fficers and
professors are Mormons: but then they are united by a common interest,
and will act together on main points to a man. Those who are not Mormons
when they come here, very soon become so, either from interest or
conviction.

"The Smiths are not without talent; Joe, the chief, is a noble-looking
fellow, a Mahomet every inch of him; the postmaster, Sidney Rigdon, is a
lawyer, a philosopher, and a saint. The other generals are also men of
talent, and some of them men of learning. I have no doubt they are all
brave, as they are most unquestionably ambitious, and the tendency of
their religious creed is to annihilate all other sects. We may,
therefore, see the time when this gathering host of religious fanatics
will make this country shake to its centre. A western empire is certain.
Ecclesiastical history presents no parallel to this people, inasmuch as
they are establishing their religion on a learned basis. In their
college, they teach all the sciences, with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French,
Italian, and Spanish; the mathematical department is under an extremely
able professor, of the name of Pratt; and a professor of Trinity
College, Dublin, is president of their university.

"I arrived there, incog., on the 1st inst., and, from the great
preparations for the military parade, was induced to stay to see the
turn-out, which, I confess, has astonished and filled me with fears for
the future consequences. The Mormons, it is true, are now peaceable, but
the lion is asleep. Take care, and don't rouse him.

"The city of Nauvoo contains about fifteen thousand souls, and is
rapidly increasing. It is well laid out, and the municipal affairs
appear to be well conducted. The adjoining country is a beautiful
prairie. Who will say that the Mormon prophet is not among the great
spirits of the age?

"The Mormons number, in Europe and America, about one hundred and fifty
thousand, and are constantly pouring into Nauvoo and the neighbouring
country. There are probably in and about this city, at a short distance
from the river, not far from thirty thousand of these warlike fanatics,
and it is but a year since they have settled in the Illinois."

CHAPTER XL.

While I was at Mr. Courtenay's plantation I had a panther adventure, a
circumstance which, in itself, would be scarcely worth mentioning, were
it not that this fierce animal was thought to have entirely left the
country for more than twenty years. For several days t