nted or translated. He declared it to be true. I
then said:

"How is it you have left the Church? If the angel appeared to
you, and you saw the plates, how can you live out of the Church?
I understand that you were one of the twelve apostles at the
first organization of the Church?"

"I was of the twelve," said he; "I have not denied the truth of
the Book of Mormon. I and several others were overtaken in a
fault at Kirtland, Ohio - Wm. Smith, Oliver Cowdrey, one or two
others, and myself. We were brought up for the offense before the
Church authorities. Sidney Rigdon and Wm. Smith were excused, and
the matter hushed up. But Cowdrey and myself were proceeded
against and our choice given us between making a public
confession or being dropped from the Church. I refused to make
the public confession unless Rigdon and Smith did the same. The
authorities said that that would not do, for Rigdon was counselor
to the Prophet, and Wm. Smith the brother of the Prophet, and
also one of the twelve; but that if Cowdrey and I confessed, it
would be a cloak for the other two. I considered this unjust and
unfair. I left the Church for that reason. But I have reflected
much since that time, and have come to the conclusion that each
man is accountable for his own sins; also that the course I have
been pursuing injures me alone, and I intend to visit the Saints
and again ask to be admitted into the Church. Rigdon has gone to
destruction, and Wm. Smith is not much better off to-day than I
am."

This conversation was a comfort to me.

We went to Fort Leavenworth, where we learned that Col. Smith had
taken command of the battalion and marched away with it. Lieut.
Pace got another good horse here, and what oats and provisions we
needed. We then struck out after the command.

We overtook the battalion on the Arkansas River about fifty miles
below Bent's Fort. Our brethren were rejoiced to see us. Many had
grievances to relate, and all had much to tell and inquire about.
That morning they had buried one of the battalion named Phelps.
The men said his death was caused by arsenic which the doctor had
forced him to take. They claimed that Colonel Smith was a tyrant
- that he was not the man that Col. Allen had been. The command
was on the march when we came up with it. There was a fifty-mile
desert before us, and little water on the route.

Col. Allen had allowed the men to pray with and for each other
when sick and had not compelled them