"In that neighborhood there lived a young man named Joseph Smith, who prayed to the Great Spirit much, in order that he might know the truth, and the Great Spirit sent an angel to him and told him where this Book was hid by Moroni, and commanded him to go and get it. He accordingly went to the place and dug in the earth and found the Book written on golden plates.
"But it was written in the language of the forefathers of the red men; therefore this young man, being a pale face, could not understand it; but the angel told him and showed him and gave him knowledge of the language and how to interpret the Book. So he interpreted it into the language of the pale faces, and wrote it on paper and caused it to be printed, and published thousands of copies of it among them, and then sent us to the red men to bring some copies of it to them, and to tell them this news. So we have now come from him, and here is a copy of the Book, which we now present to our red friend, the Chief of the Delawares, which we hope he will cause to be read and known among his tribe; it will do them good."
We then presented him with a Book of Mormon.
There was a pause in the council and some conversation in their own language, after which the chief made the following reply;
The Chief's Reply.
"We feel truly thankful to our white friends who have come so far and been at such pains to tell us good news, and especially this new news concerning the Book of our forefathers; it makes us glad in here,"placing his hand on his heart. "It is now winter; we are new settlers in this place; the snow is deep; our cattle and horses are dying; our wigwams are poor; we have much to do in the springto build houses and fence and make farms; but we will build a council house and meet together, and you shall read to us and teach us more concerning the Book of our fathers and the will of the Great Spirit."
Elder Parley P. Pratt in his report of the matter adds: "We continued for several days to instruct the old Chief and many of his tribe. The interest became more and more intense on their part, from day to day, until at length nearly the whole tribe began to feel a spirit of inquiry and excitement on the subject. We found several among them who could read, and to them we gave copies of the Book, explaining to them that it was the Book of their forefathers. Some began to rejoice exceedingly and took great pains to tell the news to others in their own language. The excitement now reached the frontier settlements in Missouri, and stirred up the jealousy and envy of the Indian agents and sectarian missionaries to that degree that we were soon ordered out of the Indian country as disturbers of the peace, and even threatened with the military in case of non-compliance. We accordingly departed from the Indian country and came over the line, and commenced laboring in Jackson county, Missouri, among the whites. We were well received and listened to by many, and some were baptized and added to the Church."
"Thus ended our first Indian mission, in which we had preached the Gospel in its fulness and distributed the record of their forefathers among three tribes, viz.: the Cattaraugus Indians, near Buffalo, N. Y.; the Wyandots, of Ohio; and the Delawares, west of Missouri."Aut. P. P. Pratt, pp. 56-61.
[12]. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. lv.
[13]. William Wine Phelps, spoken of in the foregoing revelation, was born at Hanover, Morris county, New Jersey, February 17th, 1792. He was therefore in his fortieth year when he came to the Church at Kirtland, to cast in his lot with the Saints. It appears that before making his appearance at Kirtland, he had resided chiefly in the state of New York; and had been somewhat active in politics. He had been the editor of a partisan newspaper; and had aspired to be the candidate for the office of lieutenant-governor of New York. On the 28th of April, 1815, he married Sally Waterman, at Smyrna, Chenango county, New York.