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 first convert. the house where we had assembled was crowded to overflowing, and when i had confirmed her i returned to my stopping place, the people following me. there must have been at least three hundred of them. several brought bedding and camped under the trees around the house, while others were preparing a feast for the occasion, in which they roasted eleven big hogs, and gathered fish, fruit and vegetables for the roast.
this was too much for the protestant ministers, for, as i was sitting at a table expounding the scriptures to the people, in came a lusty frenchman in citizen's clothes. he took a seat among the people for a short time, then slipped away and donned his police uniform, with belt, sword and pistol; then, with a comrade similarly attired, he reappeared at the door and asked me if i had a permit from the governor. i told him i had one at home, but not with me. at that he, in a rather rough tone of voice, bade me follow them. without hesitation i did so, and about a hundred of the people came after us to the mission station, where i was ushered into the presence of messrs. chisholm, howe and davis. all of them were what were called english or protestant missionaries. mr. howe acted as chief spokesman or prosecutor, while mr. chisholm filled the role of justice, mr. davis appearing to be his assistant. thus arrayed, they told me that i had been arrested and brought before them because i had raised a very unusual excitement among the people, and i could not produce a permit from the government as a resident on the island. they said i was capable of making much disturbance among the people, and the decision they had come to was that if i would not agree to leave the place by 8 a.m. next day i would be locked up in a dungeon until i did agree to leave.
of course i consented to depart at the appointed time, thinking i could get my permit and return in a few days. then they told me i was at liberty, but they did not release me until they had scored me unmercifully with their tongues for belonging to such a set of impostors as "old joe smith and the mormons" were. said mr. chisholm, "you are a fine young man, capable of doing much good if you had not been deceived by that impostor, old joe smith." they told me to cease my preaching and deceiving the people, and that i had better go home. at that i pocketed their insults and left them. many of the people followed me to my stopping place, some of them shouting triumphantly for the young mormon missionary, and calling shame on the english ministers.
a house full of people had assembled, and we sat up till a late hour that night talking on the principles of the gospel. early next morning our boat was filled with the family and provisions, and we sailed at 8 o'clock. i put on a fisherman's suit and took the helm, facing outward from the shore. i did not have any particular object in view at the time in doing this, yet it seemed to serve a purpose, for we had sailed but a few miles when we saw two mounted gen d' armes come out of the woods to the sandy beach, where they stopped and watched our boat till they seemed satisfied there was no missionary on board, and passed on. then it occurred to us that if i had not been in the unintentional disguise they would have stopped our boat and arrested me, for they were well armed, and could have reached us easily with their firearms. as we afterwards learned, they passed on to where we had come from and made a thorough search for me, going through houses, turning up the beds, and scouring the coffee groves and every place the supposed mormon missionary could have hidden. then they and the protestant missionaries called a meeting of the people and thoroughly warned them against the mormons, and especially against young iatobo (james), as they called me. at this mass meeting mr. baff, one of the oldest of the english missionaries, appeared with the others i have mentioned.
there was another incident that seemed to be very providential, though disagreeable at the time. the wind died away to a perfect calm, and when we came to an opening in the outlying coral reef, we thought that by going out through the opening we might catch a breeze, and could hoist the sail and make better headway; so we steered for the open sea. there we found that we had to row all day before we could get back within the reef. thus we were carried so far from the land that passers-by could not discern who we were, and we were kept from the gen d' armes till sundown. then we landed away from the thoroughfare, in heavy timber. in that way we escaped our enemies, for next morning we were off and out in the open sea soon after sunrise. we rowed all day and till 11 o'clock p.m., then landed in an obscure place, and were up and off again by sunrise, putting out to sea and keeping there till we reached the western passage to the harbor of papeete. there we went ashore near a large american tile establishment's wholesale and retail department. just in front of this lay a large american warship. the water was very deep, so that the vessel was moored to the shore, the gangway resting upon the street, where a great many people had gathered.
as soon as we landed i stepped into the retail department referred to, on some little errand. in a couple of minutes or so i was confronted by the rev. mr. howe, who has been mentioned before. he was a fine-looking english gentleman of thirty-five or forty years of age. he came up and shook hands with me, saying, "mr. brown, are you aware that the gen d' armes are in search of you? you must have been in hiding somewhere. they have searched papara for you, and now are searching this town, and there is great excitement over your actions. you had better be cautious what you are about." i could not understand at first what he meant, so i asked him what i had done to create such a great excitement as to have the police hunting for me. i said i had not been in hiding at all, had not thought of such a thing. he replied, "why, sir, you have gone and plunged a young lady head and ears into the cold water, and we have had her under medical treatment for four months, and expected her to die. now you have endangered her life by plunging her into cold water. she is one of the most talented and smartest women of this island. we have taken great pains to educate her, and she is widely known and respected by everyone who knows her."
"well," said i, "what harm have i done? she was healed of her sickness, as she and her mother testified to me before i left, and every person who was present can bear witness of the same."
"ah, well," said he, "you have such a fierce countenance and expressive voice as to excite a person under the most excruciating pain until they would not realize they had any suffering at all. she may relapse and die, then you will have grave responsibilities to meet for your unwarranted act." he continued talking, turning to intimidation and abusive language until he said it was a great pity that one of my natural endowments lacked in educational attainments, for if i had been taught in greek or latin i would have understood that baptism was baptiso in latin, and meant merely the application of water, and not to plunge people head and ears in the shameful and ridiculous manner that he said i had done.
by this time we were talking so very loud as to attract the attention of all around. finally mr. howe said, "do you teach the people that baptism is essential to the salvation of man or the soul?" i told him i did. "then," said he, "you teach a lie, and i will follow you up and tell the people that you are a liar and teach false doctrine." as my calling as a missionary would not admit of a violent retaliation, i merely said to him that in my country that would be very ungentlemanly language for one minister to use towards another, but i supposed it was some of the greek and latin that he had been learned in. then i turned away from him.
my action brought a tremendous cheer from the americans on board the warship, and from all who understood the conversation. the people assembled hurrahed for the mormon boy. at that my antagonist turned very red in the face. some of the natives ran up to him, pointing their fingers at him, and shouting, "look how red his nose is! the mormon boy has whipped him!" they rushed around me to shake hands, and seemed as if they would carry me on their shoulders. it should be understood that we talked partly in english and partly in tahitian, so that all could understand in a general way what we said, for we had grown very earnest if not heated in our discussion.
soon after this i went up through the town and there learned from several people that there had been much excitement over my having baptized the sick young lady, and that the police had searched the place over for me. i realized then that if it had not been for the calm weather we had had at sea we would have got into town just at the height of the excitement, and i would have been locked in prison. so, thanks for the calm, although when we were in it we wished for wind that we might make better headway; but that delay gave time for reflection, and for the news of the young lady's convalescence to reach papeete, so that i could pass on my way without further insult.
