I know the love of the brethren will like to hear of my arrival here. I deferred answering your letter till I arrived. I visited St. Joseph after Chicago, Alton and St. Louis. Thence going on to Omaha, my host at St. Joseph being superintendent of the rail, I had every advantage to Council Bluffs, opposite Omaha. There I slept, and then had ninety-six hours in rail to San Francisco, getting out only to eat. Everything went right, through mercy, and I, taking the sleeping cars, got on perfectly well to San Francisco: but such a desert I never went through: for 200 miles a plot of corn occasionally, then a few small herds of antelopes, and then for some 1,400 miles barrenness, occasionally a solitary rabbit, but an event to see one, occasionally prairie dogs and their burrows, one wolf, not even grass, sage brush and bare ground, emigrant wagons from time to time. You rise to more than 8,000 feet, the Sierra Nevada woody mountains, some 1,400 miles square, a desert called Rocky Mountains: at Salt Lake the Mormons by irrigation have some poor crops I stayed a week or ten days at San Francisco.... There is everywhere work to do. Thence about 6,000 miles by sea to Auckland, by Honolulu, but the most favorable voyage possible, through mercy, scarcely any sea, and faster than usual, the ship very steady, so that I worked on as usual. Some little opportunity of testimony though no preaching, so that I was thankful.... We stopped an hour at the Samoan Isles, where were genuine natives as you read of them: the prow of one boat was stove in, and all had to swim, perhaps (if not met) a good mile or more to shore, four or five leaping into the sea as they found the ship leaving—fine men, of a yellowish red. There are missionaries there. Mercy has accompanied us thus far, and surely will. I have never, since I decided to come here, had a cloud on my mind as to my coming. All has been without difficulty, and many mercies. I still doubt that I shall go on to Australia. It is a week or so farther, and their circumstances are not the same, but the Lord will graciously show. My thought is, if spared, to return the way I came.
Peace be with you: kindest love to the brethren. May they not only hold fast, but be every day more devoted and unworldly! I feel this of all moment now. Many are seeking to introduce brethren's truths into the systems as they are. True separateness to the Lord in the truth is what will give the testimony now, in home, life, spirit, and walk in every way. And what is there that remains but doing His will while waiting for Him?
Affectionately yours in the Lord.
Auckland,
September 15th, 1875.