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Show 187 our explorations North west of our present location towards Ruby Valley. Do you wish to know the distance North to Reddings Springs on the Beckwith route. Do you intend to send families across the Desert this spring, if so we must send a guide to meet them at the proper time and place. If we find a suitable place southwest for farming &c. shall we report to you immediately describing the extent of the same, and if not successful shall we continue on to the rim of the Basin. Shall tbe brethren go to building and making other improvements than farming at the present location. Do you wish to ratify or amend the election of Bro Edson Barney as President of that Mission. If you do not intend to return immediately to Provo I would be glad to receive an answer on those points with any additional instructions that you may give in relation to our future movements. I shall be ready to start as soon as an answer is received. Your Brother in the Gospel Geo. W. Bean18 Brigham Young's reply was sent two days later. It is apparent that Cumming had made great progress in allaying the fears and suspicions of the Mormon leader. All sense of urgency was gone in this communication with Bean. We do not contemplate sending families across the Desert this Spring, wrote Young, "hence you need not hurry to send us word but send in every opportunity by those who may be coming back. "19 Here was a definite change in policy. Five weeks ago, on the day of his "Sebastopol" speech, Young's word to Bean was: "I want you to send word immediately.... We are about starting five hundred families. ..bound for the Deserts." The prophet apparently no longer considered the White Mountain Expedition the salvation of tbe kingdom, but this did not imply that the expedition or the move south were to be discontinued, only that their nature had again evolved. |
