At its base was piled a cairn of stones, and against this was a slab with an inscription:-- "Here 120 Men, Women, and Children Were Massacred in Cold Blood Early in September, 1857." On the cross itself was carved in deep letters:-- "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." He fell on his knees at the foot and prayed, not weeping nor in any fever of fear, but as one knowing his sin and the sin of his Church.

The burden of his prayer was, "O God, my own sin cannot be forgiven--I know it well--but let me atone for the sins of this people and let me guide them aright.

Let me die on this cross a hundred deaths for each life they put out, or as many more as shall be needed to save them." He was strong in his faith again, conscious that he himself was lost, but burning to save others, and hopeful, too, for he believed that a miracle had been vouchsafed to him in the desert.
Nor would the good _padre_, at the head of his procession of penitents in his little mission out across the desert, have doubted less that it was a miracle than did this unhappy apostle of Joseph Smith, had he known the circumstance of its timeliness; albeit he had become familiar with such phenomena of light and air in the desert..