had made efforts to prolong the battalion's term of service; but
most of the men chose to rejoin their families as soon as they
could secure their honorable discharge.

But to return to the Camp of Israel: A pioneer party, consisting
of a hundred and forty and four, preceded the main body; and the
line of the migrating hosts soon stretched from the Missouri to
the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Wagons there were, as also
some horses and men, but all too few for the journey; and a great
part of the company walked the full thousand miles across the
great plains and the forbidding deserts of the west. In the
Black Hills region, the pioneers were delayed a week at the
Platte, a stream, which, though usually fordable at this point
was now so swollen as to make fording impossible. Here, too,
their provisions were well nigh exhausted. Game had not been
plentiful, and the "Mormon" pioneers were threatened with the
direst privations. In their slow march they had been passed by a
number of well-equipped parties, some of them from Missouri bound
for the Pacific; but most of these were overtaken on the easterly
side of the river. Amongst the effects of the "Mormon" party was
a leathern boat, which on water served the legitimate purpose of
its maker and on land was made to do service as a wagon box.
This, together with rafts specially constructed, was now put to
good use in ferrying across the river not alone themselves and
their little property, but the other companies and their loads.
For this service they were well paid in camp provisions.

Thus, the expatriated pioneers found themselves relieved from
want with their meal sacks replenished in the heart of the
wilderness. Many may call it superstition, but some will regard