“State of City of December 18. 1843. Personally appeared , before me Joseph Smith, Mayor of said , and upon his oath deposeth and saith that from information he has received he verily believes that the peace of said is in danger from a Mobocratic assemblage at , and a force collected under the command of Col. in the lower part of the , and runners having been sent to to excite the Missourians to join the Mobbers in this , for the purpose of mak[HC 6:119]ing a descent on said , or disturbing its peaceable inhabitants— and further your deponent saith not.

“City of Dec 18. 1843 Sir, I am credibly informed that a warlike force is collecting at or near for the purpose of some violent move towards this , or some of the inhabitants thereof, you will therefore order out such a portion of the Legion, as may be necessary to repel any such mobocratic or hostile design of the said unlawful force, and also as may be sufficient to secure the peace of the citizens according to Law. Yours, Joseph Smith. <​Lieut Gen. N. L.​> Maj. Gen. Commanding Legion.”

“A singular phenomenon was seen in this neighborhood. Jesse Fox, William and Lorenzo Fox, David Bale, James Wilson, and William Cole, with some others retired to the house of Solomon Mendenhall at which place they stayed a short time, while there they discovered a ball rising from the East in an oblique line, and as it ascended it moved towards the west with great rapidity until it was high in the heavens, leaving a streak of light behind it, which, to the natural eye, had the appearance of being thirty or forty feet in length. This light remained stationary for about one minute; both ends then coming round formed a figure of 8, which figure also retained its position for the same space of time; it then was transformed into a figure of 6, which also remained for about a minute; it then was formed into a cypher or 0; which remained for about three minutes. The figures put together made 1860 in large figures, in the heavens. The phenomenon was indeed singular and has been [p. 1807]