Tuesday, September 21, 1875

Sept. 21st. I had another talk with Irishman about President Young and the Mormons. I occupied the time reading and conversing as usual. At 6:00 P.M. while I was taking the temperature at the aft-capstan, a gentleman, learning that I was from Utah, asked of its development and its mineral progress. ( The English had invested in the Emma Mine, above Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon, east of Salt Lake City, Utah.)

The man continued with such questions as: Were the Mormons in Utah? What was their progress? Did they tolerate other religions? Was Brigham their leader? Had he got back? (He understood that Brigham had been imprisoned in Washington.) He understood that the Mormons practiced the Bible religion of polygamy, which would suit him. Was the sect founded in England or the U.S.A.? Was Joseph Smith the founder? Was he still living? All of these questions I answered in turn.

This being the hour for the evening promenade, several first class passengers and some others were listening at the beginning. As the cry, "A Mormon is talking at the aft-capstan!" was being passed along, most of the promenaders gathered around, until most of the passengers and the off duty sailors were listening during most of the three quarters of an hour of the talk.

When I rebuked a man, who admitted that angels often visited men, as recorded in Holy Writ, ridiculing the statement that the young Prophet, Joseph Smith received the plates from an angel, I showed him that if he believed the Bible, he must believe that angels, would come to man with the Gospel and priesthood in latter times.

"How about the Mountain Meadow Massacre," was cried by one who said he had been to Utah, and the cry, "Yes, tell us." was general. Awaiting its cessation, I said, "You now give a harder question." Before leaving England, we were told that a jury of twelve men, hearing the evidence, had failed to say how, having disagreed. "But" said I, "Those who are following this, are not content to fix the guilt upon the guilty parties, but, passing them, are trying to fix the guilt upon our leaders, who, gentlemen, are just as innocent of that crime as you are." I was not assailed again on this subject on the voyage.

By this time. Brother Welling, hearing the din and cry from his cabin (250 feet forward), came, edging his way through the throng, to my side, and I said, "Elder Welling, gentlemen." When he expressed a willingness to answer any civil questions, my questioner said: "What are the tenets of Mormon faith?" Job Welling preached a Gospel sermon of fifteen minutes after quoting our Articles of Faith and, when he bore his testimony, he was asked, by which of the five senses he knew it. As he had stated that prostitution does not exist with us, he was asked, "What do you young men do before they marry?" (Illustrating the world's view of social evils.) This is our first public introduction as L.D.S. Missionaries.