and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican calendar given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived.” This letter was written to contradict a report set afloat by Smith that Prof. Anthon had pronounced the characters to be Egyptian hieroglyphics. — Smith and Rigdon seem at first to have had vague and confused ideas as to the nature and design of the church they were about to establish. They were both inclined to teach millenarianism, which at that time was beginning to attract attention in western New York; and they accordingly settled into the doctrine that the millennium was close at hand, that the Indians were to be speedily converted, and that America was to be the final gathering place of the saints, who were to assemble at New Zion or New Jerusalem, somewhere in the interior of the continent. With the “Book of Mormon” as their text and authority, they began to preach this new gospel; and Smith's family and a few of his associates, together with some of Rig- don's previous followers, were soon numerous enough to constitute the Mormon church, as it was styled by the people around them, or the church of Latter Day Saints, as they presently began to call themselves. The church was first regularly organized at Manchester, N. Y., April 6, 1830, and the first conference was held at Fayette, N. Y., in June, at which time the number of believers had increased to 30. Smith, directed as he said by revelation, in January, 1831, led the whole body of believers to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem. Here converts were rapidly made, and soon, desiring a wider field for the growth of the church, Smith and Rigdon travelled westward, looking for a suitable location, which was found in Independence, Jackson co., Mo., where in August Smith dedicated a site for the temple to be erected by the saints, and named the place New Jerusalem. On their return to Kirtland, where they proposed to remain for five years “and make money,” Smith and Rigdon established a mill and a store, and set up a bank without a charter, of which Smith appointed himself president, and made Rigdon cashier. The neighboring country was flooded with notes of very doubtful value; and in consequence of this and other business transactions in which Smith and Rigdon were accused of fraudulent dealing, a mob on the night of March 22, 1832, dragged the two prophets from their beds, and tarred and feathered them. About a year afterward a government for the church was instituted, consisting of three presidents, Smith, Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, who together were styled the first presidency, a revelation from the Lord having declared that the sins of Rigdon and Williams were forgiven, “and that they were henceforth to be accounted as equal with Joseph Smith, jr., in holding the keys of his last kingdom.” About this time Brigham Young, a native of Vermont, a painter and glazier about 30 years of age, became a convert to Mormonism. (See Young, Brigham.) He arrived at Kirtland toward the close of 1832, and was soon ordained an elder, and began to preach. His talent and shrewdness speedily made him prominent, and in February, 1835, when a further step was taken in the organization of a hierarchy by the institution of the quorum of the twelve apostles, he was ordained one of the twelve, and sent out with the other apostles to preach the new doctrines. His field of labor was the eastern states, and he was signally successful in making converts. In 1836 a large and costly temple, which had been for three years in process of building, was consecrated at Kirtland; and in 1837 Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball, the latter of whom had become a convert in 1832, were sent as missionaries to England. In January, 1838, the bank at Kirtland having failed, Smith and Rigdon, to avoid arrest for fraud, fled in the night, hotly pursued by their creditors, and took refuge in Missouri. In that state, m