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Show 123 women and children of this people in a position that the men can defend them."12 When Young's letter finally caught up to the expeditionary force on Chicken Creek, it nearly caused a division in the camp. Bean knew that they had proceeded much further than Brigham Young was aware of. They had struggled through deep snow and mud and were now camped within forty miles of their rendezvous with the southern half of the force. He considered it best to go on to Cedar Springs and thought that if President Young had been informed of their whereabouts, he would certainly approve. As he explained to the prophet in a return letter on fcfarch 27: "The way that I feel on the matter is that you think we are yet lying by at Summit but knowing the anxiety that you have in relation to this exploration going on we pushed out in deep snow through Juab Valley." But others in the camp saw it differently, and about half of them refused to go on. Some of them were making preparations to return to Salt Lake. The aura of the prophet weighed heavily upon them, and they could not consciously disobey his orders. Because of this, the company stayed put at Chicken Creek (the site of present-day Levan) until the express rider returned with official clarification, which was, as Bean knew, to proceed. This cost the expedition several days of valuable time. The company finally arrived at Cedar Springs on March 31 where the diligent Captain Bean made a report to the President. He told Young of their arrival at the Springs and the organization of the company. Bean also related that an evil influence seemed to be upon them. "Many small accidents have happened unto us since we started," he explained, "& I have sometimes thought that the Evil one was laying every obstacle in our way for to prevent the accomplishment of our mission. M 1 5 Such was the importance attached to the expedition, that the Devil would attempt to stop it in every way possible. Bean also asserted in this communication that he believed he would be able to report the discovery of the |