13^th I herd early this morning that an express had come in from
the Hand carts company. I went to the Presidents office with all the
Presidency the following is a synopsis of what I learned in the morning
Brother Joseph A. Young & George Grant parted they agreed that
they should not go any further than Devils Gate th untill George
came thup then He did not find the company so Joseph then went
on to the platt & found them at the upper crossing of the Platt
they were in camp & had been 9 days waiting for the snow to go off
Soon brother Grant Arived & prepared the camp for moveing He asked
Joseph what would My Father Do now if he was here, Joseph said
if my Father was here He would take all the Books & Heavy materials
& cash them in order to save the Lives of the people so they agreed to
do it they cashed all their Articles at Devils Gate & took up the week
the feeble & started towards home they then sent an express back
to have the Teams come on to them that was on the road but Brother
Vancott & Claudius Spencer had got to the sweetwater & not
hearing any thing from the Hand Cart Companies they turned back
with their teams & nearly all the company followed them this news
arived in the city several Days since & an express was sent out to meet

them & turn them back all the Companies were together 2 ox trains & the Hand Cart
train when the Brethren found them many of the old oxen had died but the young
oxen many of them were fat & fine. Brother Tenant who had bought President
Youngs place is dead He died near scotts Bluffs the people were suffering with
cold & hunger some. David Kimball & others went ahead picked out
camp grounds made up fires shoveled off snow when the camp came up
they would take the old men & women & children that could not walk &
carry them to the fire & help them get supper & then would dance
around their fires & sing & shout to keep up the spirits of the people
& while Journeying during the day & would wade over all the streams & drag
the Hand Carts over & carry over all the lame women men & children
When W^m Kimball met with Brother Vancott He took one pair of his
Mules & put onto his own waggon & told him to turn around with the other
& follow him to the east untill they met with the company as the compan-
ies had came back tofrom the sweet water to webber. when the Companies ^express^
had found the company they were all together & had been camped 9 days
in about 1 foot of snow waiting for the snow to go off & to recruit
the cattle. Elder G. D. Grant wrote a good Letter to President Young
giving a Description of the company & ther situation He says that not
more than one third of the Hand Cart Company was able to walk
& many were barefoot & freezeing ther toes

The conversation turned to Brother Vancott & Claudious Spencer
& Elder Kimball said Brother Young has got much better Eyes than
I have for I never could see Brother Spencer He is so small &
President Young said that Brother Vancott took after Orson Pratt in
Philosophy if he had the spirit of God with him he would not have
turned that company back but I am not agoing to blame them

Among other things the subject of miracles came up & President
Young said sI have had a $5 gold piece put into my pocket now
two days in succession I do not know from what source it came from
Brother Kimball said it was an Angel

Broth Young then related a circumstance that when He & Brother Kimball
was travelling East to gether they had $13.50 ownly & they travelled untill
they paid out $87 out of it & had sixpence left & they received
no addition by any known hand. Brother Kimball said that an Angel
had taken that money out of some body pocket & put it into our
trunk. I spent most of the day in the office