On 16 October 1845 Young informed Woodruff of the outbreak of violence in Hancock County and of the Mormons’ promise to leave the state next spring. “Our council to you,” Young wrote, “is to send no more emegrants here; but let them wait in Eng[land] till they can ship for the Pacific Ocean. Say the Bay of St. Francisco, or Vancouers Island, or such other place or places as may be wisdom.” On 5 December 1845 Woodruff, then in England, wrote to Young that British Latter-day Saints intended to “either purchase or charter a ship and fit it up for California this winter or spring.” (Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, to Wilford Woodruff, Liverpool, England, 16 Oct. 1845, Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, CHL; Wilford Woodruff, Liverpool, England, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 5 Dec. 1845, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.)

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

Latter-day Saints in New York were then making preparations to sail around Cape Horn and to California onboard the Brooklyn, which they had chartered under Samuel Brannan’s direction by 13 December 1845. (Woodruff, Journal, 21 Nov. 1845; “To Emigrants,” New-York Messenger, Extra, 13 Dec. 1845, [1].)

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

New-York Messenger. New York City. 1845.