Hillsdale Whig Standard

From the Council Bluffs.
From the St. Louis New Era. June 1st.

The steamer Archer arrived last evening from Council Bluffs, to which point she had been to carry out 100 Mormons and between 60 and 70 tons of their household furniture, farming utensils, &c., and a small amount of goods sent up by a merchant of this city. From the officers of the A, we learn that there are still at and in the vicinity of the Bluffs several thousand Mormons the large proportion in a most wretched condition, living in huts covered with turf and brush and in holes dug in the sides of the river bank, scarcely affording the protection and convenience of an Indian wigwam. They are represented to be in a most filthy and nearly half starved condition, for which their only relief is emigration.

A large number started for Oregon this spring, and it is the intention of the majority of those behind to follow as soon as they can do so with a certainty of ever reaching their place of destination but a large portion are so entirely destitute that it is deemed unsafe for them to undertake the journey this summer, and it is more than probably that succor will have to come from some other quarter than their own industry, before they will be able to remove from where they are at present. Many, and in fact the greater portion, are making some preparations toward raising a crop, but the yield, it is thought, will scarcely keep them alive until another spring.

They have been much annoyed of late by Indians, and most of their valuable stock, such as cows, oxen and horses has been stolen. Their encampment is stretched along the banks of the Missouri for six or eight miles, entirely unprotected and unguarded; but notwithstanding they are constantly receiving reinforcements from nearly every quarter of the United States and Great Britain. The persons carried up by the Archer were new proselytes on their way to the New Jerusalem, which is to be built up in Oregon.

The A. left the Bluffs on the 24th ult. the water was then falling, with three and a half feet of water in the channel at Weston. The steamer Martha was met at Council Point with the American Fur Company's men on board.

No rains in the vicinity of the Bluffs. and a Mr. Richards, who came down from the mountains and got on board the Archer at St. Joseph, reports no rise in the stream and tributaries, and no rain in this country above. From Weston to Jefferson City the officers of the A. report four and a half feet of water, thence to the mouth between six and seven feet in the channel.