The Mississippi was filled with large cakes of floating ice.

Another company which had gone out from Far West some weeks before was still encamped on the Missouri banks of the river.

Yet other companies from Far West came up before the main body of the Saints with which Susannah had travelled was able to cross.

The surrounding woods were cut down to make shanties; the surrounding country was scoured for food.

In the intervening weeks, while they lay encamped on the banks, the last enemy to be vanquished in that region, the malarial fever, grappled with the sect and dealt deadly wounds.