On Tuesday, May 24, 1864, we sailed second cabin on the bark Onward, Hempstead, captain. Brother Cluff and I occupied one room with a Missourian named McCarty, said to be suffering with consumption. He was a large, raw-boned man, of a quarrelsome disposition.
One day Captain Hempstead invited us three to have seats on the upper deck with the first-cabin passengers. The reason for this courtesy was soon apparent. Among the cabin passengers were several ministers; and they wanted a little diversion at the expense of the Mormon Elders.
A warm discussion ensued. It was asserted that the Mormons were driven from Missouri and Illinois on account of their thieving and lawless acts. In my defense I challenged the proof of a single dishonest deed, and testified that Joseph and Hyrum were innocent, and that they were murdered in cold blood.
Mr. McCarty became angry, and boasted that he helped kill Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I told him then that by his own confession he was a murderer, and that the curse of God was upon him. He would have struck me, but the captain interfered, and made him behave.
About midnight of the 30th of May, I was awakened by McCarty. He was sitting on a stool, in front of his bunk; the full moon shining through the window giving him a white, ghastly appearance. He told me to get up and get him a drink. I replied that the guard passed the door every five minutes and would wait upon him.
He seized a butcher knife, sprang to his feet, and swore he would cut the heart out of me. I was lying in the middle bunk, and had but little room in which to move, and nothing with which to defend myself; but I felt I would rather die than do his bidding. I therefore silently asked God to deliver me from his power.
He took one step forward, threw up both hands, and fell backwards. I sprang from the bunk, and raised his head, but the man was dead. Brother Cluff called the guard, who soon brought the captain and the doctor. The latter said he died of heart failure.
In the morning they sewed him up in a canvas, a cannon ball at his feet. I stood by the taff rail, and saw the body slide off the plank; and as I watched it sink into the depths of the ocean, I rejoiced that I had borne a faithful testimony of God's martyred prophets, and was truly grateful that I had been delivered from the hands of a wicked man.
At Honolulu, where we arrived June 10th, we were warmly welcomed by Elders Joseph F. Smith, William W. Cluff, and the native Saints. In council it was decided that I should visit Mr. Gibson on Lanai, and if possible, recover some Church property that he had possession of, then join Elder A. L. Smith on Maui, and with him visit the Saints and reorganize the branches of the Church on Maui and Hawaii.
On the 14th of June, I wrote my Brother Franklin W., as follows: "I am waiting for a vessel to Lahaina. My first labor will be to visit Mr. Gibson, and try to get back several hundred Books of Mormon that he got possession of when he first came. He has proved to be a deceitful though shrewd and capable man, possessed of one absorbing idea, that of founding an empire of the Pacific Islands. For that purpose he joined the Church, asked for a mission, and commenced at once his empire building.