[Footnote 130: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 43 and 46. 45 Saints' Herald, 61. "Myth of the Manuscript Found," 33.]
I understand that the Utah Mormon sect, after publishing "Mother Lucy's" book, condemned it as containing errors, but never pointed out any. The "Josephite" sect of Mormons, however, republished it. It still remains that in telling what she pretended to have seen, she told the story as at some time it had been agreed upon. Further, Lucy Smith could not have written the book, bad as it was from a literary point of view. The statement that it was written under the direct supervision of the prophet, I, therefore, consider as literally true. That it was published in 1853 by Orson Pratt and S. W. Richards, who had undoubtedly heard the stories corroborated many times and saw nothing erroneous in the book, is also significant, as is the further fact that it had been read by Saints four years before any errors were discovered.
RIGDON'S MIRACULOUS CONVERSION.
Pratt having been converted, the next act of importance must, of course, be the conversion of Rigdon, and, so far as possible, the congregation whose members he had so carefully prepared for the reception of Mormonism.
Pratt is still in New York State with Smith, it being October, 1830. He has already converted his relatives. The Lord, by a revelation through Joseph Smith,[131] directs Pratt to go with Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Peterson "unto the wilderness among the Lamanites" (meaning the American Indians). Pratt, it will be remembered, had sold part of his clothing for passage money with which to travel in his quest for the Book of Mormon. He was, therefore, ill prepared for a winter trip to Ohio and Missouri. "As soon as the revelation was received, Emma Smith and several other sisters began to make arrangements to furnish those who were set apart for the mission with the necessary clothing, which was no easy task, as the most of it had to be manufactured out of the raw material." Pratt's wife was taken to the Whitmers,[133] that she might not want while he was away Converting Indians and Rigdon. Thus situated, Pratt took leave of his friends "late in October and started on foot."[134] According to his autobiography it was a hundred miles from Buffalo to Newark, ten miles from Newark to Macedon, where lived the Wells family,[135] and twenty-five miles from Palmyra to the Whitmers in Seneca County.[136] The distance from Buffalo to Cleveland is given as two hundred miles;[137] from Cleveland to Kirtland as thirty miles.[138] These distances were no doubt given as they were believed to be according to the roads as then traveled.
[Footnote 131: Doctrine and Covenants, section 32. Supplement 14, Millennial Star, 42. The date of this revelation was probably October 17, 1830. Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 212.]
[Footnote 132: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," by Lucy Smith, 169.]
[Footnote 133: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 49. 1 "History of the Church," 154.]
[Footnote 134: 1 "History of the Church," 154. "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 49.]
[Footnote 135: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 37.]