SCARCITY OF FOOD—TRAVELING IN HEAVY RAINS—CALL ON A PROTESTANT MINISTER—ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER MISSIONARY AND LETTERS FROM HOME—VISITORS FROM METIA—HOLD A SACRAMENT MEETING—GO TO PAPARA—ABUSED RY THE PROTESTANT MINISTER—PREACH TO THE PEOPLE—YOUNG WOMAN MIRACULOUSLY HEALED AT BAPTISM—GREAT EXCITEMENT—RAGE OF THE PROTESTANT MINISTERS—PERSECUTION INSTITUTED—ARRESTED FOR PREACHING—RELEASED ON PROMISING TO RETURN TO HUAUA—PLENTY OF FRIENDS—UNINTENTIONAL ESCAPE FROM GEN D' ARMES—ARRIVAL AT PAPEETE—CHARGE ON WHICH OFFICERS SEEK TO ARREST ME—ABUSED BY REV. MR. HOWE—A QUIET ANSWER CALLS OUT CHEERS FROM THE CROWD—TIDE TURNS IN MY FAVOR—EXCITEMENT CALMS DOWN, AND EFFORTS TO ARREST ME CEASE.
ON the 16th of December I set out from Huaua on a short journey to a small hamlet called Tapuna. Everywhere I went the people were complaining of the great scarcity of food; still they managed to furnish me with plenty, treating me very hospitably. About the 20th I returned to Huaua and preached to the people. On the 29th and 30th I attended to my correspondence.
January 1, 1851, I started for Tarepu, finding the roads quite muddy. It rained heavily, so that all the streams were so swollen as to make my journey very hard and tiresome. The majority of the people were rather surly and indifferent, so much so as not to invite me in out of the storm, so I had to pass along to where I found more hospitality. The trip altogether was a hard and ungrateful one. I had to swim some of the watercourses, and barely escaped being carried into the sea. I got everything I had with me, even to my watch, thoroughly soaked. Then I sought a place sheltered from the view of the passers-by, and there dried my clothes. As I was alone almost all the time on this trip I felt it to be long and tedious, without any profitable results, as far as I could see. Yet I remembered that my experience was that of a fisherman; and as my calling was to fish for men I did not complain, but continued my journey to Hitia. There I called on one Mr. Baff, a Protestant minister. I left a copy of the Voice of Warning for him to read. When he returned it he sent a note thanking me for the privilege of perusing it, but he did not express an opinion of the work. I never had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman again.
Having been informed that Elders Pratt and Dunn had an opportunity of going to Tubuoi, I hastened back to Huaua, to find that they had not yet engaged their passage. After resting two or three days, Brother Pratt sent me down to Papeete to secure passage for them on Captain Johnson's schooner, which was expected to sail in a few days. I met Mr. Johnson, with whom I made a contract, and returned next day. Then, on January 13th, all hands went down to Papeete. We found that Brother John Layton had come from California, and brought letters for us from the Elders who had been sent to the Sandwich Islands.
Mail matters considered and answers written, the program was changed so that Elder Dunn did not go to Tubuoi, and as Brother Pratt had to wait a few days before he could start, part of the native family that had accompanied us remained to see him off, while the others returned with Brother Dunn and I to lonely Huaua. In the meantime we learned that Priest John Hawkins was expected down from Anaa in a few days, when Brother Dunn was to return with him to Anaa.
When we were at Huaua without Brother Pratt, the place seemed doubly lonesome. On January 30th, I went to Papeete and learned that Brother Hawkins had arrived with some native brethren from Metia, and that all had started in their canoes for Huaua, to which place I repaired the next day. All were well. The native brethren went back to Papeete, and Brother Hawkins and wife stayed at Huaua a day or two; then he also went down, returning to us in eight or ten days, accompanied by Elder Joseph Busby, from Tubuoi. The latter said that he had started for home, if it was agreeable to the brethren. He told us that it would be two months before the brethren would come with their new schooner, which they were building.
March 2nd, all hands went to Taunua, to a sacrament meeting. We met in a house close down by the beach, where we saw the vessel that Brother Busby sailed on for home. There were sixty-seven brethren and sisters at the meeting, and we had a very good-spirited time. We returned to Huaua; and it was on March 12th, when, in company with our old, faithful friend and brother, Hamatua, and family, I set sail in a whaleboat for Papara. We had a fine breeze till we came to a hamlet called Otura, where we stayed one night and were well cared for by our host, a brother in the Church. On the 13th we continued our voyage by sea, having to row most of the time, for there was no wind. We reached our destination, Papara, on the 14th, and stopped at the house of Purua, a brother of Hamatua, who had died, and his widow had sent for Hamatua to come and move her and her family to his home. We found our friends here very kind, and well pleased to meet us.
While at Papara, many people came in to see us. These manifested a desire to know who I was, and my business there, but showed great reluctance in shaking hands with me. I learned that the cause of this diffidence was that they were afraid of the Protestant ministers. For a while they kept very shy of me. I called on their minister, Mr. Chisholm, and presented him with a Voice of Warning, which I asked him to read; but when I held it out to him he said no, he would not read it or anything the Mormons had; "but," said he, "I want to exhort you, and show you that you are deluded." I asked what he knew about our Church to cause him to be so excited. He said he had had a letter from Simeon A. Dunn, one of our Elders, and that public opinion was enough to satisfy him that we were false teachers and deceivers of the people. At that he called one Mr. Davis from a side room. The latter was totally blind, and had spent most of his life on the islands. Both of them reviled at me, and rehearsed many of the old slanders about Joseph Smith and the Mormons. I left them in disgust, returning to my friends, where I found many people congregated. These were quite sociable.
Soon a messenger came from the minister and asked what kind of baptism we believed in. When I said that we believed in immersion, that seemed to please the people very much, as I turned to the third chapter of Matthew and showed them that Christ was baptized in that manner. From that time the house was thronged with people anxiously inquiring for the doctrines we taught.
On March 16th I was sent for by a sick man, who wanted to be anointed. When I told him about the order of the Church, and that he should repent and be baptized for the remission of his sins, and thus become entitled to the blessings of the Gospel, he said that it was of no use to him for he was a great sinner and could not repent in one day. Then he said, "I shall have to remain sick." He had his own way to look at things, and as we were unable to convince him otherwise, we returned to our stopping place.
Shortly after this I was called to see a young woman who had been under medical treatment by the Protestant ministers for four months. Her name was Maui. She had been reduced to a mere skeleton, and was unable to stand alone. When I came, she said she had heard of the doctrine that I had preached to the people, and knew it was true, "for," said she, "it is all in the Bible." She was the foremost scholar of the district, and was highly respected by the ministers as well as by the whole people. When it became known that I had been called to see her, it aroused an excitement, and many people came together, insomuch that the house could not hold them all. As I talked with her on the first principles of the Gospel, she would say, "Yes, that is so, for it is in the Bible;" and she said, "I am willing to be baptized now, for I know that what you tell me is the truth." I asked the consent of her parents and of her young husband, who readily acceded to her desire. Then I told them that if they would take her to a suitable place by the creek, I would meet them there and attend to the baptizing. Accordingly, they carried her to the creek, some ten or twelve rods away, where I met them, prepared for the work. There were probably one hundred people assembled. After singing and prayer, I went into the water and the friends of the young woman helped her to me, I having to aid in holding her on her feet while I said the baptismal ceremony. When she came up out of the water she thanked God, saying, "I am healed of the Lord," and walked out of the water and home without assistance, although her friends offered aid. This excited the people so much that some of the young woman's particular friends prepared to come into the water of baptism, but the older ones prevailed on them to wait a while, saying maybe they would all go together.
When I had changed my clothing and had gone to where the new convert was, I found her sitting on the bed and praising God, bearing her testimony that she was healed of the Lord, and that we had the true Gospel. The baptism of this young woman was the first that I had administered, she being my f............