In the Spring of 1856, in the days of my youth, I was called by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to go on a mission to Australia, to preach the gospel. I was young and inexperienced, and had but very little education. I had been to school but six months in my life, although I had been raised in the Church from infancy, and had been taught by my mother that God had spoken from the heavens in these last days and had sent a holy angel to reveal the gospel that had been lost from the earth. These things I understood; but the scriptures I never had read, from the fact that I could not read. Under these circumstances I went to President Heber C. Kimball and asked permission to stay at home one year, and I would go to school and learn to read and write, and then I would go. But he said that he had called me to a mission and he wanted me to go now. I received my endowments, and President Kimball blessed me and prophesied many great things which should happen to me in the next three years and a half; for he said that I would be gone that time, and should learn to read and write by my close application and the help of the Holy Spirit. I bade farewell to my aged mother and started, in company with some other Elders, for Australia.
We arrived in Carson Valley, where Judge Drummond was holding a court at the time. President Orson Hyde was probate judge in that valley, and had held a court a short time before we arrived. He had decided a case of law between Col. Reese and another in the case of a mill. A. P. Chessley, one of our missionaries, filed a demurrer against Brother Hyde's decision, and the case was tried by Judge Drummond. Col. Reese lost the mill. Brother Hyde told Chessley that he had better not go on his mission, if he did, he should never see home again; for he had sinned, with his eyes open, to get gain. Brother Hyde told us all that if we went with that man we should share with him the displeasure of God.
We arrived at San Francisco and there was a ship about to sail for Australia. Half of the Elders said that they would go on that ship with Chessley, and the remainder of us concluded to wait for another vessel. They started, and, in about thirty days afterwards, a clipper bark was advertised to sail and we embarked in that ship. In thirty-six days we arrived at Sydney, Australia, having sailed about 10,000 miles and had a pleasant voyage. The other brethren had not been heard of. One hundred and fifteen days passed and they arrived at Melbourne. They had almost starved to death, and had sold nearly all of their clothing to the natives for fruit, chickens and pigs, etc., to live on. Thus was Brother Hyde's prediction to them fulfilled.
I was now in Sydney, a large, beautiful city, containing 175,000 inhabitants. I concluded that I would travel through the city a day or two and get something of importance to write home. I was traveling my first day on a back street, and I saw some birds with fine plumage, and several monkeys, performing on some wires that were stretched in a yard near a mill. Not understanding the customs of that country, I stepped through the gate to see the birds and monkeys. Just then a man let loose a large dog and gave a whistle. I looked around and saw the dog coming towards me at full speed. I sprang for the gate and got hold of it; at the same time the dog got hold of my back, and a struggle ensued. I finally extricated myself from the dog, but he had torn my coat off and left me only the sleeves and the collar. I then concluded that I had got something to write home, and I would not travel any further in that city.
We found the opposition to the gospel very great in this place, so I started, in company with another young Elder, to go to the interior of the island to commence our labors preaching the gospel. When we came to a city called Camden, forty miles from Sydney, we concluded to try to get a place to preach in. We were refused all public houses that we asked for. Finally we tried to get the privilege of stopping at a public house, or tavern, all night. We told the landlord that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we were traveling without purse or scrip, according to the pattern that Jesus had left on record in the Bible. The landlord asked us if we were "Mormons." We said that we were called that name by the world. After talking some time with him he ordered us out of the house, and told some drunken Irishmen to run us out of the town and he would give them a gallon of rum each. It was now after dark, and we went down one of the streets and called at a large boot and shoe shop. The owner said that he would keep us and we were having a good discussion on the principles of the gospel when a rough voice called to the master of the place, and said,
"Are you going to keep them d——d Mormons here all night?"
We looked towards the door and saw there a mob of drunken men, armed with native war clubs, spears and the boomerang. The boomerang is a weapon with which the natives formerly fought.
I said to my companion, "We must get out of here."
He replied, "How shall we do it without getting hurt?"
I told him that God had not sent us here to be killed in this manner, and if we would now trust wholly in the Lord, He would deliver us.