies be brought in such close proximity there might be danger of collission. He strenuously advised us not to bring any arms and pledged his faith as Governor and the faith of the that we should be protected, and that he would guarrantee our perfect safety.
We had, at that time, about five thousand under arms, one thousand of which would have been amply sufficient for our protection.
At the termination of our interview, and previous to our withdrawal; after a long conversation and the perusal of the documents which we had brought, the informed us, that he would prepare a written communication for Genl. Joseph Smith, which he desired us to wait for. We were kept waiting for this instrument some five or six hours. Late in the evening <About 5 O Clock in the afternoon> we took our departure, with <not> the most pleasant feelings The associations of the , the spirit that he manifested to compromise with those scoundrels, the length of time that he had kept us waiting, and his general deportment, together with the infernal spirit that we saw exhibited by those whom he admitted to his councils, made the prospect anything but pleasing promising. We returned on horseback [p. 24]