by further observation. All these causes may have their agency in the result.

The alkaline properties of the soil are, with good reason, supposed to promote erysipelas and scrofulous diseases. The gross sensualities originating in polygamy, coupled with parental neglect of offspring, occasion great mortality among children. To these may be added intemperance in drinking, very generally diffused, and which finds its gratification in a miserable article of whisky and beer, manufactured in great quantities.

When we regard the extended settlements made, the lands brought under cultivation, and the cities built within a brief period in this heretofore desolate region, it seems to us next to miraculous, and we are very much inclined to look upon the Mormons as an uncommonly industrious and enterprising race of men. Much, however, is due to emigrant labor, already alluded to, and much more to the effect of contrast. After passing over the Plains, and for weary days and weeks meeting with no human habitations but Indian lodges, Canadian-French trading-posts, and two military stations, the traveler is greatly delighted when he descends into the valley through one of the tremendous mountain gorges, enters a regularly-built city, and finds the necessaries and many of the luxuries of civilized life. All is for a time coleur de rose, and his descriptions are apt to be tinged with a similar hue. The mere surface of society is found to be similar to that of many other recently-established communities, and it needs a residence of more than a few days or weeks to lift the curtain and view things as they are.

Without detracting in the least from the commendable enterprise of the Saints, it may reasonably be said that any other body of American farmers, mechanics, artisans, and laborers, of equal numbers, would have effected more, because the means expended in the erection of the temple, and in the support of a numerous priesthood with their harems, would be turned in a more useful direction. Much of the marvel lies in two facts: first, the entire community have been transferred there nearly at once, without waiting for the tedious process of a gradual settlement; and, second, all their energies, stimulated by religious enthusiasm, have been measurably directed by a single will. The real miracle consists in so large a body of men and women, in a civilized land, and in the nineteenth century, being brought under, governed, and controlled by such gross religious imposture. As the Great Basin is the greatest physical, so its inhabitants may be said to be the greatest moral, curiosity of the New World.

CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF MORMONISM.

Theories in regard to Origin of Indians.-Solomon Spaulding.-His "Manuscript Found."-Sidney Rigdon.-Joseph Smith, Jr.-His Parentage and early Habits.-Discovers some curious Antiquities. -Golden Bible discovered and translated.-Characters submitted to Professor Anthon.-His Letter.

THE antiquities of the Old World—its pyramids, ruined cities, dilapidated baronial castles, broken shafts and columns-are, with few exceptions, of well-known historical periods. They serve to illustrate the various phases, from barbarism to civilization, through which mankind from distant eras have passed; and there is enough of obscurity and myth in their history to render their study interesting to the antiquary.

The case is entirely different with the New World. Its history, anterior to the discovery of Columbus, is involved in a mystery more impenetrable than the past physical changes of the globe. The latter are measurably illustrated by the various formations which compose the earth's crust, and the fossil remains which lie imbedded in its strata, while the former is lost in the confused, absurd, and contradictory traditions of its barbarous native population. There are the remains of ruined cities in the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Panama; but, if we are to credit the earlier discoverers of America, these cities are comparatively of modern origin. There are also hieroglyphics, glyphs,

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mounds, obscure traces of fortifications, &c., all exhibiting the existence of a people but little in advance of the barbarous and semi-barbarous tribes and nations found by the original discoverers. Where these people came from-how many states and nations had existed among them-through what changes, revolutionary or otherwise, they had passed, are things involved in obscurity, to penetrate which the ingenuity and imagination of many persons have been exercised from the time of Columbus to the present. A favorite theory, in support of which much learning and acuteness have been manifested, has been to people the North American Continent from the wandering tribes of Israel.

In or about the year 1809, a man by the name of Solomon Spaulding, a graduate of Dartmouth College, removed from Cherry Valley, in the State of New York, to New Salem (Conneaught), Ashtabula county, Ohio. At one period of his life he was a clergyman, but seems to have laid aside that profession for secular business, in which he failed, and his bankruptcy was the immediate motive of his removal to Ohio.

New Salem, or Conneaught, as it is sometimes called, is rich in American antiquities-mounds, fortifications, and sundry relics of a past race, in which Spaulding, who was a man of learning and imagination, took an unusual interest. He adopted the theory which peoples America from the Israelites, and readily conceived and carried out the idea of writing a fictitious history of this ancient race, influenced partly by his literary tastes, and partly by the hope of making money by the sale of the book. His work was styled the

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"Manuscript Found," and purported to be the translation of an ancient manuscript found by him; and to make the story as consistent as possible, he endeavored to imitate the style of the Scriptures, in which he was aided by his previous biblical studies. He describes the departure of a family of Jews-the father, Lehi, and four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, with their wives from Jerusalem into the wilderness, in the reign of Zedekiah, and, after various wanderings, their voyage to the Western Continent, under the leadership of Nephi, one of the brothers. On their journey and voyage they became distracted by dissensions, which in America resulted in their division into hostile tribes, which branched out and populated the country, built up large cities, engaged in fierce wars, and underwent various changes and revolutions. man appears to have been the focus of disaffection in this imaginary family, and his descendants became a very powerful nation or tribe, under the name of Lamanites, engaging frequently in wars, and destroying the country and cities of the more peaceable Nephites. The frequency of these wars eventually broke up and destroyed the regular avocations of peace; the people became barbarized, and split up into predatory bands, plundering and murdering each other, until, in fine, they degenerated into the vagabond Indians of the American Continent. Besides the names already mentioned, the names of Mormon, Moroni, Mosiah, Helaman, and others, frequently occur in the book, and represent the heroes, prophets, and great men who figured in this drama. As Spaulding progressed with his work, he was in the habit of amusing himself and sundry of