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Show Page 136 Company. Sarpee passed on a wealth of information to the emigrants about the "great West," and he offered the pioneers a contract for ninety thousand pounds of buffalo robes and furs in exchange for a thousand dollars. The friendliness of Mr..Sarpee was not to be outdone by the Pottawatomie themselves; their chief, a literate and amiable man, offered the Mormons land and timber for their use in outfitting themselves for the westward trek. This warm and reverential welcome caused no small comment on the irony of their reception among the "savages" and the cool farewell of civilization. Orson went into deep council with the Twelve as they mulled over the options now available to them. Fully conscious of the thousands on the trail,to their backs, the Twelve frantically began preparations for accommodating them. In late June, Orson crossed the Missouri into "unorganized territory" under the control of the Omaha nation, camping under the bluffs north of the present-* day metropolis of Omaha. Roads soon sidled next the Missouri on both sides, and a number of spacious settlements had been laid out and allotted. In the midst of constructing ferry boats and lean-tos, Orson packed off goods downriver to be traded for provisioning his company. The council ranged out as far as the Elkhorn River into Indian territory, returned to camp in late July, still yearning for the western mountains, knowing that the vast family of the church must rest for the season after the tortuous traversal of Iowa territory. Slowly a master plan evolved, and Orson Pratt mounted the pulpit in August to interpret it for the Saints: "Elder 0. Pratt..showed that the Saints were at present, privileged to live under their own laws - that the reason why the Twelve had changed their counsel so often was, because the people did not abide the best counsel, which was given by the spirit of God. The best counsel was for the Church to fit out a company to go with the Twelve over the mountains, but as they were dilatory and failed to do this...we must be one...and when any one |