BY RICHARD F. BURTON, AUTHOR OF “ THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA ,” ETC. With Illustrations. NEW YORK : HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1862. With Illustrations. NEW YORK : HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1862. “Clear your mind of cant.”— Johnson. “ Montesinos. —America is in more danger from religious fanaticism. The government there not thinking it necessary to provide religious instruction for the people in any of the new states, the prevale

Unaccustomed, of late years at least, to deal with tales of twice-told travel, I can not but feel, especially when, as in the present case, so much detail has been expended upon the trivialities of a Diary, the want of that freshness and originality which would have helped the reader over a little lengthiness. My best excuse is the following extract from the lexicographer’s “Journey to the Western Islands,” made in company with Mr. Boswell during the year of grace 1773, and upheld even at that l

A tour through the domains of Uncle Samuel without visiting the wide regions of the Far West would be, to use a novel simile, like seeing Hamlet with the part of Prince of Denmark, by desire, omitted. Moreover, I had long determined to add the last new name to the list of “Holy Cities;” to visit the young rival, soi-disant , of Memphis, Benares, Jerusalem, Rome, Meccah; and after having studied the beginnings of a mighty empire “in that New World which is the Old,” to observe the origin and the

THE SIOUX. The Sioux belong essentially to the savage, in opposition to the Aztecan peoples of the New World. In the days of Major Pike (1805-1807), they were the dread of all the neighboring tribes, from the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri to the Raven River on the latter. According to Lieutenant Warren, they are still scattered over an immense territory extending from the Mississippi on the east to the Black Hills on the west, and from the forks of the Platte on the south to Min

Along the Black Hills to Box-Elder. 15th August. SUNRISE. I arose “between two days,” a little before 4 A.M., and watched the dawn, and found in its beauties a soothing influence, which acted upon stiff limbs and discontented spirit as if it had been a spell. The stars of the Great Bear—the prairie night-clock—first began to pale without any seeming cause, till presently a faint streak of pale light— dum i gurg , or the wolf’s tail, as it is called by the Persian—began to shimmer upon the easter

Before entering upon the subject of the Mormons I would fain offer to the reader a few words of warning. During my twenty-four days at head-quarters, ample opportunities of surface observation were afforded me. I saw, as will presently appear, specimens of every class, from the Head of the Church down to the field-hand, and, being a stranger in the land, could ask questions and receive replies upon subjects which would have been forbidden to an American of the States, more especially to an offic

Shortly after arriving, I had mentioned to Governor Cumming my desire to call upon Mr., or rather, as his official title is, President Brigham Young, BRIGHAM YOUNG. and he honored me by inquiring what time would be most convenient to him. The following was the answer: the body was in the handwriting of an amanuensis—similarly Mr. Joseph Smith was in the habit of dictation—and the signature, which would form a fair subject for a Warrenologist, was the Prophet’s autograph. “ Governor A. Cumming. “

Utah Territory, so called from its Indian owners, the Yuta—“those that dwell in mountains”—is still, to a certain extent, terra incognita , not having yet been thoroughly explored, much less surveyed or settled. The whole Utah country has been acquired, like Oregon, by conquest and diplomacy. By the partition of 1848, the parallel of N. lat. 42°, left unsettled, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, by the treaties of the 22d of October, 1818, and the 12th of February, 1819, was prolonged

Governor Cumming had asked me to accompany Madam and himself to the shores of the lake, with an ulterior view to bathing and picnicking. One fine morning, at 10 A.M., duly provided with the nécessaire and a thermometer—which duly snapped in two before immersion—we set out down the west road, crossed the rickety two-laned bridge that spans the holy stream, and debouched upon a mirage-haunted and singularly ugly plain. Wherever below the line of debordement of the lake’s spring freshet, it is a me

I had long been anxious to visit the little chain of lakes in the Wasach Mountains, southeast of the city, and the spot where the Saints celebrate their “Great Twenty-fourth of July.” At dinner the subject had been often on the carpet, and anti-Mormons had informed me, hinting at the presence of gold, that no Gentile was allowed to enter Cotton-wood Kanyon COTTON-WOOD KANYON. without a written permit from the President Prophet. Through my friend the elder I easily obtained the sign manual; it wa

[214] While Amaleki was keeping the records, Mosiah, the father of King Benjamin, and as many as would hearken to the voice of God, were commanded to go into the wilderness, and were led by the power of the Almighty to the Land of Zarahemla, where they discovered a people who left Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah was carried away captive into Babylon. They were led by Mulek, the only surviving son of Zedekiah; and on their arrival in America, met with Coriantumr, the late king of the Jaredite

One of my last visits was to the court-house on an interesting occasion. The Palais de Justice THE COURT-HOUSE. is near where the old fort once was, in the western part of the settlement. It is an unfinished building of adobe, based on red sandstone, with a flag-staff and a tinned roof, which gives it a somewhat Muscovite appearance, and it cost $20,000. The courts and Legislature sit in a neat room, with curtains and chandeliers, and polished pine-wood furniture, all as yet unfaded. The occasio

I now terminate my observations upon the subject of Mormonism. It will be remarked that the opinions of others—not my own—have been recorded as carefully as my means of study have permitted, and that facts, not theories, have been the object of this dissertation. It will, I think, be abundantly evident that Utah Territory has been successful in its colonization. Every where, indeed, in the New World, the stranger wonders that a poor man should tarry in Europe, or that a rich man should remain in

Mounted upon a fine mule, here worth $240, and “bound” to fetch in California $400, and accompanying a Gentile youth who answered to the name of Joe, I proceeded to take my first lesson in stock-driving. We were convoying ten horses, which, not being wild, declined to herd together, and, by their straggling, made the task not a little difficult to a tyro. The road was that leading to Camp Floyd before described. At the Brewery near Mountain Point we found some attempts at a station, and were cha

Before resuming the Itinerary, it may be advisable briefly to describe the various tribes tenanting this Territory. We have now emerged from the Prairie Indians, the Dakotah, Crow, Kiowa, Comanche, Osage, Apache, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Arapaho. Utah Territory contains a total of about 19,000 souls of two great kindred races, the Shoshonee or Snake, and the Yuta, called Uche by the Spaniards and Ute by the Anglo-American trappers. Like the Comanche and Apache, the Pimas, the Lipans, and the people

CONCLUSION. The traveler and the lecturer have apparently laid down a law that, whether the journey does or does not begin at home, it should always end at that “hallowed spot.” Unwilling to break through what is now becoming a time-honored custom, I trespass upon the reader’s patience for a few pages more, and make my final salaam in the muddy-puddly streets, under the gusty, misty sky of the “Liverpool of the South.” After a day’s rest at Carson City, employed in collecting certain necessaries

Showing the distances between camping-places, the several mail-stations where mules are changed, the hours of travel, the character of the roads, and the facilities for obtaining water, wood, and grass on the route along the southern bank of the Platte River, from St. Joseph, Mo., viâ Great Salt Lake City, to Carson Valley. From a Diary kept between the 7th of August and the 19th of October, 1860. The variation of compass at Temple Block in 1849 was 15° 47′ 23″, and in 1860 it was 15° 54′, a slo

The following is a brief detail of the temple, taken from drawings in my office in Great Salt Lake City. The Temple Block is 40 rods square, the lines running north and south, east and west, and contains 10 acres. The centre of the temple is 156 feet 6 inches due west from the centre of the east line of the block. The length of said house east and west is 186 1 ⁄ 2 feet, including towers, and the width 99 feet. On the east end there are three towers, as also on the west. Draw a line north and so

Being requested by George A. Smith and Willford Woodruff, Church historians, to write an account of events that transpired before and took place at the time of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, in Carthage jail, in Hancock County, State of Illinois, I write the following principally from memory, not having access to any public documents relative thereto farther than a few desultory items contained in Ford’s “History of Illinois.” I must also acknowledge myself considerably indebted to George A. Smi

I think that the unpalatable assertion in the text will be proved by the following contrasted extracts from the London “Times” and the “Deserét News.” The Black Country. —The reports of the assistant commissioners engaged in the recent education inquiry contain some very painful notices of the state of morals in some parts of the kingdom. In collier villages in Durham, where the men earn high wages, which they know no way of spending but in the gratification of animal appetites, the condition of

1801. June 1. Birth of Mr. Brigham Young, at Wittingham, Vermont, U. S. In this year Mr. Heber C. Kimball also was born (June 14th). 1805. Dec. 23. Mr. Joseph Smith, jun., son of Mr. Joseph Smith, sen., generally called “Old Father Smith,” and Lucy Mack, known as “Mother Smith,” born at Sharon, Windsor Co., Vermont. 1812. A book called the “Manuscript Found” was presented to Mr. Patterson, a bookseller at Pittsburgh, Penn., by Mr. Solomon Spalding or Spaulding, of Crawford, Penn.; born in Ashfor