Dear Brother—We have now sailed for twenty-three days and made nearly half the passage. We are well, and the wind is generally fair, but now and then a calm. Brother Allen and myself still study the language with diligence, and still talk with the Chilian, who is also reading diligently in our Spanish Bible.
The "Book of Mormon," "Voice of Warning," etc., have been the rounds, and been read by the captain and mates; but they will not believe in them, nor in the testimony of men or angels. However, there is one intelligent, sober young man, who is interested much.
April 29th, lat. 27 deg. N.—Fifty-five days have passed like a dreary imprisonment to us, with but little to eat. We live on a little poor, hard bread, probably baked some two or three years ago, and some beans, and very poor damaged salt beef and pork. We have no flour, potatoes, sugar, molasses, rice, or other comforts, although we pay a good price for cabin passage.
We have not had one day of good sailing in a month; it is either calms or light head winds. We seldom sail more than from thirty to fifty miles in twenty-four hours. We are hungry, and weary, and lonesome, and disconsolate. But, after praying much for a fair wind and speed, we find our prayers are not answered, and we have given it up, and have asked our Heavenly Father to give us patience and reconciliation to His will.
We are now some eight or nine hundred miles from port, and our provisions (poor as they are) must fail us soon. But live or die we trust in God and try to serve Him.
There is no one on board who fears God or regards man, as far as we know, except one of the sailors and ourselves. The most horrid blasphemies resound in our ears every day in the cabin and on deck, from captain and mate together, with gambling and blackguardism.
We are shunned and hated because of our testimony, and because our example is a reproof. But we mind our own business, and study language and the Scriptures every day.
The young man of which I speak is a Mr. Howard, from the United States, who is well educated, and has read our books with much interest during the passage, and has requested to be baptized and join the Church as soon as we land. He is not accustomed to a seafaring life, and wishes to go to the mountains with us. He has been brought up at school and in clerking. I think his calling is to preach the Gospel, but I have not yet even hinted this to him.
Brethren, I want to see you all with a desire above all other times of my life. I feel as though I wanted to sit down with you and seek the powers and gifts of God and the powers of Heaven, even that which shall be shed forth for the restoration of the house of Israel.
Oh, when will the time come? When shall the veil be rent and the full powers of the apostleship be permitted to be exercised on the earth? It must be before long or no flesh be saved—for the powers of darkness prevail abroad to that degree that it can even be felt physically.