I felt weak from the effects of administering so much, and, on the second day after administering to the 406, I started for the settlement in Savoia valley. The next day after arriving in Savoia I was taken down with a severe fever, which lasted about a week. I stopped with the family of Brother John Hunt, who treated me very kindly. It was about three weeks before I was able to resume my journey to the Mexican settlements on the Rio Grande. I spent about four months preaching to the Mexican people in New Mexico. When I arrived at Savoia on my return, I was informed by the brethren that the minister who opposed me at Zuni had passed there and was nearly dead with the consumption. When I arrived at Zuni I was told by some of the most reliable Zunis that all to whom I had administered recovered, excepting five or six that the minister gave medicine to, and four or five that the medicine man had tried to cure by magic. The medicine man that opposed me had died during my absence, and the Navajo who opposed me, on returning home, was killed by his people to keep the small-pox from spreading among them.
This is a true statement of the manner in which the power of God was made manifest among the Zunis, and also the judgments of God which followed some of those who opposed it. It seemed that I was, by the providence of God, cast among them; and I felt that I was one of the weakest of my brethren, and to ask the Lord to strengthen me if it was His will to make His power manifest through me. If the Lord had not strengthened me I could not have borne up under what I passed through at Zuni. (Brother Ammon M. Tenney, who questioned the Indians themselves in regard to this miraculous event, says they testify as a body to the truthfulness of the narrative.—Ed. )
SKETCH OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE.
BY HARRISON BURGESS.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD—EMBRACE THE GOSPEL—A VISION—GATHER WITH THE SAINTS AT KIRTLAND—ZION'S CAMP—MANIFESTATIONS IN THE TEMPLE—THE SAINTS DRIVEN FROM MISSOURI—THE PROPHET AND PATRIARCH MARTYRED—OUR JOURNEY WESTWARD—SENT ON A MISSION.
I was born September 3, 1814, in the town of Putnam, Washington Co., State of New York. I lived with my parents until upwards of fourteen years of age, and, being the eldest of my father's family, I was kept constantly at work and had but little opportunity of acquiring an education. My father made no profession of religion, but led a moral and virtuous life. My childhood was not marked with any crime, although I paid but little or no attention to religion until the seventeenth year of my age. In July, 1832, when I first heard the fullness of the gospel proclaimed by Elder Simeon Carter, I was convinced that the scriptures were true and that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation from heaven. I was baptized and spent the following Winter in going to school, working for my board and in meeting with the Saints. In the Spring of 1833, I started in company with Brother John S. Carter to the State of Vermont, where we labored about two months and then returned to New York State.
On the third Sabbath in May while speaking to a congregation I declared that I knew that the Book of Mormon and the work of God were true. The next day while laboring in the field something seemed to whisper to me, "Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?" My mind became perplexed and darkened, and I was so tormented in spirit that I left my work and retired into the woods. The misery and distress that I there experienced cannot be described. The tempter all the while seemed to say, "Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?" I remained in this situation about two hours. Finally I resolved to know, by exercising faith similar to that which the brother of Jared possessed, whether I had proclaimed the truth or not, and commenced praying to the God of heaven for a testimony of these things. Suddenly a glorious personage clothed in white stood before me and exhibited to my view the plates from which the Book of Mormon was taken.