Entered, according to Act

Congress, in the year 1842, by...

G. LANE & P. P. SANDFORD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

IT is due to the writer, no less than to the reader, that the circumstances which have called forth the present volume should be stated. On the 13th of Nov., 1840, I was at a place called Fulton City, on the upper waters of the Mississippi river, waiting for the descent of some steamboat in which I might take passage. About day-break the next morning a boat was hailed, and I went on board. The bustle of embarkation was hardly over before I learned that the boat was owned and principally manned by Mormons, being called Nauvoo. It moreover carried Joseph Smith, Jr., in the character of passenger; although in reality he was chief director of the whole concern. It appeared that among the multitudes drawn together at the Mormon settlements in the west, were a number of individuals more or less acquainted with navigation. In order that their talent might not be unemployed, Smith and his coadjutors had purchased a steamboat, and commenced running it on the river for purposes of speculation, and also doubtless with a view to accommodating their colony at Nauvoo. On

board this boat was a small, but promiscuous company of passengers, most of whom, having embarked without a knowledge of the peculiar company into which they would be introduced, soon found themselves annoyed by a system of surveillance that was maintained over them. If in their conversation any remarks were dropped indicative of doubt concerning the truth of Mormonism, or of want of respect toward the leaders of that sect, they were almost sure to be reported to Smith. He, as the leader and champion, took it upon himself to chastise with severe words any who had thus offended. He did not explain the manner of his information respecting the expressions of those with whom he had not conversed; but asserted himself to be "a discerner of spirits," and affected to disclose what was in the heart of others. In short, his repeated treatment of those who did not acknowledge his pretensions, exemplified an assertion of his own, viz., that in order to get through the world to the best advantage, he had learned to browbeat his way. I had at that time but little acquaintance with the doctrines or peculiarities of Mormonism, and therefore felt bound to avail myself of all the facilities for gaining information, in the midst of which I was so unexpectedly thrown.

I will neither attempt to detail what passed in the course of the two or three days I spent in company with the individual referred to, nor inquire what agency his prophetic knowledge had in running the boat out of her proper course,

and driving her upon rocks, at a moment when he himself was assisting the pilot at the wheel! It was by the last-mentioned circumstance that my passage on the Nauvoo was interrupted, and the poor boat left fast upon the upper rapids of the Mississippi, until a rise of water took her off.

Perhaps this untoward event was in judgment upon the prophet for violating the command of one of his own revelations, which originating, as it would appear, in his having been sadly frightened in a passage on one of the lakes, forbade himself and his elders ever exposing their precious lives to the perils of navigation otherwise than by canal!

On leaving the Nauvoo for another boat, which came to our relief, several passengers of the former requested me to draw up a statement of what we had witnessed for publication at St. Louis. This I declined, but promised at a future day to prepare an article for the press, in which, without setting down aught on the score of the personal treatment we had received, I would endeavour to place the subject of Mormonism in its true light. Such an article, was prepared for publication in the Methodist Quar terly Review. It however being rather too long for an insertion in that periodical, the editor and others recommended its revision with a view to publication in its present form.

The works adopted as a basis of the review were,

I. The Book of Mormon, translated by Jo

seph Smith, Jr., third edition, carefully revised by the Translator. Nauvoo, Illinois, stereotyped. Cincinnati, 1840.

II. Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter-day Saints; carefully selected and compiled from the Revelations of God, by Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G. Williams, (Presiding Elders of said Church,) Proprietors, Kirtland, Ohio, 1835.

III. History of Mormonism; or a faithful Account of that singular Imposition and Delusion, with Sketches of the Characters of its Propagators, to which are added, Inquiries into the probability that the Historical Part of the Golden Bible was written by one Solomon Spalding, and by him intended to have been published as a Romance. By E. D. Howe. Painesville, Ohio, 1840.

IV. A brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints, (commonly called Mormons,) including an Account of their Doctrines and Discipline, with Reasons of the Author for leaving the Church. By John Corrill, a Member of the Legislature of Missouri.

1839.

St. Louis,

These books, not having been published in the Atlantic states, have been beyond the reach of many into whose hands this volume will fall.

From them, as containing authentic data upon several branches of the subject, extracts have been freely made, while various other sources of information have been resorted to, including