CHAPTER XXX.
There had come to the Big Springs Convention two brethren--Father Gillespie and his son, William Gillespie, living at St.George, on the Kansas River, fifty miles above Topeka and about eight miles below Manhattan.

These brethren came to tell us that here were two settlements of brethren waiting to be organized into churches; and Bro.

Hutchinson and myself both visited them during the ensuing autumn.

A military road ran up the Kansas River from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley, passing through the village of St.George, But if I were to go to St.George by this route, I would lose thirty miles of travel, and I therefore determined to start directly west from my place of residence.

But, in doing so, I would have to cross the Pottawatomie Indian Reserve, on which for forty miles there was not the habitation of a white man.