_The Promised Land_ So far on their march the Lord had protected them from all but ordinary hardships.

True, some members of the company had suffered from a fever which they attributed to the clouds of dust that enveloped the column of wagons when in motion, and to the great change of temperature from day to night.

Again, the most of them were for many weeks without bread, saving for the sick the little flour they had and subsisting upon the meat provided by the hunters.

Before reaching Fort Laramie, too, their stock had become weakened for want of food; an extended drought, the vast herds of buffalo, and the Indian fires having combined to destroy the pasturage.
This weakness of the animals made the march for many days not more than five or six miles a day.

At the last they had fed to the stock not only all their grain but the most of their crackers and other breadstuffs.
But these were slight matters to a persecuted people gathering out of Babylon.
Late in June they reached the South Pass.