| 583 On June 26 a council was held, to decide upon the propriety of sending a delegation to the pineries, to engage in the lumber business in the interest of the temple and Nauvoo House. On the 28th it was decided to send a company under the leadership of Ezra Chase.
was surprised to see one of the most romantic places that I had visited in the West. The buildings though many of them were small, and of wood, yet bore the marks of neatness which I have not seen equaled in this country. The far-spread plain at the bottom of the hill was dotted over with the habitations of men with such majestic profusion, that I was almost willing to believe myself mistaken, and instead of being in Nauvoo of Illinois, among Mormons, that I was in Italy at the city of Leghorn, which the location of Nauvoo resembles very much. I gazed for some time with fond admiration upon the plain below. Here and there arose a tall majestic brick house, speaking loudly of the genius and untiring labor of the inhabitants, who have snatched the place from the clutches of obscurity and wrested it from the bonds of disease, and in two or three short years rescued it from a dreary waste to transform it into one of the first cities of the West. The hill upon which I stood was covered over with the dwellings of men, and amid them was seen to rise the hewn stone and already accomplished work of the temple, which was now raised fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. The few trees that were permitted to stand are now in full foliage, and are scattered with a sort of fantastic irregularity over the slope of the hill.
But there was one object which was far more noble to behold, and far more majestic than any other yet presented to my sight, and that was the widespread and unrivaled Father of Waters, the Mississippi River, whose mirror-bedded waters lay in majestic extension before the city, and in one general curve seemed to sweep gallantly by the beautiful place. On the farther side was seen the dark green woodland, bending under its deep foliage, with here and there an interstice bearing the marks of cultivation. A few houses could be seen through the trees on the other side of the river, directly opposite to which is spread a fairy isle, covered with beautiful timber. The isle and romantic swell of the river soon brought my mind back to days of yore, and to the bright emerald isles of the far-famed fairy land. The bold and prominent rise of the hill, fitting to the plain with exact regularity, and the plain pushing itself into the river, forcing it to bend around its obstacle with becoming grandeur, and fondly to cling around it to add to the heightened and refined luster of this sequestered land.
I passed on into the more active parts of the city, looking into every street and lane to observe all that was passing. I found all the people engaged in some useful and healthy employment. The place was alive with business-much more so than any place I have visited since the hard times commenced. I sought in vain for anything that bore the marks of immorality, but was both astonished and highly pleased at my ill success. I could see no loungers about the streets nor any drunkards about the taverns. I did not meet with those distorted features of ruffians. or with the ill-bred and impudent. I heard not an oath in the place, I saw not a gloomy countenance; all were cheerful, polite, and industrious.-Smucker's History of the Mormons, pp. 152-155.
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