Page:History of Utah.djvu/121

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FIRST MISSION ORDERED.

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for notification of their arrival. Removing his family to Fayette, Joseph encountered further persecutions, to which was added a fresh grief. Hiram Page was going astray over a stone which he had found, and by means of which he had obtained revelations at variance with Joseph's revelations and the rules of the new testament. It w^as thought best not to agitate the subject unnecessarily, before the meeting of the conference to be held on the 1st of September; but the Whitmer family and Oliver Cowdery seeming to be too greatly impressed over the things set forth by the rival stone, it was resolved to inquire of the Lord concerning the matter; whereupon a revelation came to Oliver Cowdery, forbidding such practice; and he was to say privately to Hiram Page that Satan had deceived him, and that the things which he had written from the stone were not of God. Oliver was further commanded to go and preach the gospel to the Lamanites,^[1] the remnants of the house of Joseph living in the west,^[2] where he was to estab-

↑ 'The Lamanites originally were a remnant of Joseph, and in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah, were led in a miraculous manner from Jerusalem to the eastern borders of the Red Sea, thence for some time along its borders in a nearly south-east direction, after which they altered their course nearly eastward, until they came to the great waters, where by the command of God they built a vessel in which they were safely brought across the great Pacific Ocean, and landed upon the western coast of South America. The original party included also the Nephites, their leader being a prophet called Nephi; but soon after landing they separated, because the Lamanites, whose leader was a wicked man called Laman, persecuted the others. After the partition the Nephites, who had brought with them the old testament down to the time of Jeremiah, engraved on plates of brass, in the Egyptain language, prospered and built large cities. But the bold, bad Lamanites, originally white, became dark and dirty, though still retaining a national existence. They became wild, savage, and ferocious, seeking by every means the destruction of the prosperous Nephites, against whom they many times arrayed their hosts in battle; but were repulsed and driven back to their own territories, generally with great loss to both sides. The slain, frequently amounting to tens of thousands, were piled together in great heaps and overspread with a thin covering of earth, which will satisfactorily account for those ancient mounds filled with human bones, so numerous at the present day, both in North and South America.' Pratt (Orson), Series of Pamphlets, vi. 7–8; Pratt (P. P.), Voice of Warning, 81–117.
↑ 'The attention of the little band was directed, from the very commencement of their organization, to the policy and expediency of fixing their headquarters in the far west, in the thinly settled and but partially explored territories belonging to the United States, where they might squat upon or purchase good lands at a cheap rate, and clear the primeval wilderness.

[1] 'The Lamanites originally were a remnant of Joseph, and in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah, were led in a miraculous manner from Jerusalem to the eastern borders of the Red Sea, thence for some time along its borders in a nearly south-east direction, after which they altered their course nearly eastward, until they came to the great waters, where by the command of God they built a vessel in which they were safely brought across the great Pacific Ocean, and landed upon the western coast of South America. The original party included also the Nephites, their leader being a prophet called Nephi; but soon after landing they separated, because the Lamanites, whose leader was a wicked man called Laman, persecuted the others. After the partition the Nephites, who had brought with them the old testament down to the time of Jeremiah, engraved on plates of brass, in the Egyptain language, prospered and built large cities. But the bold, bad Lamanites, originally white, became dark and dirty, though still retaining a national existence. They became wild, savage, and ferocious, seeking by every means the destruction of the prosperous Nephites, against whom they many times arrayed their hosts in battle; but were repulsed and driven back to their own territories, generally with great loss to both sides. The slain, frequently amounting to tens of thousands, were piled together in great heaps and overspread with a thin covering of earth, which will satisfactorily account for those ancient mounds filled with human bones, so numerous at the present day, both in North and South America.' Pratt (Orson), Series of Pamphlets, vi. 7–8; Pratt (P. P.), Voice of Warning, 81–117.

[p69-2] 'The attention of the little band was directed, from the very commencement of their organization, to the policy and expediency of fixing their headquarters in the far west, in the thinly settled and but partially explored territories belonging to the United States, where they might squat upon or purchase good lands at a cheap rate, and clear the primeval wilderness.

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