. . . Saturday 14th about 11 a.m., President Smith & wife, Elders George Lambert, & Herbert L. James, L.P. Lund & others accompanied us to the "Princess Landing Stage" & at 12 a.m. the tender pushed out into the stream, having on board the mails & cabin passengers & waited for the Arizona to course out of the docks. The sea was rough & while waiting, being tossed about on the crest of the wave for about 3 hours, I became seasick & contributed the contents of my stomach to the finny inhabitors of the River Mersey.

As the tide had gone out, & the steamship Arizona had grounded inside the locks, we were taken on board as she lay there & must wait till high tide at midnight. President John Henry Smith took me aside & gave me charge of the company & instructions for the trip, & having done this returned to shore. So, I called the elders, 24 in number, together on the quarter-deck & informed them of my appointment and proceeded to organize the company. There was 101 English [p.106] Saints, 405 Scandinavians, 25 returning elders, 22 of whom were Scandinavian. We organized the company. I appointed Elder Hesse as chaplain over the Danes, Elder Capson over the Swedish, Elder Schoguard over the Norwegians, Elder Jenson over the young men & Elder John Martin over the English. Each had a separate compartment, in the vessel. We set the guards in each compartment & established the hour at which all must be down between decks, & prayers attended to in each compartment. Elder William Pegott I took as my assistant, we occupied the same stateroom.

Sunday June 15th at 2 a.m., the Arizona left the dock & we had a pleasant day reaching Queenstown at 5:45 p.m., changed mails & proceeded out to sea. I sent word back to President Smith of our progress so far. At 7:30 religious service was held in each compartment of the Saints according to nationality. I addressed the English Saints upon the principles of the gospel, a goodly number of strangers came down & stood on the stair all the way down, & at the close a gentleman came to me, & gave me his card; Mr. Samuel Dalton, a merchant of New York, kindly offered if there were any sick to procure delicacies for them.

The purser Mr. Thorp, was the most pleasant, kind & gentlemanly person I ever met in handling passengers. Every possible courtesy was extended to me & our people. I was invited to accompany the captain & the purser on their tour of inspection of the ship. The doctor invited me to an inspection of the whole company to ascertain if they had been vaccinated.

On Tuesday Mr. Dalton came & insisted on giving me 10 shillings to procure delicacies for the sick & asked for an interview for the purpose of a chat on the principles of our religion. I spent the 10 shillings on ginger ale & distributed it among the sick. I also obtained oranges from the chief steward and gave to such as could not eat.

During the 18th a gentlemen sought an introduction [p.107] to me by the purser, as envoy from Spain to Washington, desiring to learn somewhat about the Mormons. We had a pleasant chat on religion & the settlement of Utah by Brigham Young & his people. Several times this gentleman sought me out to chat on Utah matters. Mr. Samuel Dalton came, took his Bible & we had a long talk, he could not however see the truth.

On June 18th & 19th sea very rough & many of the Saints were sick, & as we neared the banks of Newfoundland with a dense fog & slow speed, it was quite unpleasant.

On the 20th fog lifted, sea smooth, & all well again. We held meeting in the English compartment & some strangers came in.

On Sunday June 22nd Church of England service for all on board in the saloon. At 1:30, I attended meetings of the Saints in their several compartments at 3 p.m. I spoke on the pre-existence of spirits for one hour. Meetings again at 8 p.m. & by request, I continued the subject for 1 hour more. Many strangers attended the meeting.

Monday 23rd Long Island in sight at daylight, & at 6 a.m. anchored at quarantine. At 8, docked. Agent James H. Hart met me on board & instructed me in relation to passing the customs house officers.

The day was spent in passing the customs officers, & getting through Castle Garden, & at 6 p.m. crossed over to Jersey City & took train for Chicago via Erie Railroad to Salamanca, then by Chicago & Atlantic to Chicago. We left new York at 8:50 p.m.

Nothing of note occurred till we reached Salamanca, where we were ordered to change cars, which however I refused to do. So after some little altercation the agent telegraphed his superintendent who said, "Let us go on into ." The Saints [p.108] were occupying 10 cars & a 1st class coach was furnished for the elders (25). Reached Chicago at 8:30 p.m. on June 25th & was transferred to the Chicago &Northwestern Railroad. The officers of the railroads were very kind & attentive to us & gave us 13 cars so that we now had plenty of room.

Thursday 26th At 12:30 midnight, left Chicago via Chicago & North Western [Railroad] & reached Council Bluffs at 11:30 p.m. & transferred to the Union Pacific train. Here I met Superintendent S.H.H. Clark whom I had known for years in Ogden. He greeted me with a hearty good shake & extended every courtesy of the road, taking particular care to see that my whole company was made comfortable & that we had all the cars we needed.

At 2:45 a.m. left Council Bluffs in 17 cars, 2 sections. At Grand Island, while changing engines, a burly looking fellow became very abusive as soon as he came up to the train & learned that it was a company of Mormons. He began his abuse, & though no one answered him. He poured forth a veritable stream of abuse, till the train pulled out.

Sunday morning 29th Ogden at 9:30 and as the train slowed down, entering the depot, Brother John Crawford, who was called & went on his mission at the same time I did, but had been home about a year & received his old position as car inspector on the Utah Central, now stepped on the steps of the car on which stood & told me that I had been selected as a President of the Quorum of Seventies #77. The organization of which was to be completed the following Sunday. As we alighted from the train [p.109] at Ogden I was greeted by many of my old friends & consulting with Agent. John Reeves, Jun., who told me I would have one hour before the train would pull out for Salt Lake City, in which to run up home & see my wife. I therefore went up at once, riding [with] Brother William Pearce. I found Hattie & our little adopted daughter well & overjoyed to see me once again. Hurriedly she got ready & though we were but 45 minutes absent. John Reeve had allowed the train to pull out without me & it was just passing out of sight towards Salt Lake City I felt quite annoyed at being left, but made the best of it & returned home & spent the day enjoying the society of wife & friends.

Monday June 30th Accompanied by my wife, I took train for Salt Lake City & reaching there attended to the affairs of the company. Obtained passes for all the elders to their several homes and to the distribution of the Saints as far as possible; then reported to President John Taylor at the President's & also at the Historian's Office & signed the record of returned missionaries & then with my wife went to call upon her sister & her family, Brother and Sister Derrick. & now took place one of those peculiar experiences--evidences of the divinity of the great work of the gospel. From the time that I was set apart in the council house for this mission; I became aware of the fact that I had a companion invisible to mortal eye it is true, but who's presence was apparent so often & so unmistakably that I became quite accustomed to it during my missionary labors & without who's aid & divine protection I should have proved a failure. This God-given companion, as I turned the corner after registering my return on the record, turned in the direction of the President's Office and left me. & I was [p.110] as cognizant of the fact as I had often been of his presence. We returned home by the evening train & found preparations for a party of friends & soon they began to gather, a goodly number to welcome me home. We spent a very happy time together.

During the mission I attended 490 indoor meetings mostly of the Saints, & held 80 outdoor meetings, at all of which I preached. These were on the streets or in the parks. I had the unspeakable joy & satisfaction of leading into the waters & of administering the sacred ordinance of baptism to 97 believers. I organized one branch, every one of which were the direct results of my own labors, (Westerham) administered to the sick 81, blessed 12 children, ordained several elders, teachers, & deacons. The promise of Apostle Richards in setting me apart in the Council House, Salt Lake City, was literally fulfilled. I baptized 24 of my relatives. I went forth in weakness, yet the Lord work [worked] wonderfully with me, giving me strength &sufficient wisdom to perform all the work required of me & blessed & hallowed be his holy name forever. & unto God be the honor, the glory, & the praise. . . . [p.111]

BIB: Nye, Ephraim Hesmer. Journal (Special Collections & Manuscripts Mss 358), pp.106-11. (Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)
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