"A more orderly, earnest, industrious and civil people, I have never been among than these, and it is incredible how much they have done here in the wilderness in so short a time. In this city which contains about from four to five thousand inhabitants, I have not met in a citizen a single idler, or any person who looks like a loafer. Their prospects for crops are fair, and there is a spirit and energy in all that you see that cannot be equaled in any city of any size that I have ever been in, and I will add, not even in old Connecticut."
Elder Taylor having labored for two years in laying the foundation of a future great commonwealth, was then called upon to leave that kind of labor and introduce the gospel into France.
What a change is here! from the desert wilds of the Rocky Mountains, in the interior of America, to France--to proud, beautiful France, first in all that pertains to modern civilization! From a city of adobe huts, log cabins and board shanties, to the glittering splendors and sumptuous palaces of splendid Paris! From the saw-pit to the pulpit, and lecture-platform--such is the life of an apostle!
DREARY JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS--CHARGED BY A TROOP OF INDIANS--PEACE OR WAR?--SUSPENSE--A FEAST INSTEAD OF A MASSACRE--ARRIVAL AT KANESVILLE--ST. LOUIS--LETTER TO FAMILY--ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.
It was at the October conference of 1849 that Elder Taylor was called to go to France, and the 19th of the same month saw him leave his home for that distant land. In the same company were Lorenzo Snow, bound for Italy; Erastus Snow, for Denmark; Franklin D. Richards, for England; besides some eight or ten other Elders for various fields of labor, and a number of brethren for the Eastern States on business.
The journey across the plains was a tedious one; the cold, pitiless winds swept over them from the north-west, which made the traveler think of the pleasant fireside he had left in the Salt Lake Valley.
The Indians, too, especially the Crow tribe, manifested something of a hostile disposition. Between the upper crossing of the Platte and Independence Rock, they met with four men carrying the mail to Fort Hall, whom the Indians had partly robbed, or "tithed" as Elder Taylor put it, of their blankets, clothes and provisions. This circumstance made our travelers more vigilant in guarding their horses--"As we rather preferred to be tithed by our own bishops, whom we had with us, than be subjected to the ordeal by those who officiate without authority"--remarks Elder Taylor.