tled in the midst of an uninhabited wilderness. With hearts full of hate and bitterness, they never ceased on every occasion which presented itself to agitate the country, provoke the inhabitants, and commit acts of robbery and murder against many travelers and adventurers from the United
States. In September, 1857, 120 emigrants from Arkansas, men, women and children, are said to have been horribly massacred by the Mormons, in a place called the Mountain Meadows. These fanatics never ceased to defy the Government, and announced that the day had arrived to avenge the death of their prophet Joseph and his brother, and to retaliate the wrongs and acts of injustice and cruelty of which they pretended to have been the victims in the States of Missouri and Illinois, whence they had been forcibly expelled by the inhabitants.
On two different occasions, the Governor and subaltern officers, sent by the President of the United States, had met with such strong opposition from the Mormons in the attempt to accomplish their respective duties, that they were forced to quit the Territory of Utah, and .to return to lav their complaints before the President. Congress resolved to send a third Governor, accompanied, this time, by 2,000 soldiers, who were to be followed by from 2,000 to 4,000
others in the following spring of 1858. I accompanied the last-named expedition. On the 15th of May, 1858, the Secretary of war wrote to me as follows
" The President is desirous to engage you to attend the army for Utah, to officiate as chaplain. In his opinion your services would be important in many respects to the public interest, particularly in the present condition of our affairs in Utah. Having sought information as to the proper person to be thus employed, his attention has been directed to you, and he has instructed me to address you on the subject, in the hope that you may consider it not incompatible with your clerical duties or your personal feelings to yield to his request," etc.
The Reverend Father Provincial and all the other con