see also: Sidney Rigdon as Portrayed in Fictional Accounts



The Spalding Authorship Claims in
19th Century Fiction on the Mormons


THE first pieces of fiction about the early Mormons were short satirical items printed in the columns of western New York newspapers. These were followed in a few years by a more substantial piece, purportedly relating tales told by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the court room at Chardon, Ohio at the trail of D. P. Hurlbut. The latter story (whether truly attributable to Smith or not) was published, along with illustrations, as "Remarkable Events, in Eber D. Howe's 1834 anti-Mormon book, Mormonism Unvailed. Other interesting fictional accounts involving the Mormons appeared in various newspapers during the 1840s, including the Quincy Whig of Sept. 18, 1841 and Jan. 11, 1843, as well as in the St. Louis Peoples' Organ at the end of 1843. Parley P. Pratt even got into the act of writing fiction with his "A Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil," (in the NY Herald of early in 1844), his 1844 Angel of the Prairies, and other pieces of imaginative prose.

The first book containing what can truly be called "Mormon fiction" was Frederick Marryat's 1843 tale, Monsieur Violet... This is also the first known work of fiction that referred to the Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship. The Spalding beliefs for Book of Mormon authorship were again taken up by Orvilla S. Belisle in her 1855 book, Mormonism Unveiled, or, a History of Mormonism, printed in the USA under the title "The Prophets..." By the 1850s and 1860s fictional accounts of the Mormons were commonplace reading fare among aficionados of lurid crime and adventure tales, "penny dreadfuls," and "dime novels." One of these, written as a pot-boiler by Percy B. St. John, in 1861, was entitled: Jessie, the Mormon's Daughter. This is the only known piece of 19th century fiction in which Solomon Spalding actually makes an appearance as a character in the story.



Marryat: 1843 text


Belisle: 1855 text


St. John: 1861 text

Links to short textual excerpts from Marryat's 1843 Monsieur Violet..., as well as from the 1855 Mormonism Unveiled... and the 1861 Mormon's Daughter are provided on this web-page for interested readers -- (click on the thumb-nail images above for graphics enlargements).

If reader response to these excerpts is enthusiastic, they will each be enlarged by several additional pages. Please contact the web host if you have comments, suggestions, or additional fictional material suitable for inclusion on this web-page.



Further Comments on The Above Three Stories

 




THE


TRAVELS

AND

ROMANTIC  ADVENTURES


OF

MONSIEUR VIOLET,

AMONG THE

SNAKE INDIANS AND WILD TRIBES OF THE GREAT
WESTERN PRAIRIES.


WRITTEN BY

C A P T.   M A R R Y A T,   C. B.


IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.







L O N D O N:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.

1843.




 
Chapters I-V of vol. I of this text have not been transcribed.
 

114                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                





CHAPTER VI.

AT last we arrived at the plantation of Mr. Courtenay: the house was one of the very few buildings in the United States in which taste was displayed. A graceful portico, supported by columns; large verandahs, sheltered by jesamine; and the garden so green and so smiling, with its avenues of acacias and live fences of holly and locust, all recalled to my mind the scenes of my childhood in Europe. Every thing was so neat and comfortable; the stables so airy, the dogs so well housed, and the slaves so good-humored-looking, so clean and well dressed.

When we descended from our horses, a


 



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handsome lady appeared at the portico, with joy and love beaming in her face, as five or six beautiful children, having at last perceived our arrival, left their play to welcome and kiss their father. A lovely vision of youth and beauty also made its appearance -- one of these slender girls of the South, a woman of fifteen years old, with her dark eyelashes and her streaming ebony hair; slaves of all ages -- mulattoes and quadroon girls, old negroes and boy negroes, all calling together -- "Eh! Massa Courtenay, kill plenty bear, dare say; now plenty grease for black family, good Massa Courteny!"

Add to all this, the dogs barking and the horses neighing, and truly the whole tableau was one of unbounded affection and happiness. I doubt if, in all North America, there is another plantation equal to that of Mr. Courtenay.

I soon became an intimate of the family, and for the first time enjoyed the pleasures of


 



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highly-polished society. Mrs. Courtenay was an admirable performer upon the harp; Miss Emma Courtenay, her neice, was a delightful pianist; and my host himself was no mean amateur upon the flute. Our evenings would pass quickly away, in reading Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine, Metastasio, or the modern writers of English literature; after which we would remain till the night had far advanced, enjoying the beautiful compositions of Beethoven, Gluck, and Mozart, or the brilliant overtures of Donizetti, Bellini and Meyerbeer.

Thus my time passed like a happy dream, and as, from the rainy season having just set in, all travelling was impossible, I remained many weeks with my kind entertainers, the more willingly, that the various trials I had undergone had, at so early an age, convinced me that, upon earth, happiness was too scarce not to be enjoyed when presented to you. Yet in the midst of pleasure I did not forget the duty I owed to my tribe, and I sent letters to


 



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Joe Smith, the Mormon leader at Nauvoo, that we might at once enter into an arrangement. Notwithstanding the bad season, we had some few days of sunshine, in which pretty Miss Emma and I would take long rambles in the woods; and sometimes, too, my host would invite the hunters of his neighborhood, for a general bayyue against bears, deer, and wild cats. Then we would encamp out under good tents, and during the evening, while smoking near our blazing fires, I would hear stories which taught me more of life in the United States than if I had been residing there for years.

"Dis moi qui tu frequentes, je te dirai qui tu es," is the old French proverb. Mr. Courtenay never chose his campanions but among the more intellectual classes of the society around him, and, of course, these stories were not only well told, but interesting in their subject. Often the conversation would fall upon the Mormons, and perceiving how anxious I


 



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was to learn any thing anout this new sect, my host introduced me to a very talented gentleman, who had every information connected with their history. From him I learned the particulars which gave rise to Mormonism, undoubtedly the most extraordinary imposition of the nineteenth century.

There existed years ago a Connecticut man, named Solomon Spalding, a relation to the one who invented the wooden nutmegs. By following him through his career, the reader will find him a Yankee of the true stock. He appears at first as a law student; then as a preacher, a merchant, and a bankrupt; afterwards he becomes a blacksmith in a small western village; then a land speculator and a county schoolmaster; later still, he becomes the owner of an iron-foundry; once more a bankrupt; at last, a writer and a dreamer.

As might be expected, he died a beggar somewhere in Pennsylvania, little thinking that, by a singular coincidence, one of his productions (the


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 119


"Manuscript found"), redeemed from oblivion by a few rogues, would prove in their hands a powerful weapon, and be the basis of one of the most anomalous, yet powerful secessions which has ever been experienced by the Established Church.

We find, under the title of the "Manuscript found," an historical romance of the first settlers of America, rendeavuring to shew that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the lost tribes. It gives a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and by sea, till they arrived in America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct nations, one of which is denominated Nephites, and the other Lamanites.

Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They buried their dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds now so commonly found on the continent of


 



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America. Their knowledge in the arts and sciences, and their civilization, are dwelt upon in order to account for all the remarkable ruins of cities and other curious antiquities, found in various parts of North and South America.

Solomon Spalding writes in the biblical style, and commences almost every sentence with, "And it came to pass," -- "Now, it came to pass."

Although some powers of imagination and a degree of scientific information are displayed throughout the whole romance, it remained for several years unnoticed, on the shelves of Messrs. Patterson and Lambdin, printers, in Pittsburgh.

Many years passed, when Lambdin the printer, having failed, wished to raise the wind by some book speculation. Looking over the various manuscripts then in his possession, the "Manuscript found," venerable in its dust, was, upon examination, looked upon as a gold


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 121


mine, which would restore to affluence the unfortunate publisher. But death summoned Lambdin away, and put an end to the speculation, as far as his interests were concerned.

Lambdin had intrusted the precious manuscript to his bosom friend, Sidney Rigdon, that he might embellish it and alter it, as he might think expedient. The publisher now dead, Rigdon allowed this chef-d'oeuvre to remain in his desk till, reflecting upon his precarious means, and upon his chances of obtaining a future livlihood, a sudden idea struck him. Rigdon knew well his countrymen and their avidity for the marvellous; he resolved to give to the world the "manuscript found," not as a mere work of imagination or disquisition, as its writer had intended it to be, but as a new code of religion, sent down to man, as of yore, on awful Sinai, the tables were given unto Moses.

For some time, Rigdon worked very hard, studying the Bible, altering his book, and


 



122                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


preaching every Sunday. As the reader may easily imagine, our Bible student had been as well as Spalding, a Jack of all trades, having successively filled the offices of attorney, bar-keeper, clerk, merchant, waiter, newspaper editor, preacher, and, finally, a hanger-on about printing offices, where he could always pick up some little job in the way of proof correcting and so forth.

To us this variety of occupations may appear very strange, but among the unsettled and ambitious population of the United States, men at the age of fifty have been, or at least have tried to be, every thing, not in gradation, from the lowest up to the highest, but just as it may happen -- doctor yesterday and waiter to-day -- the Yankee philosopher will to-morrow run for a seat in the legislature; if he fails, he may turn a Methodist preacher, a Mormon, a land-speculator, a member of the "Native American Society," or a mason -- that is to say, a journeyman mason.


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 123


Two words more upon Rigdon, before we leave him in his comparative insignificance! He is undoubtedly the father of Mormonism, and the author of the "Golden Book," with the exception of a few subsequent alterations made by Joe Smith. It was easy for him, from the first planning of his intended imposture to publicly discuss, in the pulpit, many strange points of controversy, which were eventually to become the corner-stones of the structure which he wished to raise.

The novelty of the discussions was greedily received by many, and, of course, prepared them for that which was coming. Yet, it seems that Rigdon soon perceived the evils which his wild imposture would generate, and he recoiled from his task, not because there remained lurking in his breast some few sparks of honesty, but because he wanted courage; he was a scoundrel, but a timorous one, and always in dread of the penitentiary. With him, Mormonism was a mere money speculation,


 



124                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


and he resolved to shelter himself behind some fool who might bear the whole odium, while he would reap a golden harvest, and quietly retire before the coming of a storm. But, as is often the case, he reckoned without his host; for it so happened that, in searching for a tool of this deception, he found in Joe Smith one not precisely what he had calculated upon. He wanted a compound of rogery and folly as his tool and slave; Smith was a rogue and an unlettered man, but he was what Rigdon was not aware of -- a man of bold conception, full of courafe and mental energy, one of those unprincipled, yet lofty, aspiring beings who, centries past, would have succeeded as well as Mahomet, and who has, even in this more enlightened age, accomplished that which is wonderful to contemplate.

When it was too late to retract, Rigdon perceived with dismay that, instead of acquiring a silly bondsman, he had subjected himself.


 



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to a superior will; he was now himself a slave, bound by fear and interest, his two great guides through life. Smith consequently became, instead of Rigdon, "the elect of God," and is now at the head of thousands, a great religious and political leader.

From the same gentleman, I also learned the history of Joseph Smith; and I will lay before the reader what, from various documents, I hace succeeded in collecting concerning this remarkable impostor, together with a succinct account of the rise and progress of this new sect, as it is a remarkable feature in the history of nations.




 

126                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                





CHAPTER VII.

MY readers have already been made acquainted with the history of the "Book," upon which the imposture of Mormonism has been founded, and of the acquaintance which took place between Rigdon and Joe Smith, whose career I shall now introduce.

The father of Joe was one of a numerous class of people who are termed, in the west, "money-diggers," living a sort of vagrant life, imposing upon the credulous farmers by pretending that they knew of treasures concealed, and occasionally stealing horses and cattle. Joseph Smith was the second son, and a great favourite of his father, who stated everywhere


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 127


that Joe had that species of second sight, which enabled him to discover where treasure was hidden. Joe did certainly turn out very smart, and it was prophesied by the "old ones" that, provided he was not hung, Joe would certainly become a general, if he did not gain the office of president of the United States. But Joe's smartness was so great, that Palmyra, where his father usually resided, became too small for the exercise of his talents.

Some time afterwards Joe was again heard of. In one of his rambles, he had gone to Harmony (Pennsylvania), and there formed an acquaintence with a young woman. In the fall of 1826, being then at Philadelphia, he resolved to go out and get married to her, but, being destitute of means, he now set his wits to work to raise some money and get a recommendation, so as to obtain the fair one of his choice. He went to a man named Lawrence, and stated that he had discovered in Pennsylvania,


 



128                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


on the bank of the Susquehanna river, a very rich mine of silver, and if he, Lawrence, woul go there with him, he might have a share in the profits; that it was near high-water mark, and that they could put the silver into boats, and take it down the river to Philadelphia, and dispose of it. Lawrence asked Joseph if he was not deceiving him.

"No." replied Joe, "for I have been there and seen it with my own eyes, and if you do not find it so when we get there, I will bind myself to be your servant for three years.

By oaths, asservations, and fair promises, Lawrence was induced to believe in Joe's assertion, and agreed to go with him; and as Joseph was out of money, Lawrence had to defray the whole expenses of the journey. When they arrived at Harmony, Joseph was strongly recommended by Lawrence, who was well known to the parents of the young woman; after which they proceeded on their journey to the silver mine, made a diligent


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 129


search, and of course found nothing. Thus Lawrence had his trouble for his pains, and returned home with his pockets lighter than when he started, whilst honest Joe had not only his expenses paid, but a good recommendation of the father of his fair one.

Joe now proposed to marry the girl, but the parents were opposed to the match. One day, when they happened to be from home, he took advantage of the opportunity, went off with her, and the knot was tied.

Being still destitute of money, he now again set his wits to work, to contrive to get back to Manchester, at that time his place of residence, and he hit upon the following plan, which succeeded. He went to an honest old Dutchman, by the name of Stowel, and told him that he had discovered on the banks of the Black River, in the village of Watertown (Jefferson County, N. Y.), a cave, in which he found a bar of gold as big as his leg, and about three or four feet long; that he could


 



130                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


not get it out alone on account of its great weight; and if Stowel would frank him and his wife to Manchester (N. Y.), they would then go together to the cave, and Stowel should share the prize with him. The good Dutchman consented.

A short time after their arrival at Manchester, Stowel reminded Joseph of his promise, but he coolly replied that he could not go just then, as his wife was among strangers, and would be very lonesome if he quitted her. Mr. Stowel was, like Mr. Lawrence, obliged to return without any remuneration, and with less money than he came. I mention these two freaks of Joe Smith, as they explain the money-digger's system of fraud.

It would hardly be believed that, especially among the cunning Yankees, such "mines and treasures" stories should be credited; but it is a peculiar feature in the U. S. that the inhabitants, so difficult to overreach in other matters, will greedily take the bait when


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 131


"mines" or "hidden treasure" are spoken of. In Missouri and Wisconsin, immense beds of copper ore and lead have bbeen discovered in every direction. Thousands of poor, ignorant farmers, emigrants from the East, have turned diggers, miners, and smelters. Many have accumulated large fortunes in the space of a few years, and have returned "wealthy gentlemen" to their own native state, much to the astonishment of their neighbours.

Thus has the "mining spirit" been kept alive, and impostors of every variety have reaped their harvest, by speculating upon the well-known avidity of the "people of America!"

It was in the beginning of 1827, that Joe, in a trip to Pittsburg, became acquainted with Rigdon. A great intimacy took place betwixt them, and they paid each other alternate visits -- Joe coming to Pittsburg and Rigdon going to the Susquehannam for pleasure excursions, at a friend's. It was also during the same


 



132                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


year that the Smith family assumed a new character. In the month of June, Joseph Smith, sen., went to a wealthy, but credulous farmer, and related the following story: --

"That some years ago, a spirit had appeared to Joe, his son, and, in a vision, informed him that in a certain place there was a record on plates of gold, and that he was the person who must obtain them, and this he must do in the following manner:-- On the 22nd of September, he must repair to the place where these plates of gols were deposited, dressed in black clothes, riding a black horse, with a switch tail, and demand the plates in a certain name; and, after obtaining them, he must immediately go away, and neither lay them down nor look behind him."

The farmer gave credit to old Smith's communication. He accordingly fitted out Joseph with a suit of black clothes, and borrowed a black horse. Joe (by his own account) repaired to the place of deposit, and


 



                                OF MONSIEUR VIOLET.                                 133


demand the plates, which were in a stone box, unsealed, and so near the surface of the ground that he could see one end of it; raising the lid up, he took out the plates of gold; but fearing some one might discover where he got them, he laid them down, to replace the top stone as he had found it; when, turning round, to his surprise, there were no plates to be seen. He again opened the box, and saw the plates in it; he attempted to take them out, but was not able. He perceived in the box something like a toad, which gradually assumed the appearance of a man, and struck him on the side of his head. Not being discouraged at trifles, Joe again stooped down and attempted to take the plates, when the spirit struck him again, knocked him backwards three or four rods, and hurt him very much: recovering from his fright, he inquired of the spirit, why he could not take the plates; to which the spirit made reply, "Because you have not obeyed your orders." He then inquired when he could


 



134                                 TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES                                


have them, and was answered thus: "Come one year from this day, and bring with you your eldest brother; then you shall have them."

"This spirit." said the elder Joseph Smith, "was the spirit of the prophet who wrote this book, and who was sent to Joe Smith, jun., to make known these things to him. Before the expiration of the year, the eldest brother died; which," the old man said, "was a decree of Providence." He also added --

"Joe went one year from that day to demand the plates, and the spirit inquired for his brother, and Joe replied that he was dead. The spirit then commanded him to come again in one year from that day, and bring a man with him. On asking who might be the man, he was answered that he would now him when he saw him."

Thus, while Rigdon was concocting his Bible and preaching new doctrines, the Smith family were preparing the minds of the people


 



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The remainder of vol. I of this book has not been transcribed.



 
Transcriber's Comments on Monsieur Violet








MORMONISM  UNVEILED;




OR,



A  History  of  Mormonism,



FROM



ITS  RISE  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME.






LONDON:
CHARLES H. CLARKE,  48, PATERNOSTER ROW.

[ 1855 ]





  
Note: The U. S. reprint of Orvilla Belisle's 1855 book was re-named The Prophets. It was published
in Philadelphia, the same year as the original was issued in England. Chapter II (the text with special
references to Solomon Spalding) begins on page 22 in the British edition and on page 30 in the
American reprint. A short sample of the British text is given below -- please consult
the U. S. reprint for a much longer excerpt.





22                                   MORMONISM UNVEILED.                                  


equal to that they had accorded to his pretended divinations. The crude elements of some daring feat, no doubt, were even then floating in his mind, but they were crushed or hidden for the time, as he, with his companions, fled before an officer who more thab suspicioned them of putting into circulation certain moneys more than had been authorised by law. While evading his pursuers he became acquainted with Sidney Rigdon, a religious Ishmaelite, who had in turn belonged to, and been excluded from several denominations. Rigdon knew nothing but what he had been taught, while Smith had been taught nothing, and formed his ideas from nature and an unassisted scrutiny of nature's works. His keen perception was more than a match for the Ishmaelite's book-learning, for what he left as beyond the intelligence of mortal mind, Smith grasped and solved with the might of an overpowering perseverance.

The crude, startling vagaries of the possessor of the "seer stones," money-digger, and visionary, were poured into the ears of Rigdon, who had perception enough to discover an original was before him, but he was unable to even fathom the depth of the pent-up passion that lay coiled among them. Smith saw he only had a listener, who devoured with avidity all the absurdities he uttered, and in him saw not a guide or companion, but simply a willing tool to do his bidding.
 




CHAPTER II.

Between the years 1809 and 1816, when all savandom was exercised in regard to the origin of the swarthy aborigines of America, when Catlin, armed with pen and pencil, started on his pilgrimage to bring to light from their wild fastness, all that could solve the mystery of their ancestry -- when Major Noah shook hands with their haughty chieftains and claimed them as brethren descended from the same father, Israel, and the onward march of civilization was leveling the primitive forests, an unearthing the hidden sepulchers and relics of extinct nations, Solomon Spaulding, settled in Salem, Ashtabula County, Ohio. The now rich cultivated fields, were then dark forests, among which beasts of prey prowled, and aborigines, driven to desperation by the gradual extinction of their race and hunting grounds, lurked in ambush


(Pages 23-51 of the British edition's text were not transcribed.)


 

Note: Page 52 of British edition = pages 83-84 in the American reprint)


52                                   MORMONISM UNVEILED.                                 


if they remained pure, look upon the Word of God, the sight of which was death to those who viewed it unworthily.

The twelve were not idle through the week, and when the day appointed arrived, everything was in readiness. They repaired to a small stream which wound its way over a shallow bed near by, across which a dam had been thrown to raise the water to the necessary height, and where the novelty of the occasion had drawn the people for miles around, until both banks were lined by hundreds of spectators, who felt a curiosity to witness this crowning act of the daring impostor's impiety.

He came with his little band, and one by one he led them into the water, laid them beneath the yielding wave; and when this was accomplished he turned to the people and addressed them in a passionate harangue, when all dispersed quietly as they came; but the impression which those of credulous temperments had received, was extensive and deep. They had all their lives heard of the wonderful and marvellous, but now it was among them, and they hastened to embrace it. The case with which all he had undertaken was accomplished, had done away with all distrust of his own powers of elocution, and Smith now launched forth, at all times and seasons, with an easy, impudent assurance that would have made the fortune of a political stump campaigner.

The assurance of the Mormons, as the new organisation called themselves, that the golden plates were not mythical, and that they had seen them, raised the curiosity of the people to a formidable height. Flattery, threats, and stratagems were exhausted, in the vain endeavor to find the whereabouts without avail. The man they had to deal with was more than a match for their curiosity, and, as a last resort, they called in the strong arm of the law to aid them in the unequal contest. One of the many offenses with which he stood charged was brought forward, and he fled before the constables armed with warrants for his arrest for obtaining goods on false pretenses and forgery.

Securing the brass plates, he made his way for protection to the home of his father-in-law, in Pennsylvania, until the charges against him in New York were settled by the aid of his friends, who clamoured loudly for the return of the Prophet. During his absence the twelve had swelled to twice that number, among whom Parley Pratt was an acquisition of great


 

Note: Page 53 of British edition = pages 84-85 in the American reprint)


                                 MORMONISM UNVEILED.                                 53


importance to the infant fast outgrowing its swaddling clothes. He was constituted a preacher of the new doctrine, and to his first sermon, Sermon Rigdon, the confederate in the nefarious imposture, thought it time to throw off the cloak beneath which he had labored for his Master, and strike his colors to Parley Pratt and Mormonism.

The Prophet returned to find the people who had never attended divine service anywhere, and who, by common consent had, by their manners and own acts never been anything else than moral outlaws, flocking around the standard which he had raised. This was what he desired, for he had neither expected nor desired a different class, from the beginning. Those that would with unquestioning credulity obey his behest, and be boon companions were all he desired, and such he avowed he was sent to gather into his fold.

To prepare the "Manuscript Found" of Spaulding for publication was now of great importance, and by dint of hard labor he had so altered some parts, and by erasing others and substituting his own phrases for the correct ones, that he considered it would answer his purpose. Then retiring behind his screen, with the brass plate, the concave mirrors set in a rim of the same precious metal as the plates, together with the "Manuscript" while Cowdry, the pedagogue was on the other side of the screen as an amanuensis, he pretended to read and translate the characters on the plates through the mirrors, but in reality he read from Spaulding's "Manuscript" which he had mutilated to suit his purpose. The labor in the course of a few months was accomplished, and so completely had Smith been successful, that Sidney Rigdon was deceived more easily, as he had seen the plates which Smith asserted had contained the records, and was half inclined to believe Smith's assertion, that the Spaulding "Manuscript" had been, if written by its reputed author, written while under inspiration, which gift in sinning he had afterwards lost; but certainly it was a link between the present and the Lost Tribes of Israel. The germ had expanded into a blossom and what had previously been a mere neighborhood excitement spread by the aid of the numerous teachers sent out by Smith to the adjoining counties, and from them to different States, whence the contagion spread over the Union. The novelty took with the unthinking while the debased flew with alacrity to the first sect they had ever known, who were willing to receive them with their


 

Note: Page 54 of British edition = pages 85-86 in the American reprint)


54                                  MORMONISM UNVEILED.                                 


habits with open arms. The free and easy discipline overlooked all enormities demanding nothing with so much eagerness as numbers, no matter whence they came, nor what were their antecedents, so that they new avowed an implicit belief in the impostures of the self-styled Prophet. The mystery that enveloped their leader's movements, the marvellous and miraculous pretensions inspired them with a devotional awe, and he soon became regarded by his followers with veneration which fell like a balm on his perverted heart, and only added new ardor to the course he was pursuing.

As the months went by, and funds came into the Prophet's hands but slowly, he knew that the publication would be long delayed unless he made a bold strike for its accomplishment. He therefore started a new feint by which to assail the money-bags of his disciple.

"This book," said he, "emanating from a divine source, will, if once given to the world, revolutionize and reorganise the whole social system. It will carry conviction wherever it is read; for the divine presence will accompany it. It is not wrong for us, then, to delay giving to the world what God has entrusted to us for its good? Do we not sin and run the risk of losing for ever the favour of the Father by our delay?

"Aye, we are all criminal by it, and let us all contribute to a common fund to accomplish its publication. I will head the list with twenty-five cents, and that will be much for a poor man like me, after the fifty dollars I have already given."

"Is that all you can give for the conversion of the whole world to our faith? Think you, brother Harris, it is all you ought to give to accomplish the subversion of every government to our behests? for as true as yonder sun rides the sky, the day is not far distant when empires and kingdoms, principalities and republics, shall lay their authorities at our feet, and demand at our hands laws and rulers appointed by the revelation of God, as given through his chosen Prophet," returned Smith reproachfully.

"If all the rest give what I have given, surely there will be enough -- I have but little, very little left. Had you not better try to get the governments to print it for the good it will do them?"

"Governments are short-sighted, and must be convinced before they will act. We must print the work and send it out to the world; then all earthly honours will fall into our


 

Note: Page 55 of British edition = pages 86-87 in the American reprint)


                                  MORMONISM UNVEILED.                                 55


gift, and think you, when God comes to rule by His chosen people, he will countenance the elevation to high places of those who had the means to advance the faith, but refused to use it for his service, even when assured it should be returned, together with high worldly honours, a thousandfold?"

"If I thought it would occur in my day, so that I could be Governor of the State, I think I would give half my little gains. I have never had any honours, and even my neighbours have looked down on me all my life; I would like to be above them, and give them back the scorn and contempt with which they have embittered my life," spoke the old man eagerly.

"You may have even more than that; you may rule by divine right, by universal acclamation, if you sin not, and use all you possess to advance our common cause."

"If I only had some security!" said the old man dubiously.

"You are still worldly-minded, brother Harris," said the Prophet in a playful tone; then he continued, "What do you think of my note as security?"

"Oh, if I had that, with -- with endorsers," said the old man eagerly, as his bleared eyes glittered with satisfaction at a way of escape from the dilemma.

"I would not dare refuse, if you require it, brother Harris," returned the Prophet gravely. "My mission in the world is to establish the true faith, and Heaven forbid that I should let any consideration hinder me in its prosecution."

I am so very poor," muttered the old man depreciatingly, "that it will be hard to spare anything; but if you could give the note and endorsers, I would try."

Not deeming it advisable to thwart the old man, the Prophet left him, and among his followers obtained the necessary names, drew up a note, and received the money of the duped miser, who clung to his god with a yearning years had augmented until it had grown into a mania.

The "Manuscript" soon emanated from the press, under the title of the "Mormon Bible, or the Book of Mormon." But it failed to revolutionise the world, as the Prophet asserted it would, and was greeted much as many other curiosities are which are ushered into life by that triumph of modern art. Armed with this nondescript, the preachers of Mormonism made more rapid progress in their labours, and the West was looked to with longing eyes by the Prophet, as the most ex-

(The remainder of the British edition's text was not transcribed.)




 





THE


P R O P H E T S;


OR,



M O R M O N I S M   UNVEILED.


With Illustrations.




_________



PHILADELPHIA:

P U B L I S H E D   B Y   WM.   W H I T E   S M I T H.
195 CHESTNUT STREET.
LONDON: TRUBNER & Co.,
1855.





 




[ 30 ]






CHAPTER II.

Modern Antiquarians -- A Dartmouth Collegian -- A pioneer on the shore of Lake Erie -- Relics of the past -- Vagaries of an over excited brain -- An Author -- "Manuscript Found" -- A model Publisher -- Truth in a Printing Office -- Modern morals -- Notorious imbecility of Authors -- Wisdom of Publishers -- Literature and Tobacco -- Death of an Author -- Manuscript for waste paper -- Copy preserved by an admiring Publisher -- Death of a Publisher -- Copy falls into the hands of an Ishmaelite -- Encounter of the Ishmaelite and Embryo Prophet -- Cemented Friendship.

BETWEEN the years 1809 and 1816, when all savandom was exercised in regard to the origin of the swarthy aborigines of America, when Catlin, armed with pen and pencil, started on his pilgrimage to bring to light from their wild fastness, all that could solve the mystery of their ancestry -- when Major Noah shook hands with their haughty chieftains and claimed them as brethren descended from the same father, Israel, and the onward march of civilization was leveling the primitive forests, an unearthing the hidden sepulchers and relics of extinct nations, Solomon Spaulding, settled in Salem, Ashtabula County, Ohio. The now rich cultivated fields, were then dark forests, among which beasts of prey prowled, and aborigines, driven to desperation by the gradual extinction of their race and hunting grounds, lurked in ambush
 





                                            RELICS FOUND.                                            31


to await the unguarded moment when they could in safety sally forth and hurl dire vengeance on the pale faces who had usurped their all. At their feet and rolling away to the north lay Lake Erie, a broad inland sea, majestic and imperious in the storm when its angry billows lashed its rugged shores, but beautiful as a sleeping tiger in its hours of repose.

As the axe of the hardy pioneer disencumbered, and the plowshare furrowed the earth, beneath which slept all that remained of the unknown past of America's once cherished hearth-stones and sacred groves, spots hallowed by noble deeds and the graves of a lost nation, whose origin and name in the age in which they flourished sleep alike with those who bore it, and with it has dissolved back to the elements from which they arose, were brought to light. Skeletons of the people, jars of earthen ware, terra-cotta vases beautifully carved, thin sheets of brass covered with hieroglyphics, held together by rings at their backs, with numerous articles elegantly carved in stone, were of common occurrence, unearthed to reward the research of the pioneer.

"It is well enough" he cried one day, when after divesting some of the plates of rust, the hieroglyphics come out bold and clear, "for the Professors of New York, Philadelphia and London, to advance such opinions on a subject, upon which they have about as much practical knowledge as an Indian has about a sawmill; but, to ask
 





32                                         BAFFLED CURIOSITY.                                        


those who have seen different and know better, is simply preposterous."

"You are positive the characters are not Hebrew or Egyptian?" queried Mrs. Spaulding, who deprecated this research, as she was not sure but that by increasing mental irritation, which in her husband's case, it was desirable to allay, he would become incapable of either mental or physical labor.

"Positive!" he cried with roused pride, "could I not read them if they were, and these are like so much Chinese to me. No! no; though they may be Chaldaic," he added thoughtfully, as he gazed longingly on the thin sheets of metal, covered with what had been bold, characters, but now had lost much of the beauty of outline by corroding time.

"It is not worth the trouble, if you could," returned his more matter-of-fact companion. "It will, if deciphered neither till the soil, nor put money into your pockets, but on the contrary will lead to a close mental application which you have been strictly forbidden to indulge in by physicians."

"Forsooth! I am to let my talents rust, because a man who never had any does not see the utility of those who have using them! About the money, I do not think myself it will bring any -- I never knew a useful invention that did the inventor, but the future ages to come, may do me the justice that our own age is now doing to the
 





                                    AUTHOR IN EMBRYO.                                    33


names of Newton, Franklin, and a host of others, who are long since dead," answered the enthusiastic collegian.

A cloud settled on the brow of Mrs. Spaulding, as she turned away to conceal the anxiety of her heart, which she knew full well could be traced on her brow.

The vagaries that had flitted through the brain of the antiquarian as he communed with himself, developed into form; and surrounding himself with all the antiquities he had been able to collect, he seized his pen and paper, and heading it "Manuscript Found," transcribed thereon the fantastic beings to which it had given birth. Conversant with the abstruse tomes of biblical research, he imitated its chronological theme, names, and style. Still, it was but an imitation, lacking the fire of inspiration, although it bore the trace of brilliant genius and intense thought.

Mrs. Spaulding seeing the evil his present course of life was doing him, and thinking how futile was every endeavour to break the fascinating chain that enthralled him, while surrounded by what had awakened and wove him in its toils, urged a removal from the vicinity. Woman's wit was brought into requisition for devices without awakening suspicion in his sensitive mind as to the real cause; and in a few weeks she had induced him to abandon his forest home, which had aided in fostering his imagination, until it had assumed an alarming symptom,
 





34                                   AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.                                  


for the busy, active life among his fellows in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Here as he daily encountered the living throne as they pursued the every day actualities of life, his mind assumed a more healthy tone, its morbid sensitiveness gave place to genial humour, and instead of pursuing his former vagaries, was so far cured of them as to bring out his manuscripts and read them for his friends' amusement, laughing heartily himself at their absurdities. Their originality and oddities struck the fancy of a Mr. Patterson who made application to him for the manuscript for publication.

"But, my dear sir," said the author in amazement, "they are the greatest absurdities an overwrought imagination ever penned; there is not a word of truth in them."

"So much the better," returned the publisher, coolly; "they will, for that very reason, tickle the fancy of the wise, while the simple will gulp them down as they gape for more, and cry, 'how wonderful!'"

"But to publish such unblushing falsehoods as truth is downright dishonesty," persisted the author.

"Why, man, do you think all that is published is veritable truth? Poor time of it we publishers would have if we had nothing more to tickle the public brain with!"

"But to publish for truth what was not even a foundation
 





                                  LITERATURE AND CIGARS.                                  35


in it; no, no, I cannot consent so to mislead my fellow men."

"Really, Spaulding, you never should have left the pulpit; you would have made a capital preacher of morality; you make such nice points where common men see none."

"If you will publish it as an effort of imagination, not as truth, I will not object," replied the collegian, as what he was destined for was thus forcibly recalled to memory with all its bright anticipations crumbled to ashes in his hand.

"That would spoil the whole; you are too fastidious, Spaulding; give me the manuscript for perusal, and if it is all as rich as what you have read to me, it will, if published, make your fortune."

"I would rather never have a fortune than have it made at the expense of truth," returned the author as he gave the manuscript into the hands of the printer and turned away.

"That man is a fool, and I never knew an author that was not," muttered Patterson impatiently, as he settled himself in an easy position for the perusal of the manuscript; that is, he tilted his chair back, elevated his feet at an angle of forty-five degrees, deposited them on a window ledge, and placed a cigar in his mouth, from which he alternately knocked the ashes and withdrew to deposit its concomitant in the direction of the spittoon,
 





36                                   DEATH OF AN AUTHOR.                                  


but which oftener hit the wall beyond, or the files of papers around it.

Patterson saw and acknowledged the genius that could invent such a plot and carry it so triumphantly through, as was disclosed in the perusal of the manuscript, although he failed to obtain it for publication on any other than Spaulding's own terms; and these would not answer his purpose, he contented himself with the privilege given by Spaulding, of taking a copy of it for his amusement; and he was wont to read copious extracts from this to others. One of his journeymen, Sidney Rigdon, who was a young itinerant Campbellite preacher, became fascinated by its oddity, and protested it sounded vastly like reality with all its absurdities. Patterson laughed at the credulity of his employee, while Spaulding shook his head, and was more than ever resolved to adhere to his first decision, either to retain forever so gross a tissue of falsehoods, or give it to the world such as it was, a romance.

Spaulding's pecuniary affairs, never very flourishing, demanded his removal to Amity, Washington County, New York, where a disease, under which he had long suffered, and which at times had nearly dethroned his reason, gained the mastery, and he died in 1816. Mrs. Spaulding, collected the original copy of the "Manuscript Found," together with other waste papers of her husband, and packing them away in a trunk, left them with his relatives in Otsego County, New York, where they were
 





                              RIGDON SEEKS EMPLOYMENT.                              37


destroyed as waste and worthless papers. Rigdon soon after, left Patterson's employment for other printing offices in the city, occasionally borrowing the copy of Spaulding's manuscript in the possession of Patterson, for the amusement of his fellow workmen. In 1826, Patterson died, leaving the manuscript in the possession of Rigdon, who had borrowed it a few days previously, and who now, that no one demanded it, had not the manliness to return it to its rightful owners. He, however, kept it no secret, and there are many at this hour living in that city, who have seen and heard Rigdon read from the "Manuscript Found." Rigdon in the year after the death of Patterson, wandered away in search of work and a congregation ignorant enough to appreciate his talents. During this tour, which the state of his finances obliged him to perform in the primitive mode so congenial to good digestion, as he was taking the nearest way from one village to another in the eastern part of the State, his path led down a ridge, at whose base murmured a mountain stream thickly shaded by the forest that shut out the noon-day sun. Weary and hungry, he threw himself on its mossy bank, drank from its gurgling depth, then taking a lunch from his bundle commenced his meal. While thus engaged he surveyed the scenery around; but before his eye had wandered far, it fell on a youth on the opposite bank surveying him with looks of distrust. He stood erect with his hat swept back from his forehead, a rifle
 





38                               HE ENCOUNTERS THE PROPHET.                              


resting in the bend of his left arm, while his right hand played nervously with its hammer. A keen, bold, searching eye surveyed him, with a look not at all comfortable to a man of Rigdon's temperament, and he turned to fly in dismay, when an imperious voice cried in a tone of command, "stop!"

Trembling with affright, he paused and turned towards the youth who had raised his rifle and was glancing along its barrel.

"Don't shoot! for heaven's sake don't shoot! I have never done anybody any harm!" cried the alarmed Rigdon; and in truth a more courageous man than he would have felt like showing the white feather with that bold eye glancing at him across the rifle's barrel.

"Stand still then, for I want to know what you are here for, if you are afraid of a rifle?" returned the youth, advancing, as he lowered his weapon again to his arm.

"I did not come for anything; I was only crossing over the ridge to the village beyond, and stopped to rest. Let me go now; you surely do not want to hurt one of the Lord's Anointed? -- I am a preacher." pleaded Rigdon in a frightened tone.

"You a preacher?" cried his persecutor as he burst into a loud laugh that would have frightened any denizens of the forest that had been within hearing. Then he continued as he surveyed him from head to foot, "it strikes me you look like one, or a constable which is about the
 





                             THE  ISHMAELITE'S  CREDENTIALS.                             39


same. Come man, don't make a fool of yourself; out with it, and tell me who you are in search of?"

"I a constable!" returned the now astonished and somewhat re-assured Rigdon: "I am nothing of the sort. I am a respectable man, a minister of the gospel."

"That won't do, covey. Ministers never go rambling through the woods carrying bundles and eating cold dinners. They always ride, and are fed like the governor. Come, quibbling won't do; tell me who you are after."

"I was never after anybody, sir, never!"

"Nonsense; you are a constable after Joe Smith; you know you are; and I want you to take back a message to those that sent you, from me, for I happen to be that individual."

"There has no one sent me, nor am I a constable; neither did I ever hear of Joe Smith," persisted the victim.

This last assertion staggered his persecutor who demanded in a softened tone:

"Why don't you say who you are, then, and what you are doing here? you are not hunting, for you have no gun; and to tell me you are a minister is folly. I am not so easily gulled as that."

"I have my credentials with me, and if that don't convince you, I can do no more," he returned, as he drew from an old leather wallet a tattered slip of paper, and handed it over to his tormentor.
 





40                                      TRAMMELED  GENIUS.                                     


"Humph," he growled, as he glanced over its surface, and a feeling of bitterness filled his heart as he surveyed it, for it might as well have been written in the Carib tongue as his own, for all the benefit it was to him, so perfectly untrammeled by art had the sire led his hopeful progeny in his own footsteps. He, in his vagabond careless life, had never felt the want of it; but his sons, whether they had more ideas to communicate, or whether what they had were kept in agitation by a lurking envy and ambition is not very clear, often had. The mood of Rigdon's tormentor, therefore, did not improve as he gazed longingly on the bit of paper covered over with a scrawl, and flinging it passionately from him, he cried:

"You are one of the book learned rascals, are you? Now," he continued, as he planted the butt of his rifle angrily on the ground, "I want to know wherein it makes you better than I am who cannot even read a word of your writing. You are no better dressed, nor have you a rifle like this, and if you had, I do not believe you would know how to fire it any better."

"I am no better than you," returned the victim humbly, "and may be," he added depreciatingly, "I am not so good looking; nor yet have as good clothes, or a rifle, but I can fire one, and if I don't hit the mark every time, then I give you leave to call me a constable or anything else you please."
 





                              AN UNEXPECTED MARKSMAN.                              41


"Done," cried the rifleman, and placing a piece of paper the size of a dollar eighty yards distant, he gave the rifle into the hands of Rigdon, who examined it closely a moment, then raised it to his shoulder, glanced along its barrel and fired. Handing it to the owner who was eyeing him with a curious look which was gradually displaced by one of admiration, he said:

"The upper edge of the paper is marked -- load it again and I will fetch it next time."

Silently the rifle was loaded, and again placed in Rigdon's hands who once more drew it deliberately to bear on the paper, fired, and it fell to the ground.

"Drove the pin, by Heaven! you are the boy for me," cried Smith exultingly, as he seized Rigdon's hand, and shook it with an iron grasp.

"You are satisfied, are you?" replied Rigdon coolly, as he returned the rifle.

"No, not quite; I want to know who and what you are -- where you came from, and where you are going."

Chequered as Rigdon's life had been, it was soon told, and as he warmed on his subject, in speaking of his intercourse with Patterson, he took from his bundle the copy of the original "Manuscript Found," made by Patterson of Spaulding's romance, and read pages from it to amuse his eager listener, whose whole soul was wrapt in the local romance which placed angels, patriarchs, and even God himself among the scenes of which he was familiar. The
 





42                                   A BOND OF FRIENDSHIP.                                  


superstitious awe which had held him so often heretofore in its fetters, together with the pall of ignorance that hemmed him around, made it appear so like truth that he yielded to it a willing homage, and when told by Rigdon, it was all fiction, it sounded harshly and jarred with the newly awakened cord it had vibrated in his heart

Hours were thus spent, during which every barrier was broken down between the two, and when night came on, they were sworn brothers through future time. The imperious, daring, headstrong tone of Smith's temperament, together with the superstitions that enthralled him, suited the dreamy biblical disputant, and the credulity with which his vagaries were received pleased him, while the Ishmaelite's roving nature and versatility, together with his varied abilities, won the confidence of the then fugitive from justice; and when a few weeks later he emerged from his covert, his friends having procured the withdrawal of the prosecution against him, he was accompanied by the Ishmaelite.



 




[ 43 ]





CHAPTER III.

Master and pupil -- Talent and imbecility -- A contrast -- Pupil becomes the master -- Error and truth -- Persecuted genius -- A vision from the higher or lower regions -- A quandary as to which -- Prophet bursts his chrysalis -- The dame's ambition -- A son's reverence -- The sorrowing bride -- A divine mission -- It is disputed by the sturdy neighbors -- The Prophet at a discount -- He is urged to a more dignified demeanor -- Rigdon and the Prophet -- Rigdon delivers over "Manuscript Found" to Joseph Smith..

On emerging from his involuntary banishment from the public eye, Smith brought with him his vague fancies that had arisen during the religious excitement through which he had passed, moulded into something tangible. By the aid of Rigdon's smattering of biblical lore, and the "Manuscript Found," which had been read and re-read to him, until his tenacious memory grasped it all, they had taken form, and one by one had been marshaled into order. The deep, unbroken silence of the forest with its awe inspiring grandeur, had been conducive to the train of thought and purpose that daily grew under his imaginative mind. He gradually played upon the superstitious Rigdon, until he had inspired him with an awe which Rigdon evinced by a blind acquiescence to his behests.

This involuntary banishment was one that bore upon
 





44                                       MASTER AND PUPIL.                                      


all the actions of his after life, for here Rigdon taught him to read and write, and all that he had spent a score of years in learning, had been grasped and digested by his pupil, and still he longingly called for more food to satisfy the mental hunger that, for years, had been preying upon all the generous promptings of his soul, and which now, that it had tasted of that for which it had so long cried in vain, it would not be denied or controlled. This mental craving for that which should satisfy the soul which broke forth like a tide of lava, puzzled Rigdon, but when he saw his pupil grasp abstruse themes and solve them by the force of a master intellect, themes he himself had never dared to lay hold of, his wonder was turned to veneration, and he believed in his heart Smith was the most persecuted man, as well as the greatest genius, in America.

Perhaps he did not err in the latter clause of his belief. It has been customary among all classes, except his adherents, to denounce Joseph Smith as being imbecile and ignorant, in connection with every species of crime of which he was guilty. Our historian, whose veracity cannot be gainsayed, asserts that his natural talents were superior to those of the common endowments of men, and that he was more capable of solving an abstruse theme within three years after he first learned his alphabet, than most men after taking their degree at college.

Probably this historian is correct, as, on reviewing his course through life, and that of an ignorant imbecile man,
 





                 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FACTS AND FANCY.                  45


one whose want of talent was never disputed, their course is found to be as wide as the antipodes asunder. The idiotic individual lives where his father lived; ate what was given him, tried to learn his way to church, but generally brought up in the bar opposite, died and was forgotten; while this man who has had both ignorance and imbecility falsely laid to his charge, never lived at any one place two consecutive months, -- went where no one else would go, -- spurned the old beaten track which so many millions have unmurmuringly trodden, -- beat out a new one, and led thousands after him, -- died, and will never be forgotten; for history's page is blotted by his name, and America's escutcheon bears the shame of his deeds.

A report that a golden Bible had been found in Canada, and another that one had been disentombed from among the tumuli of the west, gave the last link to a chain whose elements had been called into being during the religious excitement, and had been moulded into form during his wanderings from the haunts of men by the aid of Rigdon, and Spaulding's manuscript. This he scrupulously concealed from even Rigdon and his wife, and, save that they saw his demeanor gradually become grave, silent, and taciturn, as if his mind was big with untold thoughts, and that he sought and devoured with avidity books on religious themes, they knew nothing of the bent of his inclinations. They were unprepared for his announcement shortly after, that he had had a vision, and an angel had
 





46                                  MINISTERIAL ASPIRATIONS.                                 


commanded him to henceforth be guided in all his doings by the commands which should be given him by the Lord.

"Really, Smith, this is preposterous," cried his wife as a burst of merriment broke from the group around, in which she mingled, but with anger tingling her cheek at this new whim of one she had already learned to look on with distrust and suspicion.

"Don't he too hard on him, Emma" laughed Samuel; " he will make a capital saint. His acting will be great, I have no doubt; besides, it will be such an honour to have a dominie in the family."

"I tell you what, Joe, your idea of turning saint and holding converse with angels is capital, if you can get any one to believe it; but somehow that bogus coinage is in the way, as well as sundry ugly things on the squire's dockets, let alone the repute you are held in by the sanctimonious."

"May not a sinner repent and find acceptance with the Father who, not partaking of the frailty of mortals, pities their temptations?" asked the fledgling, gravely.

"Bravo, Joe, you will make somebody yet: you talk like a minister!" said his father, approvingly.

"La, me! I wonder what folks would say if our Joe should take to preachin'?" remarked the lackadaisical delicate head of the renowned family.

"He is joking, mother," expostulated the young wife, who had not yet learned to listen calmly to the vagaries
 





                                   THE PROPHET'S VISION.                                    47


of a family she had surreptitiously abandoned a father's house to enter, every member of which she now despised from the bottom of her heart, not excepting the scapegrace who had lured her from her father's roof.

"Had you stood with me last night, and seen the heavenly messenger endow me with the gift of Prophecy, and the mission of re-organizing the only true church -- for all that are now are false lights to lure men to destruction -- you would not think I was joking," remarked the aspirant.

"You are not well to-day, Joseph, you talk wildly," returned his wife tenderly, laying her hand on his forehead, and looking down into his eyes with the old love roused in her heart by the appearance of evil to one with whom her destiny was linked.

"Never was better in my life, Emma! Nor do I talk wildly. God and the hosts of heaven are my witnesses, that what I tell you is true."

"I fear you have mistaken the hosts of heaven for those of the lower region -- your past course would bear out such a theory," returned Emma bitterly.

" Or, Emma those whom he has been so long endeavoring to make yield up their treasure which they guard;" continued Samuel with a sneer.

"The time has come, Joseph, returned the young wife with energy, when you must abandon this visionary, and lay hold of the actualities of life with a will, or alas! for our
 





48                   EMMA URGES THE MERITS OF RECTITUDE.                   


future. We are young and strong, and the world is wide. Here the odium attached to us, how far deserved I know not, precludes our ever becoming respected or respectable; so hedged in are the people by custom that once thrust beyond their pale by overt acts, no life of rectitude can again penetrate the barrier beyond sufferance, and that I would never accept. No, Joseph pride is strong yet in my heart, and I pant to break away from this place, and go where we can make a home for ourselves, and rear a name for integrity and uprightness -- where by the labor of our hands and the blamelessness of our lives, we shall command at once a competence and the respect of our fellows."

"La, me, Emma, how you do talk! A body to hear you would suppose we were not good enough for your notions," returned the ruffian dame.

"I like that talk, Emma. If I had any one to help me by such advice, I believe I should be somebody yet," said Samuel, cordially.

"I could not, if such was my desire, change the course marked out for me. The heaviest penalties would follow me while life lasted, and after death, eternal condemnation. I must fulfill the will of my father who has chosen me a vessel to work out his will. If others revile, am I greater than the Master, that I should repine? It hath been said of old, 'A Prophet hath not honor in his own country,' but I tell you, Emma, these Gentiles shall honor what they have hitherto despised; for I will never pause
 





                         PROPHET  BURSTS  HIS  CHRYSALIS.                         49


until I rise as far above them as the Father is above me," answered the visionary, and as he concluded he strode proudly out, leaving his family struck dumb by the audacity of his words, and the passionate hauteur of his manner.

A stifled sob swelled the bosom of the young wife, while a shade of despairing hope gathered on her brow as she abashed, sought her own room.

"Never mind, Emma," said Samuel, in a pitying tone, as she went out, "it is nothing but a whim he has got up to see if he can frighten some one."

"Well, if this doesn't beat all," added the dame, in a flutter of excitement. "I do believe Joe's wife thinks we are not good enough for her! Dear me, what will folks say when they hear our Joe has been talking with angels and such things?"

"That he is a bigger fool and knave than ever," growled Samuel, whose pity for the unhappiness of his brother's wife, had roused to a sense of the wicked, idle life they had all conjointly led.

"Well, Sam, what has come over you? Have not had a vision too, have you?" said his father.

"Just about as much as Joe has, though I do not believe I am half as big a knave," returned the ruffled man.

"It does seem to me as if we ought to have a preacher or squire, or legislator, or something of the sort, in our family, just to let people know that we are somebody, and
 





50                           WITHERED  HOPES  OF  HIS  BRIDE.                          


if our Joe can do anything, that wife of his ought to be made to let him alone, and not to be worrying him," returned the dame.

"Don't be a fool, mother," retorted her dutiful son. "Joe is a big enough one without your help, and if Emma can make him settle down quietly on a little farm somewhere, and make a man of him she will achieve wonders for which she will receive the thanks of the community." So saying, he walked away, and on casting a glance up at Emma's window he caught a glimpse of a white face with red swollen eyes, watching the receding form of Joseph in the distance -- which was quickly withdrawn, the curtain closed; but he knew full well that, in that little room, was the crushed, withered hopes of a young heart, whose only fault in life had been too great credulity, which had made her an easy prey to the wily toils of a brother, he hated, now that he had brought grief to the heart of his fair trusting bride.

Smith wended his way towards the hill Cumora, four miles distant, in a southernly direction, where he was to confer with Rigdon, in reference to the next best step to take, to further and spread an imposture so boldly begun. Rigdon by appointment was at the rendezvous, and the two compared notes as to what had transpired through the day. Smith had related his story to several of the neighbors, some of whom laughed at the idea, others were shocked at his impious audacity, while others
 





                        PROPHET  CLAIMS  A  DIVINE  MISSION.                       51


listened with open mouth and eyes at the strange occurrence. These latter had the humps of credulity wonderfully developed, so much so that, had Satan appeared before them and asserted he was sent into the world to save lost men, they would have left all to assist him in furthering his mission. Such there are usually in all communities, and that their type was found around Palmyra and Manchester was nothing new nor strange. Those endowed with the full gift of reason chid[ed] the new fledged Prophet for his idle life, and advised him to spend his nights in slumber and his days in labor, instead of concocting fables to amuse and distract the simple and ignorant.

Rigdon had repeated to the gaping auditors the invented tale, yet at the same time denied his implicit belief in it, but harped upon its singularity, taking care to give it in its most seductive form, declaring if it was not true that Smith had been transformed into a Prophet to redeem the world, it would, unless some other should be sent soon, be destroyed by reason of the extreme wickedness which had steeped it in guilt and woe.

"So far all promises well," observed Rigdon after they had canvassed each other's movements through the day. "But if you would not fail to let your demeanor bear out the impression to others that you have been completely transformed from the worldly man to the sublime mission of founding the only true church on earth -- to the chosen
 





52                                  TOOL  AND  HIS  MASTER.                                 


servant of the most High -- for I find you are in the very worst possible odor with the people around here. Indeed one farmer to whom I related the tale demanded if I professed to make people believe, who had always known you and your family to be the veriest vagabonds around, that if God wanted to create a new Prophet, he would have chosen a man steeped in crime against all moral and civil law, instead of taking an honorable man, though he was ever so lowly."

"That was Day!" replied Smith angrily. "Let him go. I do not want such as him -- he is too straight-laced already -- no; what I want -- for that is all I can do -- is, to gather those of my own class and stamp. These are the most numerous, and they are thrust out by the others as though they were not human, and subject to like thoughts and passions as themselves."

"Such a man as Day can wield a strong influence over those you purpose to delude; therefore, it is best to impress him with our sincerity, if we do not get the wool over his eyes," returned Rigdon soothingly. "I have done all I thought advisable for the present, and find I can do our project more real good by mingling among the people, and keeping the subject before them, while I deny my belief in it, than I can to come out as a convert. Those will listen who in that case would not, and we must get another to do that for us. There is Cowdery who could be easily made to believe anything; but, it would not do to
 





                                 DECEPTION  TRIUMPHANT.                                 53


let him into the secret that the plan was concocted between us. Whoever we hereafter associate with us, must do it in the full belief of the divinity of your mission; but shall share after us equally the honors and emoluments the project shall bring them!"

"I saw old Harris on my road hither, and he seems more impressible than any to whom I have yet related my mission. Have you brought the Spaulding's Manuscript with you? -- for I intend to have another vision soon, and I wish to refresh my memory as to the names and dates when it was buried. Besides I have been thinking whether it would not take among the credulous to destroy its identity by altering it to suit our purposes -- pretend we found it engraved on gold plates like that said to have been discovered in Canada, and have it published as a veritable Bible buried by the prophets of old, and its hiding place revealed to me in a vision. I being commanded at the same time to give it to the world as from the hand of God."

"It would hardly do, Smith. The ancients were not conversant with the English language, and the more knowing would say at once" 'The imposture carries its refutation on its face, for Smith is not conversant with the Hebrew, Egyptian, or Chaldaic in which one of the three dialects the plates must have been engraved, for in no other were the prophets of old conversant."

"Easily obviated," returned Smith coolly. "You know
 





54                                         SCHEMES  MATURED.                                        


I have the 'seer stones,' and I can make them believe I divined it by them, or what is better still, say a "urium and thumin' of which Spaulding speaks, was discovered with it."

"Nothing could be better, if we could evade discovery. Spaulding, Patterson and I, have read it to numbers of different people, and I am almost sure they would detect us."

"You tell me Spaulding and Patterson are both dead, as well as several others who saw it in their possession?"

"Yes, but Spaulding's wife still lives, and she knew its contents perfectly, she could not be deceived."

"Perhaps she might," returned the Prophet musingly. I tell you, Rigdon, the more I think of it, the more possible it appears. We must be cautious, but vigorous and I am sure we shall at least create an excitement that will fill our pockets at last, and raise us above those who have scorned us all our lives."

"Here is the manuscript, but use it carefully, and as you value the success of our schemes let no one see it or know it was ever in your or my possession. And be wary, and not have a vision too often, or you will, by your over zeal, draw down contempt from even the most ignorant.

Long these two worthies communed over their scheme for deception, and when the hours had waned and they had set on a firm basis a train of duplicity that should startle the world, they, even then, from the depth of
 





                                             BASE  MOTIVES.                                             55


their corrupt hearts, gloated over the consternation one day's work had done at their impious fraud, and could they have looked into the future and seen them fully developed, even they might, startled at their own deeds, have stood aghast, and abandoned their further prosecution. Their only object at that time was to play upon the credulous, earn applause from the debased, and extort money from the simple, under the plea of a divine mission, and thus deceive and rob in a mode of which no law could arraign them for the offense. Pride, ambition and an overweening thirst for power led Smith to concoct the scheme while the most consummate hypocrisy which he had played off on several denominations of Christians, with the hope of rising with the tide, was Rigdon's motive. Honor, integrity and all the nobler passions of the human heart, had been stifled in the breasts of both and naught remained to stem the new-born crime which should drag their own names to the depths of infamy and enslave in vice thousands of their fellows.




 




[ 56 ]





CHAPTER IV.

Prophet and the people -- They refuse to believe in his mission -- They accuse him of crime -- They gather round his house -- Indications of violence -- The prophet pales before the danger -- He is urged by Rigdon to address them -- He in anger arms himself -- The Prophet on a wood pile -- His first sermon, wherein he relates wonders -- The hosts of heaven and redeemed souls -- The Prince of Darkness and his attendants -- They are routed by the Angel -- The Prophet receives the golden Bible -- Imposture triumphant.

THERE was comparative darkness on the earth even as late as our historian writes, for in that day the great luminaries that have since set the world on fire, had not arisen, and men were content to guide the helm of state through the channel that should bring the most good to the greatest numbers -- and women to beguile them from the cares which the peril of storms and tempest gathered around them, and fit their sons for the helm, when the sire yielded, as all must at last, to time and the tomb -- to mould the pliant mind, so that in future generations the land of their birth need not blush to own them, and the name of the traitor and coward be blotted from her page.

Twenty years make differences in other things as well as a woman's age, and this fact is probably the reason why Emma Smith, the disappointed bride, did not fall back on her dignity, espouse the cause of disappointed
 





                              PROPHET  AND  THE  GENTILES.                              57


women, in general, and her own in particular, and go promulgating them through the country, in contradistinction to her lord, who now spent his days in proclaiming the visions he averred he had received through the night. Hyrum, McKnight, and Rigdon became as inseparable, and with him, spent their nights in a small cave near where Smith averred the angel had appeared to him. The neighbors became suspicions of the trio, and set the constable on the alert, but when they were questioned as to their doings they meekly replied they were watching and praying; for even then, the angel was hovering in the air around them. The official took his departure with the full belief that they were crazed; but not so the crowd that had gathered around them, and followed them to their abode, constantly increasing in numbers as they went, until when they disappeared beneath the low portal a hundred persons had collected around. They had been drawn together by the exciting rumors which said there had been other visions seen by Smith, and he had been commanded in them to bring to light creeds and revelations buried two thousand years ago by the patriarchs, in the hill of Cumora by the command of God. McKnight, Hyrum, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Sr., acknowledged implicit belief in the modern miracles, but Emma and Samuel treated them with the contempt which they were received by the people who were gathered around the door, calling in no gentle tones for the
 





58                                     VIOLENT  INDICATIONS.                                    


Prophet to come out and substantiate his assertions or deny them.

"Now, Smith, is your time to strike a heavy blow for yourself," cried Rigdon, as he, panting, made his way into the house of his confederate who, pale and trembling, like the culprit lie was, began to think his plan not so feasible after all.

"What! -- how! -- for Heaven's sake, Rigdon, tell me what I shall do!"

"Face the crowd boldly, and fearlessly, as a man who is under the protection of the Almighty's hand. Preach them a powerful sermon, setting forth your mission and urge them to come and join you, or take eternal death as the penalty."

"Preach! Rigdon, you must be joking. I never spoke in public in my life. I should not know what to say! Hist! what is that?" he continued, as a volley of gravel rattled against the house amidst the shouts of merriment and derision of the people without, who were shouting: "bring forth your Prophet, we want to see what he can say for himself!"

"It is the people, who are becoming angry. You must go out and speak resolutely to them -- the fools are not all dead yet, and who knows but what you will make some converts -- do not hesitate, but go at once."

"What can I say! I do not know how to preach! Ho! the scoundrels are breaking the windows!"
 





                                   THE PROPHET IN DANGER.                                  59


"You must not undertake to make fine speeches; if you do, they will laugh at you; but speak what you think, what is in your heart -- and as for the windows, that is nothing to what you may expect, if you do not go out and pacify them."

"Then, I will go out and tell them they are a pack of cursed tyrants who will not enjoy their own belief in quiet, nor let anybody else enjoy theirs!"

"Tell them anything, Joe, only keep cool before them; for they will not know how to get over a dignified demeanor, when they would not hesitate to knock you down if you called them hard names. My God, they are prying the door from its hinges! do you hear those shouts?"

"Do I?" cried Smith, his eyes flashing as he concealed within his vest a pair of pistols, and a bowie knife. "I do, and by the hand that made me their more than equal, if they do not desist, I am their man for the work they are at!"

Remember, you are a Prophet, the chosen messenger of the Lord, and act accordingly!" -- said Rigdon, as he in affright at the roused demon in Smith's nature, ran after him, as he strode out of the room to the door already sprung from its hinges, and unbarring it, flung it back, and stepped boldly out among the people, who retreated a few paces as he advanced forward, and sprang upon a pile of cordwood at the right, and in a frightened rambling way began his first sermon.
 





60                                      PROPHET ON A WOOD PILE.                                    


"Get down, Joe, and go to some honest labour! you can never make a preacher!" shouted a sedate old farmer near [by].

"I say, Joe, preaching is tougher work than making bogus aint it?" cried the beau of the neighborhood, whose sally was greeted by a shout of laughter.

"Hallo, money-digger, I want to know if the angel found that bar of gold I gave you twenty dollars for? Because if he has not, I think you and your angel are a pack of swindlers," continued one of his old cronies.

"Go [to] it, Joe, and tell us about your gold Bible!" yelled another, who enjoyed the evident trepidation of the aspirant for oratorical honours.

"Yes, Smith, tell us about the gold Bible, what is in it, and what the angel told you to do with it, and how it came where you found it," shouted Rigdon encouragingly. "We rather doubt your sincerity, if you cannot tell us about it," he continued, as he saw Smith was still embarrassed and frightened.

"This is blasphemous impiety! How dare you, a strolling forger, thief and vagabond, raise pretensions to such a mission? Have we not known you from your youth up? and do we know one act of good or rectitude in all these long years? Take the advice of an old man, Joe; break away from the idle vagabond life, and become a man!"

"Who made you, frail mortals, judges over the actions of your Maker?"
 





                                      HIS  FIRST  SERMON.                                     61


cried Smith passionately, as his chest heaved, and his eye flashed with the volcano of passion ignited by their taunts and bitter sarcasms. "If the great God who sees the hearts of all men, and measures the iniquity he sees therein, not by an erring eye, but meets out justice with a hand that cannot err -- with a decision that cannot be gainsayed, shall frail man raise his feeble hand against his Maker, because he has not been chosen to fulfill the mandates of Jehovah, instead of one he, in his short-sightedness, deemed less holy than himself? If God has forgiven all sin, and purified the soul, so that He deems it worthy to hold converse with him at the foot of his throne, does it become His creatures to turn from him with scorn as if they feared contamination from what their Creator had sanctified. Look into your own hearts and search out -- "

"Bah! Smith! you are getting into too deep water; tell us about the vision and Bible! we want facts, as we are capable of drawing our own deductions," said one of the audience near him.

Smith was now perfectly self-possessed, and looked down upon the crowd around him with a bold unquailing eye, from which shot looks of scorn and defiance, and he appeared the avenger to perfection. Many in the auditory he saw at glance he had subdued by his burning sarcasms, and he now changed his policy at the command of others.

"It is but little that I can tell you," he began in a subdued
 





62                                   AN  ANGEL'S  MESSAGE.                                  


tone. "Four years ago, while alone, two singularly beautiful personages appeared to me, and announced themselves as messengers from the throne of God, sent to reveal to me that I had been chosen to make known to men the errors of their faith -- a faith which was offensive in the sight of God -- and teach them the truth of the plan of salvation, which had been lost for ages through the stubborn willfulness of man. I had long been troubled in my mind at the sinfulness of my own heart before that hour; but no sooner did these messengers announce to me the mission I was to fulfill, than all doubts ceased, and I felt, my heart, rising in adoration before my Maker. A few days passed, when I began to feel that I was past sinning -- pride entered my heart, and I gloried not at the good I should accomplish, but at the honour and fame my mission would bring me. Then I began to be again miserable, when the angels re-appeared, who chided me for the wickedness of my thoughts, forgave them, and then told me that the records of the Lost Tribes of Israel were buried in the hill of Cumorah, where they were deposited fourteen hundred years ago by Moroni, the son of the Prophet Mormon, having previously engraved them on plates of gold, the Prophet, Mormon assuring his son Moroni that, after the lapse of fourteen hundred years, a Gentile nation should recover them, and, through the truth of their prophecies, be turned to the true worship of God. The angel gave me the directions by which I
 





                                     UNEARTHING  RECORDS.                                    63


could find the spot indicated, and with joy I hastened to lay bare the holy treasure. On the west side of the hill, where the storms of ages had beaten against it, I dug down by the side of an immense rock, where, below the surface about two feet, I laid bare a square marble box, so firmly cemented that water could not penetrate its interior. At the sight of the box, I knelt in prayer and adoration to the great Jehovah, and my heart was melted by divine love. With reverence, I laid my hand on the lid, when it flew open by an invisible hand, and beneath I saw plates of shining gold, covered over with strange characters, and on the tops of these lay two thick glasses set in a rim of gold. At the sight of the golden plates my heart became steeled by avarice, and I resolved to use the gold; but no sooner was the thought, born in my heart, than an invisible hand struck me to the earth, and the ground gathered over the box and its contents. The air became filled with whispering voices, while cloud-like forms flitted around me. Ever and anon balls of fire hissed above me, while fiery serpents shot athwart the sky, and the sun paled in their fiery light. These died away, when the hosts of heaven with their golden chariots and myriads of purified spirits, led on by the Patriarchs and Prophets, passed before me, among whom, Mormon, the last of the prophets, paused and addressed me thus:

"Take heart, Oh Joseph: for in thee shall the Prophecies
 





64                                CELESTIAL  PYROTECHNICS.                               


be fulfilled; and thou shalt, if thou overcomest the evil in thine own heart, reign among us."

"The words of Mormon comforted me; and when this procession had passed, darkness fell around, and groans and shrieks filled the air. Trembling with affright, I looked around, and, approaching, I saw Satan and his fiends amidst clouds of flame, the smoke of which rolled high as the heavens. And as they drew near and encompassed me, while cries and blasphemies rent the air, I threw myself in the dust and besought aid from the great Jehovah. A moment passed, when a rushing sound, as of many winds was heard, and Satan fled before the angel who stood before me, crying:

'Arise, Oh, Joseph! chosen Prophet of the Lord who delighted in thee, inasmuch as thou hast turned to him, and scorned the evil! arise and go thy way, for, notwithstanding thou hast sinned in thy heart, when thine eyes beheld the word which was shown thee, thou shalt yet abide four more years in the world before thou shalt possess it. Go thy way and sin no more!' With these words he left me, and I returned sorrowing to my home. Did you know all the bitterness and sorrow I have borne during these four years, you would think more leniently of me now, for there was time enough for me to reflect upon the glorious mission I had delayed by the sinfulness of my heart and to fortify it against a repetition. Four
 





                                    CELESTIAL  PROCESSION.                                   65


years to a day, the angel appeared to me, while in the field at work and said:

"'Arise! beloved of the Lord! and bring forth the word of thy God, and proclaim it to the world!'

As I, at the command, went forth, the heavenly messenger went before me, and stood over the place where it was entombed, and when I had thrown out the earth, the lid of the marble casket flew open of itself, and there as I had seen it before, were the precious contents. At that moment my former sin rushed over my mind and with fear and trembling I prostrated myself in the dust, while drops of sweat wrung by the agony of fear that I should again sin, gathered over me, as I cried:

'Get hence, ye powers of darkness, I know ye not.' -- Then the angel fanned me with a wave of his wing, and smiling benignly, raised the treasure and placing it in my arms, said:

Go, proclaim it to the world for thou hast been found worthy, and He that sent thee, will fill thy mouth with wisdom, whereby thou shalt found a congregation of true worshippers here below!"

As he ceased speaking, he disappeared, find I was alone: but not alone in spirit, for the comforter was with me. The things I teach were given me to proclaim, and who among you will dare raise his voice against the command of Jehovah? Who shall dare dictate to his Maker. the instrument He shall use for the furtherance of the
 





66                                 HUMBUGERY  TRIUMPHANT.                                


glory of His kingdom? He that has the hardihood, let him go up to battle against the host of heaven; as for me, I must do my Lord's bidding."

So saying, with a haughty wave of his hand, he sprang to the ground, and entered the house, while the wrapt, silent, abashed audience, with the exception of a few, quietly dispersed, astounded at the impious audacity of his harangue.

"I never, never heard such a sermon in my life," said Rigdon, as he followed him in. "Now, tell me in fact, Smith, did you ever have a vision in your life? -- ever see any of those things you said you did?"

Smith gave a glance of astonishment at his follower, but made no reply. He began to like the role he was playing. The wrapt attention with which his story had been received, the ease with which he had subdued a taunting sarcastic auditory, fed the love of power that was inherent in his nature.

"There was nothing in it of any importance that resembled the "Manuscript Found," and where you got the rest, I am at a loss to know," continued Rigdon, who was now really perplexed, it never entering into his dull brain that a fertile imagination could weave from its hoarded store such a chain of impostures.

"Rigdon," said Smith solemnly, as he turned his eye searchingly upon him to ascertain how such an assertion would be received. "The 'manuscript' I received from
 





                                THE  DUPE  AND  HIS  MASTER.                              67


your hands, was found by Spaulding as it professes to be, and throws some light on what was shown to me, as have this day proclaimed. It is, however, of little importance to me; yet I propose to retain it yet for a season to compare with the records in my possession."

I believe so, myself" returned the dupe, "for it sounds too much like truth to be false. No human mind, without the aid of inspiration, could write like that. While you were preaching to-day, I felt in my heart you were inspired, for no one could, the first time, preach as you did, without the aid of ministering angels to put the words in his mouth!"

Flattered by the dupe, Smith became elated by his success, and assumed towards his family a bearing commensurate with his new-born dignity.


(Remainder of 1855 U. S. reprint of Belisle's text not transcribed.)




 
Transcriber's Comments on Mormonism Unveiled





J E S S I E,


THE  MORMON'S  DAUGHTER.




A  TALE  OF  ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  LIFE.


BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE BLUE DWARF."



_______________

P R O F U S E L Y   I L L U S T R A T E D.
_______________


LONDON.
EDWARD  HARRISON,  EXETER  CHANGE;
AND  ALL  BOOKSELLERS.

[1861]



 
Chapters I-XIX of book I of this text have not been transcribed.
 


                          JESSIE,  THE  MORMON'S  DAUGHTER.                         31.


"Hush!" said the gentleman in black.

"Shut up thar -- thunder! I'm clar here away. I say. der yer think cos I', a coast a Africa coaler," he added with a grin, "I'd kip yar darty money. Stranger, I guess no how. Thar, count yer shin-plasters and gold, and damned to yer."

"It is unnecessary," said Phineas, trembling with joy.

"I guess it ain't," replied the slaver, drily; "and now make tracks, or I'll not be sure of my temper, with such a black-looking scran."

Phineas needed not twice telling, but, his heart beating, with tumultuous emotions, rushed from the hotel.
 

_______

CHAPTER XX.

AN INDIAN FIGHT.

VAST as are the changes which time has wrought in the different parts of the great continent of America -- as nothing to what inexorable time will bring about -- few places exhibit more the pitiless progress of civilization than a certain spot in Ashtabula County, Ohio, to which we shall not more particularly allude.

At the time of which we speak, in the early part of the present century, the whole surface was one forest, haunted by the prowling panther and the no less savage Indian, who lay in wait to take advantage of any unguarded moment to sally forth and deal desolation round upon the whites.

Their opportunities in this neighbourhood were, however, few, as the forest-borders were seldom visited by any but large parties of explorers and hunters, whom it would have been unsafe to attack.

We must now transport our readers thither, on a memorable night, which has much to do with the establishment of what its votaries call the new religion, and which we denominate the Great Imposture.

It was within an hour or two of night, and at the mouth of a dark and gloomy glen so overspread by trees and undergrowth, that in all probability the light of the sun had not penetrated since the Creation.
 
A party was camped at the mouth, in the primitive fashion of all American hunters.

A triangle had been erected from which depended an iron kettle, and round this four stalwart youths in hunter's garb were stretched, with their rifles between their knees, waiting for the evening meal to be completed.

They were all tall, coarse-featured lads, but not wanting in either intellect or acuteness, while one, whose name was Joseph, added to this the cunning of a fox. The others, Hyrum, John, and William. were less markedly characterized.

All were smoking, while Joseph, in deep contemplation fixed his eyes on the heavens, as if in secret communion with some spirit of the air. This youth was enthusiastic, ambitious, and devoured by every passion known to humanity.

He lusted with all his soul for power, wealth, and woman.

And he was poor, unlettered, and ignorant.

This, to the bold and energetic, is as nothing.

And this youth was both, with the most unbounded self-fufficiency, conceit, and ambition.

Suddenly, Hyrum set up a cry, and all started up.

"What's up?" said Joe, with manly gravity.

"Look!" said Hyrum.

He pointed to the waters of Lake Erie, a broad, inland sea, majestic and imperious in the storm, when its angry billows lashed its rugged shores, but beautiful as a sleeping tiger in its hour of repose.
 
A small canoe, impelled by a tiny sail, was breaking the waves, with one figure in the stern, while behind, stretching out with all the energy of an eager chase, were four canoes, full of armed Indians, racing as for a prize.

"Joe," said Hyrum, with a queer pucker of his huge face, "if that arn't a gal!"

"Eh!" cried Joe, his sallow face lighting up.

"Them Injine's arter no good," said Hyrum.

Joe rose, clutched his rifle, and with great strides began to make towards that part of the lake where it appeared that the solitary fugitive might be expected to land.

His stalwart brothers followed him at a rapid pace, like fearless hunters as they were.

They had nearly half a mile to go, and necessarily, as they left their elevated position, lost sight of the actors in the scene which so much interested them.

They knew that night would soon fall, and that there was no time to lose.

In a short time they reached the confines of the woods, an open asnd green space sloping down thence to the lake.

The scene was now terribly exciting. The canoes were almost neck and neck, while the fugitive had taken down the small sail, trusting to a paddle. But the case was hopeless. The Indians must reach the small canoe, and ere it came to land. 

"Thunder!" said Joe, who was a tall, gaunt lad, of about seventeen, "what's to be done? Its a tarnation fine gal."

And his little grey eyes glistened as he wiped the sweat off his lofty forehead.

"Shute!" said Samuel.

"No," replied William, calmly -- he was a mere hunter, little given to sentiment, but emonently practical, "it is a girl, the Indians won't hurt her. Let's wait till night, track 'em. and then release her."

All bowed to this advice, as the best under the circumstances, and falling on their knees watched the progress of events with intense interest.

The girl, for such the fugitive undoubtedly was, suddenly ceased rowing, and folding her arms, appeared to resign herself to her fate. But still the canoes continued their headlong course, and at last one, slightly lighter than the rest, gained ground, when a warrior, who had stood upright in the bows of the next, made a tremendous headlong plunge, went out of sight, and rising, laid his hand quietly on the girl's shoulder.

The chase immediately ceased.

The girl was a prisoner.

The Indians then held a brief conference, and four of the boats returned slowly the way they came, while that to which the prisoner belonged approached the shore.

The occupants landed. They were ten in number, and well armed


 

32                       JESSIE,  THE  MORMON'S  DAUGHTER.                            


The brothers glanced at one another.

Joe nodded.

"Not yet," said William.

The Indians, wholly unsuspicious of the presence of danger, the hunters having made their fire with charred wood, fastened their boat, and without in any way confining her motions, marched in a direction which took them close to the hidden hunters.

Not one even drew a breath.

"By heavens!" said Joe, when they had disappeared in the forest, "a white gal."

"And darned handsome, eh! Joe?" added Hyrum, with a chukle.

Joe made no answer, but leading the way, struck upon the trail of the Indians, which they took no pains to disguise. Their followers, however, kept at a most respectful distance. 

Every now and then Joe looked with ecstacy at the mark of a tiny and lovely foot. He was intensely excited. Something seemed to tell him that he had fallen on his fate.

Presently night fell, as it always does in America, without warning, and they found themselves in utter darkness.

But at the same time the faint glimmer of a distant light, proclaimed that the Indians had halted. Extreme caution had now to be used, as the Custalogas were a cunning race, and kept a careful look out over their watch-fires,

It became necessary to crawl step by step, halt, and listen. No ear is so keen as that of the red Indian. In his instincts, and habits, he partakes more of the nature of a wild beast than of any other race.

By dint, however of the utmost patience and caution, they at length succeeded in coming within sight of the camp.

Some wood-coals had been lighted, over which a youthful warrior was brioling a mess of game, The rest reclined around in various attitudes, while one stood facing the girl, slightly bound to a tree.

She was about sixteen, tall, slim, and yet powerfully made. Her face was handsome, and yet masculine, probably from exposure to the open air, but her eyes had a power and rich voluptuous langour, that made the heart of Joe beat wildly. 

She was dressed like a half-caste, in a tunic or hunting-shirt, leggings, mocassins, and wore a cap of deerskin.

By her side was a small rifle.

She appeared more intent on examining the fine proportions of the young Indian chief before her, than occupied with her own position.

His speech was long, cunning, and full of Indian flowers of speech, the purport however was as follows: -- Her father was a great warrior, his wigwam was a mighty one, and contained much riches. It was time that the greybeard retired from active life, and went back to his settlements. They knew he loved the singing-bird, his only daughter. If then he would give up his wigwam and all it held, they would restore his daughter; if not she had the very worst to expect, and then, death.

"Well, I declare, young speckletoes," said the Amazonian damsel, "that's plain speaking, and Captain Reardon, my father, is not very likely to convene. I says no; but you can ask him."

The eyes of the Indian rolled significantly.

"I am the Yellow Bear," said the young chief; "the pale faces have robbed me of my inheritance; they are destroying the woods, and taking away the hunting-grounds of my people. I can stand idle no longer. My braves have risen in their might, and the first trophy they must have is your father's wigwam. You must yield it to us, or die." 

"I'll die first!