DETERMINE TO PREACH TO THE PEOPLE—REFUSED A HOUSE—HOLD AN OPEN-AIR MEETING—STRANGE CONGREGATION—SIX OTHER MEETINGS—VISIT A NATIVE KING—HE COMMANDS ME TO LEAVE—I DO SO IN ORDER TO AVOID BEING PUT TO DEATH—WATERMELONS AND OTHER VEGETABLES—NATIVE TRADITION OF THE PEOPLING OF THE ISLANDS—VISIT OF A PROTESTANT MINISTER—SAIL FOR TAHITI—IN A HEAVY STORM—PRAYERS BY FRIGHTENED NATIVES—I AM ASKED TO PRAY WITH THEM, BUT DECLINE TO FOLLOW THEIR METHODS—REACH THE HARBOR OF PAPEETE—AMERICAN CONSUL OBTAINS PERMISSION FOR ME TO LAND—GO TO WORK WITH A CARPENTER—WARNED NOT TO BE ALONE LEST I SHOULD BE KILLED—WATCHED BY GEN D' ARMES—TROUBLE AT ANAA, AND ARREST OF NATIVE MORMONS—THESE ARE BROUGHT TO PAPEETE—HOW THEY GOT LETTERS TO ME, AND THEIR REPLIES—MY FORMER PERSECUTORS OF RAIVAVAI COME TO ME FOR ADVICE, AND I RETURN GOOD FOR EVIL.
AS I felt the great need of reform among the people of Rapia, I tried again to get the privilege of preaching to them in their house, but found them unyielding on that point. There were three native brethren and their wives who had come with me. I was impressed that we ought to make yet another trial to leave our testimony with the islanders, so we went out by the side of their meeting house, which was a frame building set up on blocks some eighteen inches or two feet from the ground, the dirt floor being thatched with dry grass. We stood within ten feet of the house and commenced to sing. Before we were ready to read our text, it seemed that everybody in the village had come around, but not in the ordinary way. They crowded into the meeting house and some filled the windows, while others lay down and poked their heads out under the sills of the house; still others got down on their hands and knees some five or six rods off and crawled along through the shrubbery, taking hold of the brush as they drew near, lying flat down and drawing themselves along, taking sticks and poking the weeds aside so they could get a better view. With this most singular congregation before us, and the most perfect order (for it seemed as if there was not a whisper,) we read a chapter in the Bible—the third of Matthew, I believe—then preached on faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins. At the dismissal of our services the whole assembly withdrew, and after that I had lots of food, such as it was.
We held seven meetings on that little fragment of terra firma, and visited the king in the west village. We found the royal personage at home, sitting Indian fashion on his couch, half naked. He appeared to be a man of unusually strong character, very surly, and did not want to talk. When I attempted to tell him the object of my mission to his country, his neck swelled out, and he began blowing through his nostrils like a mad bull. He said, "You leave my country." By this time my native friends discovered that danger was gathering around us, and told me that we must not delay one moment, but must get away as quickly as possible, for that village had suffered defeat at the hands of the people of the other village, and we could not be friendly with the king and his followers if we were to the others.
We got away, and afterwards it developed that my friends had foreseen a peril that I had not fully understood, for when the king said we had better get away from his country, that was his ultimatum, and if we had remained longer every one of us would have been slain, as the people were preparing for the slaughter.
On our retreat I observed a castor oil bean tree loaded with beans. Its trunk was as large as a man's body. I began to inspect it when my friends called out, "Hurry up, or we will every one be killed," so we hastened to more friendly and hospitable parts, where we came across a large gourd, or calabash vine, and a watermelon patch. Never having seen anything of the kind on any other island where I had been, my inquisitive propensities were set to work ascertaining how those things came there. Were they a spontaneous growth? If not, where did they come from, since this little island is so remote from all others, and the natives tell me that white men seldom visit them? I inquired of the people where they got the seed of the vegetables named. "Why," said they, "our forefathers brought them here."
"Where did they come from?"
The reply was, "From the rising of the sun." On hearing this, I asked from what country, and was answered, "We do not know. It was a big land, so big they did not know its boundary. It was a land of food, and of great forests of big trees, and great fresh waters that were filled with fish."
I next inquired, "How came they to leave such a good land?" The response was in these words: "We do not know, only they said they got lost in the fog, and were several days without seeing the sun. Then the strong winds came and blew them over here, and their vessel was wrecked on this island. They never could get back to the lands of their forefathers, so they stayed here. They increased so fast that all could not live on this land, so they made canoes and tried to get back, but the winds were against them, that they were carried away to the west, and for a long time those left here supposed the others were lost in the sea; but after a time it was learned that there were other lands where the sun goes down. Then our people made canoes and went to them, and we think that is the way these islands became peopled, for they are the same kind of people as ourselves."
"Have you any other knowledge of your forefathers?"
"No, we do not know anything but that which the fathers have said. They used to say that if they could get back to their fatherland they could find metal to make fish spears and hooks with. When the first white men's ship came in sight we tried to go to it, thinking we could get some fishing tackle therefrom. We thought that vessel must have come from our fathers' land. But the wind was so strong we could not get to the ship, and it was a long time before another one came. Finally we reached one, and got such things as our fathers had told us about."
Read the Book of Mormon, page 427, 63d chapter, 5th to 9th verses. Was the ship that Hagoth built the same that was wrecked on the island of Rapia, South Pacific Ocean, about 25 deg. south latitude, and, as near as I can find out from French charts, time reckoned from Paris, France, in longitude 140 west?
The reader may form his own conclusions, as I return to my narrative of our stay on the island. When we had returned from our visit to the surly king, one man by the name of Mesearee opened his house for us to hold meeting in, but very few attended with us.
October 17th, the b............