Between 1840 and 1855, approximately 22,000 Mormons sailed from Liverpool to the United States. From Nov. 1855 to Jun. 1856, the Church chartered eight of the most seaworthy ships and transported 4,326 Mormons.

Edward was aboard the "Caravan," with 456 other Mormons. The passengers were quartered below deck, side by side, in crowded bunks. Anyone with known exposure to a contagious disease was excluded from travel and yet measles, chicken pox and other ailments afflicted many. Often children suffered and died enroute from such diseases.

The price was between 4 to 5 pounds for adults ($25 U.S.) and less than a pound for infants. This covered transportation and food. Each ship provided beef, pork, beans, potatoes, 3 quarts of water per adult per day and 10 gallons of water per 100 people for cooking per day. Seventy days provisions were stored for January to October travel, and 80 days from October to January. "Medical Comforts" included: Arrowroot, Sago, Pearl Barley, Marine Soap, Lime Juice, Brandy, Beef Soup, Preserved Mutton and a few pints of milk.

Each passenger furnished their own straw or feather mattress and a box or barrel to hold their personal belongings and tin cooking utensils. During storms the quarters were closed tightly so no water would enter. A bucket or chamber pot provided sanitary facilities. At such times claustrophobic conditions of overcrowded quarters compounded the misery of the stench, seasickness and various diseases.

EB: There were about five hundred emigrants, all Saints, and some returning elders on board ship and presided over by Daniel Tyler. The voyage was pleasant with the exception of one storm during which one sailor was drowned. We landed in New York, at Castle Garden, thence by rail to St. Louis, then by steamboat up the Mississippi River to Iowa City, which place we reached in the month of June, 1856.

Here the company was fitted out with handcarts. I was given charge of a Welch company and left Iowa City, June 28, 1856. We procured our provisions and teams to haul our supplies at Council Bluffs.

Of the five handcart companies that left Iowa City that year, the third was almost entirely Welsh emigrants. The "S. Curling" had brought them cross the Atlantic and railroad travel had delivered them to Iowa City. Part of the trip from the east had been in cattle cars. Some delay was required in Iowa City because the handcarts were not completed.

The Welsh saints pitched right in and assisted in the construction of the carts. In outfitting their carts they were required to discard many precious possessions that just wouldn't fit. Romance was no stranger to these people preparing for the hard trek ahead. Ellenor Roberts, one of the Welsh girls, fell in love with Elias Lewis. They were married at Iowa City and prepared their own handcart.

How fortunate the company was to have Edward Bunker as their leader. Edward's depth of experience in the Mormon Battalion and in the British Mission was surely an important factor in the company's success. In addition, the Welsh company traveled along with Captain John Banks' wagon train of immigrant saints. Martin and Willie, two other returning missionaries, were assigned to lead the fourth and fifth handcart companies. These two ran into difficulty and many people perished on the trip in the snows.

EB: After leaving Iowa City, we encountered some heavy rain and windstorms which blew down our tents and washed away our handcarts. I got a heavy drenching which brought on a spell of rheumatism that confined me to my bed a portion of the journey.

Priscilla Evans wrote:

"People made fun of us as we walked, pulling our carts, but the weather was fine and the roads were excellent, and although I was sick and we were very tired at night, still we thought it was a glorious way to go to Zion."

"We began our journey with a handcart for each family, some families consisting of just a man and wife, and some had quite large families. Each handcart had one hundred pounds of flour, that to be divided up and we were to get more from the wagons as required. At first we had a little coffee and bacon, but that was soon gone and we had no use for any cooking utensils but a frying pan."

EB: I had for my councilors Brothers [David] Grant [39], a Scotchman, and tailor by trade, and [John] MacDonald [58], a cabinet maker, neither of whom had much experience in handling teams. Both were returned missionaries. The Welsh people had no experience and very few of them could speak English. This made my burden very heavy. I had the mule team to drive and had to instruct the teamsters about yoking the oxen.

Arriving in Florence, Nebraska on July 19th, 1856, the company was detained while repairs were made to the handcarts. They left Florence on July 30th and on August 30th David Grant, the assistant captain wrote back to England:

"It is one month today since we left Florence, formerly called Winter Quarters, and we are almost five hundred miles from it. I have traveled the same road three times with horse and ox team, but never made the trip in so short a time before. We have averaged twenty miles a day for the past week, and are determined to average that or more every day until we reach Great Salt Lake City."

"The Saints are getting more and more of the spirit of Zion upon them as they approach nearer to it. I will give it as my opinion that the Saints will cross the Plains with handcarts for years to come, because of the utility of the plan, considering the circumstances by which the Saints are surrounded. There are twenty persons and four handcarts to each tent. Each adult person has seventeen and each child ten pounds of luggage, which consists of bedding and wearing apparel; extra of this they haul their cooking utensils."

"The provisions are hauled in a wagon, and rationed out to the company every other day, as follows - to each adult or child per day, one pound of flour, with tea or coffee, sugar, and rice. We have for the use of the company, eighteen cows that give milk, and have killed three fine buffaloes, and eaten as we had need. Besides that which I have enumerated, we have with us beef cattle enough to last through to Utah, using one of them a week."

"This is so healthy a country, that our appetites are very good, and we send our allowances home without much trouble. There are some very old brethren and sisters that walk every day. One sister, that has walked all the way from Iowa City, is seventy-three years old. There are in the company those still more advanced in years, who ride in the wagons."

"If there were settlements every hundred and fifty or two hundred miles on the road, from which companies could get supplies, they could carry their provisions on their handcarts, and dispense with the provision wagons, which greatly retard our progress."

"We travel together in peace and harmony, and when we camp, are not molested by wolves in sheep's clothing. Elder Bunker has proved himself a father to his people, and I know that the Holy Spirit has been with and aided him in leading them all the time. I am happy to say that we have been united in all things since we left Iowa City, and am glad in having such a man to lead us as our Captain."

EB: The journey from the Missouri River the Salt Lake City was accomplished in 65 days. We were short of provisions all the way and would have suffered for food had not supplies reached us from the valley.

Ellenor Roberts Lewis, who was married in Iowa City, was walking without shoes. She had left her shoes on the other side of the Missouri River in crossing, did not go back for them, and walked the rest of the way to the Salt Lake Valley barefoot.

Pricilla Evans later wrote in her journal:

"The flour was self-rising and we took water and baked a little cake. After the first few weeks of traveling this little cake was all we had to eat and after months of traveling we were put on half rations and at one time, before help came, we were out of flour for two days. During this hard journey I was expecting my first baby and it was very hard to be contented on so little food."

"My husband had lost a leg in his early childhood and walked on a wooden stump, which caused him a great deal of pain and discomfort. When his knee, which rested on a pad, became very sore, my husband was not able to walk any farther and I could not pull him in the little cart, being so sick myself, so one late afternoon he felt he could not go on so he stopped to rest beside some tall sagebrush. I pleaded with him to try to walk farther, that if he stayed there he would die, and I could not go on without him."

"The company did not miss us until they rested for the night and when the names were checked we were not among the company and a rider on a horse came back looking for us. When they saw the pitiful condition of my husband's knee he was assigned to the commissary wagon and helped dispense the food for the rest of the journey. I hated to see him suffer so but it was with relish that I ate his little cake when he was too miserable to care for food."

"There were about a dozen in our tent. There were only about six who could not speak the Welsh language, myself among that number. There were in our tent a man with one leg (my husband); two blind, Thomas Giles being one of them; a man with an arm gone; and a widow with five children."

"The man with the one arm went back to Wales in the spring as he had left his family there. There were five mule teams and wagons to haul the tents and flour. We were allowed to bring but 17 pounds of clothing."

"We had no grease for the wheels on the handcarts and one day they killed an old buffalo and my husband and John Thain, a butcher, sat up all night to boil some to get some grease to grease the handcarts, but it was so old and tough there was not a speck of grease in it."

Thomas D. Giles, the blind man mentioned above, had a wife, baby girl and two boys. A remarkable incident occurred to Brother Giles during the trek. Not long after starting the trek the baby became ill. After a short time she died and was buried beside the trail. It wasn't long until his wife became ill, passed away, and was also buried beside the trail. Fearing the same for his two boys, when an east bound group passed, he sent the two boys, ages seven and nine back to join a later company that included a group of Welsh saints.

Not far from Fort Bridger, Giles himself became seriously ill. The company was held up for two days waiting for either improvement in his condition or further deterioration. Finally, Captain Bunker determined the end was within hours, ordered the group to move on, and left two men to bury Brother Giles when the end came.

The two men who stayed continued to offer prayers of faith and priesthood administration. Brother Giles remained alive until evening when Apostle Parley P. Pratt reached the site. He had known Brother Giles in Wales and was distressed to hear of all that had happened and to see Giles' condition. Elder Pratt pronounced a blessing on Brother Giles, promising that he would instantly be healed and made well, rejoin his company and arrive safely in the Salt Lake Valley, and there rear a family. He further promised that because of Brother Giles faithfulness he would be permitted to live as long as he wanted. Every promise made was fulfilled entirely.

B. H. Roberts wrote that "Bunker's company arrived six days later, 2nd of October, also without serious adventure or loss. They had traveled with Captain John Banks' wagon company of immigrating saints." Because the handcarts were able to travel much quicker than wagon trains, and no other mention of the accompanying Banks' train is made in handcart diaries, it is questionable that they travelled together very far. They did arrive in the valley the same day, but that may have been coincidence.

It is curious to note that one member of the Banks train was named John Bunker. Most decendants of Edward have assumed there were no other Bunkers that were a part of early Church history. Who this individual was is a mystery to the author.

EB: We arrived safely in Salt Lake City, October 2, 1856. Other companies that started in the later part of the season were caught in the snow storms and suffered severely from cold and hunger and many of them perished. When I arrived home my health was very poor, having suffered a great deal while in England from the cold damp climate.