O ye people of N. Carolina, O ye people of S. Carolina, O ye people of America, all of you; have you among you any two such men as Jim Owen & John Owen. These men are good men. What food they eat they give to me to eat. As they clothe themselves they clothe me. They permit me to read the gospel of God, our Lord, & Saviour, & King; who regulates all our circumstances, our health & wealth, & who bestows his mercies willingly, not by constraint. According to my power I open my heart, as to a great light, to receive the true way, the way of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
Before I came to the Christian country, my religion was the religion of “Mohammed, the Apostle of God—may God have mercy upon him, & give him peace.” I walked to the mosque before day-break, washed my face & head & hands & feet. I prayed at noon, prayed in the afternoon, prayed at sun-set, prayed in the evening. I gave alms every year, gold, silver, seeds, [illegible word], cattle, sheep, goats, rice, wheat, & barley. I gave tithes of all the above-named things. I went every year to the holy war against the infidels. I went on pilgrimage to Mecca, as all did who were able.——My father had six sons & five daughters, & my mother had three sons & one daughter. When I left my country I was thirty seven years old;—I have been in the country of the Christians twenty four years.——Written A.D. 1831—
[↑Written in year one thousand eight hundred and one and thirty of Jesus the messiah]
O ye people of N. Carolina, O ye people of S. Carolina, O all ye people of America—the first son of Jim Owen is called Thomas, & his sister is called Masa-jein (Martha Jane?) This is an excellent family.
Tom Owen & Nell Owen have two sons & a daughter. The first son is called Jim & the second John. The daughter is named Melissa.
Seid Jim Owen & his wife Betsey have two sons & five daughters. Their names are Tom, & John, & Mercy, Miriam, Sophia, Margaret & Eliza. This family is a very nice family.
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The wife of John Owen is called Louisa & an excellent wife she is. She had five children. Three of them died & two are still living.
O ye Americans,—ye people of N. Carolina—have you, have you, have you, have you among you a family like this family having so much love to God as they?