| 500 did not. The testimony of the Conneaut people after the lapse of twenty years, as to their knowledge of the contents of Spalding's story, the Manuscript Found, is not to be relied upon, imperfect and contradictory as it is. The supposition that Spalding wrote another story, which he carried with him to Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], to the office of Patterson and Lambdin, to be printed; that he left it there, where it was found in 1822 by Rigdon when he worked in that office, and that Rigdon took this Manuscript with him and published it through Joe Smith in 1830 as the Book of Mormon, is a most violent supposition, unsupported by any evidence whatever; Rigdon, in fact, having never met Smith till after the publication of the Mormon bible. That Spalding ever wrote any other romance seems to be disproved by the date, 18l2, found in the latter part of this Manuscript, and by the correspondence of its contents with what it was found Spalding had actually written. While, on the contrary, all that is known of Joe Smith, his money-digging, his religious ranting, his schemes for getting a livelihood, corroborate the belief, in view of all the facts of the case, that he, and he alone, is the author of the Mormon bible and the founder of the Mormon church.
On August 26 Elder W. H. Kelley entered upon a discussion with Elder J. B. Taylor, of the Bible Christians or Newlights, at Limerick, Ohio, on the respective claims of the two churches represented. Elder Taylor acquitted himself as a gentleman throughout the debate, and Elder Kelley conducted his side of the battle in the same spirit. Some were baptized by Elder Kelley, or his associate ministers, nearly every day of the four days' debate, which indicates the conditions surrounding the controversy.
August 28 Elder T. W. Smith wrote from a point two hundred miles east of Tahiti, Society Islands, giving a very full report of the conditions surrounding the work in that far-off land. It follows:
I am now at Anaa, where there are five branches, of Benjamin Grouard's followers. Anaa is called the head of all the other branches of these people, and as it goes, so goes the others. There are branches at Fakarava, Faite, Makemo, Marikau, Takomi, Raroia, Takaroa, Hikuera, Niau, Ravahara, Nerigningo, Koatiu, Mitia, Tairaro, and perhaps others, with five here, Teimatahoa, Tekahora, Butuhara, Otepipi, Temaria, and Tuhora, makes at least twenty branches who claim to receive the old organization. These I think will, without doubt, accept the following propositions: 1. That you are the lawful successor to your father in his office and gifts; 2. That the proper name of the church is the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; 3. To recognize my appointment, and
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