At length, I considered it my duty to be baptized, and, finding a minister who was willing to baptize me, and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination, I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance; after which I continued to read the Bible as formerly, until my eldest son had attained his twenty-second year.
CHAPTER XII.
JOSEPH SMITH, SENIOR, LOSES HIS PROPERTY AND BECOMES POOR—RECEIVES A VISIT PROM JASON MACK—THE HISTORY OP THE LATTER CONCLUDED.
My husband, as before stated, followed merchandising for a short period in the town of Randolph. Soon after he commenced business in this place, he ascertained that crystalized ginseng root sold very high in China, being used as a remedy for the plague, which was then raging there.
He therefore concluded to embark in a traffic of this article, and consequently made an investment of all the means which he commanded, in that way and manner which was necessary to carry on a business of this kind, viz., crystalizing and exporting the root. When he had obtained a quantity of the same, a merchant by the name of Stevens, of Royalton, offered him three thousand dollars for what he had; but my husband refused his offer, as it was only about two-thirds of its real value, and told the gentleman that he would rather venture shipping it himself.
My husband, in a short time, went to the city of New York, with the view of shipping his ginseng, and finding a vessel in port which was soon to set sail, he made arrangements with the captain to this effect—that he was to sell the ginseng in China, and return the avails thereof to my husband; and this the captain bound himself to do, in a written obligation.
Mr. Stevens, hearing that Mr. Smith was making arrangements to ship his ginseng, repaired immediately to New York, and by taking some pains, he ascertained the vessel on board of which Mr. Smith had shipped his ginseng; and having some of the same article on hand himself, he made arrangements with the captain to take his also, and he was to send his son on board the vessel to take charge of it.
It appears, from circumstances that afterwards transpired, that the ginseng was taken to China, and sold there to good advantage, or at a high price, but not to much advantage to us, for we never received any thing, except a small chest of tea, of the avails arising from this adventure.
When the vessel returned, Stevens, the younger, also returned with it, and when my husband became apprized of his arrival, he went immediately to him and made inquiry respecting the success of the captain in selling his ginseng. Mr. Stevens told him quite a plausible tale, the particulars of which I have forgotten; but the amount of it was, that the sale had been a perfect failure, and the only thing which had been brought for Mr. Smith from China was a small chest of tea, which chest had been delivered into his care, for my husband.