| 1021 against those good brethren in Philadelphia that bought Brother Hanks' books from him, and I believe our good Brother Grant was at the head of it.
Here we are now, at this remote corner of the earth, without any books, and ships sailing to almost every place, are calling on us for them. I shall never forget the disadvantage that unkind act has been to us. And perhaps they will try to justify themselves by saying they were trying to help us along. Will any man that is a Mormon pretend to say he is helping us along by digging the eyes out of our heads? But I hope those that come out to relieve us will be provided with books, and that they will fall in with no pirates on the way. And, by the by, when are we to be relieved? by the way we get news, it seems that we are forgotten by all in America; and if that is the case and no elder is sent, am I bound to stay on this little island for life? If I get no news from home till the vessel is done, I take it for a sign that my mission is up, and that I am at liberty to go away in her, and scramble up what I can to go with me. I know that Brother Rogers is head of the mission, and that I am to obey him; but I have not had a letter from him in six months: but I have often told the people that there would an elder come to take my place, and they are depending on my word, and I do not like to disappoint them.-They often ask if you will send a man that they like better. They would like a friendly, candid, virtuous man; bad as they are, they will reject any thing like licentiousness in the conduct of an elder-such an one they would soon banish from the island. It is but a small part towards making saints of them to get them no farther than to barely baptize them. They are so established in their old sinful practices, that like the children of Israel that went out of the land of Egypt, they that were twenty years old and upwards never reached the promised land, (two excepted). But still, I know that faith and patience work wonders, and I am not yet discouraged.
Perhaps you might ask how I get along in the language? I would answer, that I can explain almost any passage of scripture after a fashion; but their language is so deficient, and the translation of the Bible is so imperfect, that it is hard to make them understand the plan of salvation. I honestly believe that all that has been done by the English missionaries, has been done, not with an eye single to the glory of God, but with an eye single to the lining of their own pockets. They have not less than three editions of the Tahitian Bible and Testament, and now they are gone home for the fourth. The people on this island have to take the first edition (which they call the best) to translate the last by, or they cannot understand it; and every new edition they raise on the price; the last are two dollars apiece.-What knowledge we have obtained of the language is by hard study, and not by the "gift of tongues." And I can tell you, that those that are sent to people to whom they can preach in their own language, got rid of a job that we have to contend with, that I can assure you is by no means an agreeable one. But I feel to thank the Lord, for we have been helped-and we are getting along pretty well. But I think elders that are sent to preach where they have to acquire the language first, should be young men, for they generally learn easier than those that are past the meridian of life. I think that if I ever again get where I can travel and preach in the English language, I shall know how to prize such privileges.
These islands are a large field of labor: there are also some groups of islands to the eastward of those, that can read the Tahitian Bible; and where the English missionaries are not located they will readily receive an elder, and if the French held possession here it is pretty sure that the English will all leave, as a portion have already; and then the door will be left open to all the islands. As I suppose you have frequent communication from Brothers Rogers and Grouard, I need say no more on this subject.
As you have been on a foreign mission yourself, I presume you know how to feel for us; but I expect all communication was not cut off from you as it has been from us, though you were in a foreign land. I feel very anxious to receive letters from you; you may direct to the care of the American Consul at Tahiti, and they will be forwarded to me. I feel very anxious to know whether my family are yet in the land of the living; I have not heard a word from them since September 1843. Please tell them they are remembered before the throne of Grace from day to day, and I trust I am not forgotten by them. One of the greatest sources of comfort I have in this my lonely situation, is the assurance that my name is had in remembrance in their prayers from day to day. Tell them to cheer up and be happy in this my protracted stay, and remember that if we are faithful unto the end, the day is at hand when these long separations will be at an end.-"Though it tarry, it will come." I daily feel the need of the prayers of the saints, and I hope my wife will not be unmindful as she meets with those praying circles, to stir them
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