Pen y Cae July 1855
September 1st
My dear children.
Here I am again through the mercy of the Lord having received the privilege of
writing to you once more before I depart and shall be no more. We were very
glad to hear from you when we heard, the reason why we had not written earlier
is because we were awaiting a letter from William from Australia in
order to give you a bit of his news; but we are very sorry to have to inform
you that we have not had one word from him yet. We have heard that he has gone
across safely in a letter from one who went out the same time as he from here.
We feel grateful to you for the warnings which you made about the prices of
things there with you. We don’t have any news which will give to you any
happiness from here. Things are going along reasonably well. The prices of
foodstuffs are very high. The War in the east has had its effect and carried
its influence to some unusually distant places, until our country is in great
poverty, but we hope the dawn will break before long on the hills of Wales’s high
land. We feel very grateful to you for your kind offer, that is to pay our
passage to there. There is no doubt that it would be far better for us if we
were there with you, but we prefer to stay here longer since I have stayed so
long in blessed old Wales, the country of our birth. We do not fear the things
which are to happen which the false prophets have foretold. We are healthy and
happy. There is no war here nor pestilence nor anything which causes any
obstacle to the children of God.
You mentioned in your last letter
that the God of Heaven is blessing that place more than any other place. For
goodness sake, don’t believe or imagine such a thing. Turn from those empty
things to the living God and consecrate yourselves to worship him as the divine
word instructs you. Cease to give a listening ear to the Book of Mormon and any
other book, rather take a rule for organizing your faith and your behavior from
the word which will judge the world out of hand, understanding that the day
will come when the bad and the good will be gathered before him and there it
will be seen who has the true religion. I don’t have much more time.
[page 2]
We saw Jeremy a while back. He is
healthy and comfortable. Hannah and her husband dearly wish to be remembered to
you and feel extremely grateful to you for your readiness to assist them to
come over. It is a very long way. They prefer to stay here for a while yet. We
are very glad to hear that you are so comfortable. If I could, I would send
something [illegible] to you with Mr. Jeremy. I would really like to, but I
have nothing except that which I earn from my work. John has enough work to
earn his own food. He is working in the forge now for 12 shillings per week.
Some hair of little Rachel and little Wm and little David is in the letter. We
ought to mention that Hannah and little Rachel have been very sick from
inflammation for many weeks, but they have been improving splendidly for many
days. I shall bring this to an end shortly, hoping that I shall have a letter
soon from you again. This is with respect and heartfelt good wishes from your
dear mother and brother and sister, Rachel Evance
And now we shall continue to make a
few observations concerning your invitations with regard to your religion. Do
you suppose that we are so foolish as to believe your assertions? You say that
you know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the most high
God. Now I ask you, is a man of the following character worthy calling a
prophet? And now I shall give you a little of his history and that of his
relatives. Everyone who became acquainted with the family of the above prophet
said that they were the laziest – most ignorant – and extremely superstitious
people, believing in devils and charmers together with foretellers of fates,
pretending that they know that the earth is full of hidden treasures. Such an
upbringing did not lose its appropriate influence on Joseph the son, that is your prophet. And in time he became very
skilled in the crafts of enchantment (necromancer), that is one who pretends to
raise the spirits of the dead – working magic
(joggling).
[page 3]
on a charming stick (Divining Rod)
and looking through that which is called a seer stone (peep stone) which was
put in his hat and he would put his face on it and he was enabled to perceive
the places where the treasures were hidden. In time he gathered a pack of young
men around him which were too lazy to work in an honest way for their keep and
they put themselves to working by digging in the hills and mountains and lonely
places searching for gold. They opened pits in the neighborhood which were
known by them afterwards as the places where the “golden plates” were found.
When the deceivers began to spread their revelations abroad not much attention
was paid to their foolish bewitching things. But when they began to influence
the belief of the most ignorant and superstitious class, the respected
residents of Palmyra and Manchester (where the Smithites
lived) considered it their duty to give public notice of their true character
as a family. A public affidavit was drawn by 50 of the gentlemen of _____[piece missing] high callings and religious denominations
to _____[piece missing] reveal that indisputably. We could write _____[piece missing] or the notice and names of the fifty, but
the truth is that your invitations are not worth paying attention to, nor your
religion either. Here there is not very much mention of the Saints. I am one of
your relatives, Eleazer Davies. The lock of light
hair here is that of little Wm and little Rachel, and
the darkest hair is that of little David, and the white hair from your Aunt
Mary, and the grayish white hair is your mother’s. I hope that you are not
angry with me for the above lines. This with heartfelt
respect and good wishes from all your relatives.
Rachel Evance
