Pratt'S Defence

BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES OF MISSOURI.

As down in a lone dungeon with darkness o'er-spread, In silence and sorrow I made my lone bed, While far from my prison my friends had retired, And joy from this bosom had almost expired.

From all that was lovely constrained for to part, From wife and from children so dear to my heart; While foes were exulting, and friends far away, In half broken slumbers all pensive I lay.

I thought upon Zion--her sorrowful doom:-- I thought on her anguish--her trouble and gloom. How for years she had wandered, a captive forlorn, Cast out and afflicted, and treated with scorn.

I thought on the time when some five years ago, Twelve hundred from Jackson were driven by foes, While two hundred houses to ashes were burned;-- Our flourishing fields to a desert were turned.

I remembered these crimes still unpunished remained, And the like oft repeated--again, and again, From counties adjoining, compelled to remove, We purchased in Caldwell, Prairie and Grove.

And there 'mid the wild flowers that bloomed o'e the plain, Our rights and our freedom we thought to maintain: Nor dreamed that oppression would drive us from thence, The laws of our country we claimed for defence

But soon as kind autumn rewarded our toil, And plenty around us began for to smile, Our foes were assembled--being tempted with gain; To ravage and plunder, and drive us again.

When many were driven, and plundered, and robb'd. And some had been murdered by this dreadful mob,-- When cries for redress and protection were vain, We arose in our strength our own rights to maintain.

The mob soon dispersed, to the Rulers appealed, Saying, lend us your aid, and the Mormons will yield, For surely they never were known to resist A mob when commissioned by Rulers and Priests.

This soon was considered by far the best plan; And orders were issued for ten thousand men, Including the Wilsons, and Gillums, of course, And all the mob forces, for better, for worse.

These soon were forthcoming, in dreadful array! Some painted like Indians, all armed for the fray! The Mormons soon yielded without the first fire, And the mobers accomplished their utmost desire.

Some females were ravished--and cattle and grain Became a free booty--and one pris'ner slain. Some twenty or thirty were murdered outright, And ten thousand others were BANISHED THE STATE!

By what LAW of the Statute to me is unknown; But it must be by law all these great things were done; For the next Legislature the expense to defray, Voted two hundred thousand the soldiers to pay.

To resist THIS oppression--THESE excellent laws, Was murder! and treason!! (in technical clause,) So while women and children were driven away Their husbands and fathers in prison must stay.

So now to the jury and judge I submit; I'm not learned in such laws,--they may hang or acquit-- But though they should hang me, or keep me in jail, The spirit of Freedom and Truth will prevail.

PRATT'S DELIVERANCE.

"The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed."

ISAIAH.

The chains are rent, the dungeon's gloom No more these active limbs confine. I rise as from the dreary tomb, Where long in prison I repined.

I mount--I fly--I haste away, Buoyed, as it were, on angel's wings; O home! O friends! O liberty!-- O God of strength, thy praise I'll sing.

Hosanna now in highest strains, Glory to God and to the Lamb, Hosanna to the king who reigns In heaven and earth--the great I Am.

VISIT TO THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[Extract from the Author's Journal.]

When we came near the base of the mountain, two beautiful and transparent lakes, surrounded with a romantic forest of evergreen, and other trees, added greatly to the interest of the scene. Between these lakes a mansion was reared for the public entertainment of those whom curiosity draws to the place. This house furnished pleasure boats, fishing apparatus, guides, &c., for the accommodation of parties of pleasure, and others who wished to spend a few hours amid these romantic and picturesque scenes of sublimity and grandeur, where nature in her wildest freaks had combined the gentle and lovely, which seems to soothe and calm the spirits with the awfully grand, the terribly majestic, and the wild and romantic, as if calculated at once to interest the curious, to please the merry, to add gloom to solitude, and fervor to devotion; and in a word, to fill the contemplative mind with the highest degree of wonder and admiration. Our road led directly between the two small lakes, through what is called the notch. The mountains on each hand reared their majestic piles almost perpendicular for many hundred feet.

While clouds hung lowering on their bosoms, And their tall summits high above The misty vapors stood in awful pride, And still serenely smiled amid clear skies, And all the splendor of the morning sun.

When we had passed between the lakes and walked a short distance, we left the road and took a footpath to the left hand, and commenced our ascent up the steep sides of the mountain. Our path for many hundred feet was very steep, and in many places almost perpendicular; but the rough fragments of rock afforded steps; and these, together with twigs and shrubs which we seized with our hands, enabled us to climb with some degree of safety as well as speed. When we had arrived at the distance of perhaps half a mile, the scene was truly awful. Huge fragments of rock were thrown together in inconceivable confusion, as if by some terrible convulsion of nature; recalling to mind a time long since passed, when

Earth with a tremendous groan, Did for a dying Jesus mourn.

Passing still onward on our airy way, the timber began to be of a different variety, suited to a colder climate, and fast diminishing in its size, until at length we were only surrounded with dwarf cedars, or spruce; and still higher up, even these ceased to vegetate, and a bleak, bald, and rocky summit still reared its dreary head a vast distance above us. At the point where vegetation ceased, we found a small lake several rods in circumference probably fed by the melting snows which lay upon the mountain most of the year.

Leaving this curiosity below us, we continued our ascent over rocky steeps, mostly covered with moss; and after a laborious journey of some hours we found ourselves on the highest pinnacle of Mt. Lafayette, while far beneath us we beheld the summits of many other mountains, clothed with evergreen; and beyond these on all sides lay a beautiful scenery of

Farms, and fields and meadows gay, While in the distance far away, The flocks in sportive groups assembled, Limpid lakes in sunbeams trembled, Huts with rural scenes surrounded, Mansions fair and bright abounded; While zephyrs sweet perfumed the air, From roses, pinks, and lilies fair; While far o'er eastern hills we view The briny ocean's distant blue, And mark its waves in distance dwindle, Till with the heavens they seem to mingle. When all at once the scenes around us Are veiled from view, and clouds surround us, And far beneath, and high above, Swift through the air the vapors move.

Although it was now in the sultry heat of summer, yet our vast elevation caused a coldness which seemed winterlike; and although dressed in winter clothing, we were soon so chilled as to shake at every limb. After offering our prayers and thanks to the Maker of heaven and earth, we again descended; and when we had come down about half way we were out of the cloud, and again enjoyed the pure air of the lower atmosphere, while the warm and gentle breezes of summer soon warmed and restored our benumbed limbs to their proper temperature. Inspired with sublimer and nobler thoughts of nature and of nature's God, we pursued our course a few miles on our way, and being weary we called at a humble dwelling, were kindly received, and after partaking of such simple refreshments as the place afforded, with appetites sharpened with fatigue, we retired to rest, and resigned the night to sweet repose.