On Saturday, 10th Jan., Jacob Hamblin and accompanying Indian missionaries to the Moquis, who left last November, returned to St George. Jacob reported that the Moqui people had received himself and companions in a very friendly manner. It had been deemed advisable to leave Ira Hatch, Thales H. Haskell and Jehiel McConnell there to continue missionary labors. Jacob invited the Moqui people to send some of their chief men to visit Utah and have a talk with some of the Mormon Chief men. The[y] objected to sending any of their number because of a tradition they had, to the effect that [they] must not cross the river; they also had a tradition that they must not move from their homes until the “re-appearance of the three prophets who led their fathers to the land, and who had told them to remain on those rocks until they should come again and tell them what to do.” The day after the missionaries reported, however, three Moqui men overtook them and stated their chief men had held further consultation and had concluded to send these three. (James Godson Bleak, The Annals of the Southern Mission, January 10, 1863, in The Annals of the Southern Mission: A Record of the History of the Settlement of Southern Utah, ed. Aaron McArthur and Reid L. Neilson [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2019], 76)
