My First Mission

by George Q. Cannon

In my journal I find that I say it was more free from mistakes than I could expect it to be under the circumstances in which I was placed at the time of translating—there were calls to preach, frequent interruptions to go and administer to the sick, and often conversations which distracted my attention; but in the midst of which I had to translate and copy.

At a conference of the Elders, held at Wailuku, October 6^th, 1853, the question was discussed, whether it would be better to employ some printing firm to print the Book of Mormon, or to purchase a press and printing materials for the mission, with which to print that and other works necessary for the instruction of the Saints. It was decided that the better course would be to buy a press, etc. A committee of three—Elders Philip B. Lewis, Benjamin F. Johnson and myself—was selected to take such measures as might be necessary to raise the funds.

At that conference I was released from the charge of the Island of Maui, and appointed to travel all through the islands, to collect means for the publication of the Book of Mormon. And here it may be proper to say that those who subscribed for one copy or more of the work, were afterwards furnished therewith when it was published.

Brother Edward Dennis, a white man who had been baptized at Honolulu, loaned the committee, on their note, one thousand dollars towards the purchase of the press, type, paper, etc. These funds we sent to Brother John M. Horner, California, for him to use for the purchase of what we wanted. The Press, type and paper were purchased in New York, were shipped around Cape Horn to Honolulu, and, as I had returned home to Salt Lake Valley, they were sent to Elder Parley P. Pratt, by his request, at San Francisco, California. He thought at that time of publishing a paper there, and wrote to the First Presidency for me to be appointed a mission to assist him.

I had barely reached home after an absence of five years. I remained there about five months and a half. At the April Conference, 1855, I was called to go on a mission to California, to publish the Book of Mormon in the Hawaiian language, and to assist Elder Pratt in the publication of a paper. Elders Joseph Bull and Matthew F. Wilkie were selected to go with me. When we reached San Francisco, Elder Pratt had started for home. I succeeded in reaching him at Brother John C. Naile’s ranch, where he was completing his preparations for the journey. He set me apart to preside, in his place, over northern California and Oregon, and we separated, he to go home, and I to return to San Francisco.

Our first business was to secure a suitable office, set up the press, and go to work. Brothers Bull and Wilkie knew nothing about the Hawaiian language; but the copy, to begin with, was good, and they soon became so familiar with the words that they could set it in type nearly as well as they could English, and made but very few mistakes.

President Young counseled me to take my wife with me upon this mission. My method of reading the proof was to get her to read the English book while I looked at the proofs of the translation. By this means I was able to detect any omission of words or sentences. After going through the proofs in this way, I read them again, to see if any errors in spelling, etc., had escaped me. This was my only way of reading by copy; for I had no one with me who could read the Hawaiian. When we had the edition struck off and bound, they were sent to the Elders upon the islands.

Thus was the Book of Mormon first translated and published in the language of a race of red men—a part of the race for whom its promises are most abundant. The Elders who have since labored upon those islands, know the good the book has accomplished. Its circulation can never fail to benefit all who will read it.

The language of the Sandwich Islanders is a dialect of the Polynesian language, spoken by the Islanders with red skins all through the Pacific. Should the day ever come, as I trust it will, when the natives of other groups shall be visited and brought to the knowledge of the gospel, it will take but little trouble to adapt the Hawaiian translation to their language. But whether or not, the book has been published to the Hawaiian nation. The Lord plainly manifested that it was His will that this work should be done, and for its accomplishment, He opened the way most marvelously.

The publication of the book was not a part of my first mission; but as the sketch of the translation would not be complete without the addition of these few particulars respecting its publication, I insert them. In addition, I may also say that, after the publication of the Book of Mormon, the press and type were used for the publication of the Western Standard, a paper which many of my adult readers may remember.