“Gentlemen, you are charged with treason, murder, , , theft & stealing & various other charges too tedious to mention, at this time” & he left the room. In about twenty minutes, there came in a strong guard, together with the keeper of the penitentiary of the , who brought with him two common trace chains, noozed together by putting the small end through the ring & commenced chaining us one by one, and fastening with padlocks, about two feet apart. In this unhallowed situation the prisoners remained fifteen days, & in this situation, delivered us to the professed civil authorities of the , without any legal authorit process being served on us at all, during the whole time we were kept in chains, with nothing but evidence, and that either by the vilest apostates, or by the mob who had committed murder in the State of . Notwithstanding all this ex parte evidence, did inform our lawyer, ten days previous to the termination of the trial, who he should commit & who he should not: & I heard say on his bench, in the presence of hundreds of witnesses, that there was no law for witnesses mormons, and they need not expect any. Said he, if the s exterminating order, had been directed to me, I would have seen it fulfiled to the very letter ere this time.

After a tedious trial of fifteen days, with no other witnesses but ex parte ones, the witnesses, for prisoners were either kicked out of doors or put on trial for themselves. The prisoners were now committed to , under the care & direction of Samuel Tillery, jailor,— Here we were received with a shout of indignation & scorn by the prejudiced populace. Prisoners were here thrust into jail without a regular ; the jailor having to send for one some days after. The mercies of the jailor were intolerable, feeding us with a scanty allowance, on the dregs of coffee & tea, from his own table & fetching the provisions in a basket, on which the chickens had roosted the night before without being cleaned; five days he fed the prisoners on human flesh & from extreme hunger I was compelled to eat it. In this situation, we were kept until about the month of April, when we were remanded to for trial before the grand jury.— We were kept under the most loathsome & despotic guards they could produce in that of lawless mobs. After six or eight days the grand jury (most of whome by the by, were so drunk that they had to be carried out & into their rooms as though they were lifeless,) formed a fictitious indictment, which was sanctioned by , who was the [p. 131]