"During the first thirteen days of our sojourn upon the island, we preached seventeen discourses, being invited by the people to tarry with them. I left a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants with Mr. Newton for his perusal. He read it, and the spirit of God bore testimony to him of its truth. He pondered over it for days, and walked his room until midnight trying to decide whether to receive or reject it. He and his family attended about a dozen of my first meetings, and then he made up his mind, contrary to the dictation of the spirit of God to him, to reject the testimony and come out against me. However, we commenced baptizing his flock. The first two we baptized were a sea-captain, by the name of Justin Eames, and his wife. Brother Jonathan H. Hale went down into the sea on the 3rd of September, and baptized them; these were the first baptisms performed by proper authority upon any of the islands of the sea (to my knowledge) in this dispensation.
"Before we left Kirtland some of the leading apostates there had tried to discourage Brother Hale about going on his mission, telling him he never would baptize anyone, and had better remain at home. When Captain Eames offered himself for baptism, I asked Brother Hale to baptize him, and prove those men to be false prophets, which he did. On the following Sabbath I baptized Justin Eames' brother, Ebenezer Eames, another sea-captain, and a young lady.
"Mr. Newton, the Baptist minister, now commenced a war against us, and sent to the South Island for a Mr. Douglass, a Methodist minister, with whom he had been at variance for years, to come over and help him put down 'Mormonism.' Mr. Douglass came over and they got together as many people as they could, and held a conference. He railed against Joseph, the Prophet, and the Book of Mormon, and taking that book in his hand, with outstretched arm, declared that he feared none of the judgments of God that would come upon him for rejecting it as the word of God. (I never heard what his sentiments upon this subject were at the end of his term of fourteen years' imprisonment in the Thomaston penitentiary, for an outrage upon his daughter. The judgment was given upon the testimony of his wife and daughter).
"I was present and heard Mr. Douglass' speech upon this occasion, and took minutes of it. When he closed I arose and informed the people that I would meet them the next Sunday in the meeting-house and answer Mr. Douglass; and I wished him, as well as the people, to be present. I informed the people that Mr. Douglass had made many false statements against Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints, with whom he had no acquaintance; and he had misquoted much Scripture, all of which I would correct.
"We continued to baptize the people on North Island until we baptized every person who owned an interest in the Baptist meeting-house. I then followed Mr. Douglas home to South Island, and preached the gospel to the members of his church, and baptized nearly all of them.
"The excitement became great on both islands, and on Sunday, the 17th of September, I met a large assembly from both islands, and took up the same subject that Mr. Douglass had dwelt upon in his remarks against the Book of Mormon and our principles. I spoke two and a half hours, and answered every objection against the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, or our principles. I had good attention, and the people seemed satisfied. At the close of the meeting Elder Hale administered the ordinance of baptism.
"Mr. Newton, in order to save his cause, went to the mainland, brought over several ministers, and held a protracted meeting. They hoped by this to stop the work of God, but all to no avail; for all the people would attend our meetings and receive the word of God, and we continued to baptize. We visited the homes of most of the inhabitants.
"Upon one occasion, while standing upon Mr. Carver's farm, on the east end of North Island, we counted fifty-five islands in that region, most of which were not inhabited. We also saw twenty ships under sail at the same time. We did not lack for food while upon the island, for if we did not wish to trouble our friends for a dinner, we had only to borrow a spade or a hoe and a kettle, and go to the beach and dig a peck of clams. These, when boiled, make a delicious meal, of which we often availed ourselves.
"One day Elder Hale and I ascended to the top of a high granite rock on South Island for prayer and supplication. We sat down under the shade of a pine tree which grew out of a fissure in the rocks, and Elder Hale read the sixteenth chapter of Jeremiah, where mention is made of the hunters and fishers that God would send in the last days to gather Israel. We were, indeed, upon an island of the sea, standing upon a rock where we could survey the gallant ships, and also the islands which were as full of rocks, ledges, and caves as any part of the earth. And what had brought us here? To search out the blood of Ephraim, the honest and meek of the earth, and gather them from these islands, rocks, holes, and caves of the earth unto Zion. We prayed, and rejoiced together. The spirit of God rested upon us. We spoke of Christ and the ancient prophets and apostles in Jerusalem; of Nephi, Alma, Mormon, Moroni, in America; of Joseph, Hyrum, Oliver, and the apostles in our own day; and we rejoiced that we were upon the islands of the sea searching out the blood of Israel. While filled with these meditations and with the spirit of God, we fell upon our knees and gave thanks to the God of heaven, and felt to pray for all Israel. After spending most of the day in praise and thanksgiving, we descended to the settlement and held a meeting with the people.
"On the 6th of September we called upon Captain Benjamin Coombs, and visited his flakes, where he had one thousand quintals of codfish drying for the market. They had been caught mostly in the neighborhood of Newfoundland. While we were passing Carvey's Wharf, our attention was called to a large school of mackerel playing by the side of the warf. Several men were pitching them out with hooks. We also caught what we wanted and went on our way.