| 198 only the appearance of a common man, of tolerable large proportions. I was sadly disappointed, and thought that although his appearance could not be wrested to indicate any thing against him, yet he would manifest all I had heard of him, when he began to preach. I sat uneasy and watched him closely. He commenced preaching, not from, the Book of Mormon, however, but from the Bible; the first chapter of the first of Peter, was his text He commenced calmly and continued dispassionately to pursue his subject, while I sat in breathless silence, waiting to hear that foul aspersion of the other sects, that diabolical disposition of revenge, and to hear that rancorous denunciation of every individual but a Mormon. I waited in vain-I listened with surprise-I sat uneasy in my seat, and could hardly persuade myself but that he had been apprised of my presence, and so ordered his discourse on my account; that I might not be able to find fault with it, for instead of a jumbled jargon of half connected sentences, and a volley of imprecations, and diabolical and malignat [malignant] denunciations heaped upon the heads of all who differed from him, and the dreadful twisting and wresting of the scriptures, to suit his own peculiar views, and attempt to weave a web of dark and mystic sophistry around the gospel truths, which I had anticipated, he glided along through a very interesting and elaborate discourse, with all the care and happy facility of one who was well aware of his important station, and his duty to God and man, and evidencing to me, that he was well worthy to be styled "a workman rightly dividing the word of truth," and giving without reserve, "saint and sinner his portion in due season"-and I was compelled to go away with a very different opinion from what I had entertained when I first took my seat to hear him preach. In the evening I was invited to preach, and did so.-The congregation was large and respectable-they paid the utmost attention. This surprised me a little, as I did not expect to find any such thing as a religious toleration among them.-After I had closed, Elder Smith, who had attended, arose and begged leave to differ from me in some few points of doctrine, and this he did mildly, politely, and affectingly; like one who was more desirous to disseminate truth and expose error, than to love the malicious triumph of debate over me. I was truly edified with his remarks, and felt less prejudiced against the Mormons than ever. He invited me to call upon him, and I promised to do so. The next morning I started for Nauvoo; but my feelings were begining [beginning] strangely to alter. I found one stay after another, fast giving away, and a solemn and awful reflection was awakened in my mind.
But there was one thing yet remaining,-I had not yet seen Nauvoo, and so often having heard that it was the most degraded place in the world, the very sink of iniquity, and that all who lived there were liars, thieves, and villains, who were the refuse of society, and the filth of the world, that in spite of my better judgment, expected to see some traces at least, of that low prostitution which I had so often heard charged upon them.
At length the city burst upon my sight, and how sadly was I disappointed. Instead of seeing a few miserable log cabins and mud hovels, which I had expected to find, I was surprised to see one of the most romantic places that I had visited in the west. The buildings, though many of them were small and of wood, yet bore the marks of neatness which I have not seen equalled [equaled] in this country. The far-spread plain at the botom [bottom] of the hill was dotted over with the habitations of men with such majestic profusion, that I was almost willing to believe myself mistaken; and instead of being in Nauvoo of Illinois, among Mormons, that I was in Italy at the city of Leghorn, (which the location of Nauvoo resembles very much,) and among the eccentric Italians. I gazed for some time with fond admiration upon the plain below. Here and there arose a tall majestic brick house, speaking loudly of the genius and untiring labor of the inhabitants, who have snatched the place from the clutches of obscurity, and wrested it from the bonds of disease; and in two or three short years rescued it from a dreary waste to transform it into one of the first cities in the west.
The hill upon which I stood was covered over with the dwellings of men, and amid them was seen to rise the hewn stone and already accomplished work of the Temple, which is now raised fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. The few trees that were permitted to stand, are now in full foliage, and are scattered with a sort of fantastic irregularity over the slope of the hill.
But there was one object which was far more noble to behold, and far more majestic than any other yet presented to my sight-and that was the wide-spread and unrivalled [unrivaled] father of waters, the Mississippi river, whose mitro-bedded waters lay in majestic extension before the city, and in one general carve, seemed to sweep gallantly by the devoted place. On the farther side was seen the dark green woodland, bending under its deep foliage, with here and there an insterstice [interstice] bearing the marks of cultivation. A few houses could be seen through the trees
(page 198) |
