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THE

UTAH GENEALOGICAL

AND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1914.

THE SOCIETY ISLANDS MISSION.

COPILED BY ANDREW JENSON, ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN.

At a council meeting of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held at Náuvoo, May 23, 1843. Addison Pratt was ordained to the office of a Seventy and blessed and set apart to go to the Pacific islands on a mission, by Brigham Young, assisted by Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Parley P. Pratt. On the same occasion Elders Noah Rogers, Benjamin F. Grouard and Knowlton F. Hanks were blessed and set apart to accompany Elder Pratt as missionaries to the Pacific Islands. Brother Grouard was also ordained a Seventy by Orson Hyde. These were the first Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were called and sent out to labor as missionaries among a people who did not speak the English language. Elder Rogers was appointed to preside over the mission.

Elder Pratt had been a seafaring man in his younger days; and during one of his voyages, in the year 1822, he had stopped at the Sandwich Islands, and spent about three months there. He was much charmed with the climate and productions of the islands, and one day, when in conversation with President Brigham Young in Nauvoo, he expressed a strong desire to revisit them. Brother Young asked him if he would be willing to take a mission to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He replied in the affirmative, provided other Elders could be sent with him. Soon afterwards Benjamin F. Grouard, Noah Rogers and Knowlton F. Hanks volunteered to go, the last named being a consumptive man who was much attached to Elder Pratt. These were some of the circumstances leading up to the appointment of the first Latter-day Saint mission to the Polynesian people.

Thursday, June 1, 1843, Elders Rogers, Pratt, Grouard and

Hanks started from Nauvoo on their mission for the Pacific islands, going on the steamer "Sarah Ann❞ to St. Louis, Mo. Thence they continued the journey to Pittsburg, Penn., where they arrived on the 12th. Elder Pratt left his companions at Evansville for Pleasant Garden, Ind., and Brother Grouard left the same day for Philadelphia. Elder Hanks and Rogers tarried at Pittsburg till the 14th, when they also left for Philadelphia, arriving there on the 23rd. Here they found Elder Grouard, and a few days later it was agreed that Brothers Grouard and Hanks should go on, and Brothers Rogers await the arrival of Brother Pratt; Elder Rogers then spent some time preaching and baptizing in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in company with Elder Pratt, whom he met at Mount Holly on the 15th of July, proceeded to New York, and thence to New Bedford, Mass., where they found Elder Grouard. After subsequently meeting with some of the Apostles in Boston, Brother Pratt, by counsel of Brigham Young, went to New Bedford to procure a passage for the four Elders destined for the Pacific Islands. Being unable to find a ship going to the Sandwich Islands, he engaged passage for himself and his three companions on the whaling ship "Timoleon," bound for Tahiti, Society Islands, paying $100 for each passenger. The brethren in Salem and Boston contributed liberally toward helping the missionaries, as did also the brethren in New Bedford, particularly Brother Philip B. Lewis, who donated $300 toward their passage and outfit. After paying their passage, the Elders had $80 left for contingent expenses.

Monday, October 9, 1843, Elders Pratt, Grouard, Hanks and Rogers, who had again met at New Bedford, boarded the "Timoleon," Captain Plasket, and got under way. Elder Hanks was suffering very severely with consumption when they sailed from New Bedford.

For several days after sailing from New Bedford the weather was rough and Elders Grouard and Rogers suffered considerable with sea-sickness, an experience which Eluer Pratt escaped, he being used to sea-faring life.

Brother Hanks, though not sea-sick, was confined to his bed most of the time, as the disease with which he was suffering kept gaining on him every day. The other missionaries took the best possible care of their sick companion, but on the 3rd of November he breathed his last. Elder Hanks was the first Latter-day Saint Elder who died at sea while on a foreign mission.

Brother Addison Pratt, in giving the particulars of Elder Hanks' sickness and death, gives these interesting incidents:

"Between 12 and 1 o'clock p. m. he had another strangling turn. This reduced his strength. He could only speak in whispers after. Between 8 and 10 he fell in a drowse. After he awoke he whispered to me and said, 'I dreamed a dream. Do you wish to hear it?" I told him I did. He said: "I dreamed

I went to the spirits in prison. It was an immense space. I looked to the east and to the west, and saw immense multitudes of people that looked just like people in real life. I said, can these be spirits? I was assured they were. I looked to the north and saw a stand; somebody had just been preaching there, and they were dispersing from around it. I saw no children among them. I looked to see if there were anybody that I knew, but saw none. I thought they were coming together again in a few minutes, and I should be there, then I should see people I knew. I then awoke.' About 11 o'clock he had another dream, he heard the last trump sound, and saw the multitude which John saw, that no man could number, small and great, stand before God (they were small and great in capacity for there were no children there). He awoke before he saw any further."

The loss of Brother Hanks was severely felt by the three remaining missionaries, as their deceased companion was truly a good man, and a worthy brother. On the 9th of November, 1843, the "Timeleon" arrived at St. Nicholas, one of the Cape Verde Islands. Some of the Elders went on shore, procured donkeys and rode to Bravo, a village six miles in the interior. They also sent letters to America by the brig "Susan," of Salem, Mass., which happened to be at the island when they called. After taking in a supply of fruit the "Timoleon" continued her voyage, Nov. 10th, taking a southeasterly course. On the 10th of December she crossed the equator and the close of the year found her making slow progress in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope, Africa. The Elders spent a great deal of their time while on board the "Timoleon" reading and studying. They also lectured to each other privately on the principles of the Gospel, as the captain would not permit them to hold regular meetings on board. They also conversed freely with their fellow-passengers and the sailors about religion, whenever they had the opportunity, and, to their great joy, their testimony was believed by some of them. As a matter of recreation they occasionally indulged in fishing with hook and line, and even tried their hand at harpooning whales. "Our situation on board the ship was anything but pleasant," writes Elder Grouard. "The captain was one of those self-important men who, because he had command of a ship and a few sailors, felt as though he was absolute monarch of the whole world. In a word, he was a sort of a genteel tyrant, with a share of self-conceit. He would give us no liberty to preach on board, 'because,' said he, 'it is destructive to good discipline to encourage familiarity between officers and crew.' The officers were not gentlemen; neither did they know what belonged to good manners. The crew was a mixture of good and bad men. Some of them were old sailors, and others were farmers' sons. Some had run away to escape punishment for their crimes, and still others were seeking their fortunes in foreign lands; but

taking them altogether, they were much better than the captain and officers. Our fellow-passengers consisted of a Doctor Winslow, his wife, servant and three children: Mr. Lincoln and his wife, all designed for Tahiti, seeking their fortunes. Religiously Dr. Winslow was a Unitarian; so also was his wife. Mr. Lincoln and his wife were Baptists and appeared to be an honest couple. The doctor's wife was also, I think, an honest woman, but a great lover of popularity."

The three surviving Elders on board the "Timoleon" (Rogers, Pratt and Grouard) spent New Years day, 1844, in quiet meditation and praying earnestly that God, whose servants they were, would prosper their efforts and grant them success on their mission. Jan. 3, 1844, they sighted the Tristan D'Acunha islands, lying southwest of Africa, in lat. 37 deg. south, and 20 deg. north of Greenwich. There are three islands in the group, namely Tristan d'Acunha, Nightingale and Inaccessable, but only the first named island was inhabited in 1844. After passing these islands the "Timoleon" took an easterly course; on the 25th she doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and thence stood on for the island of St. Paul, which was reached on the 20th of February. There three boats were lowered, and twenty barrels of fish of the rock cod species, caught. The next day (Feb. 21st) the passengers, including the missionaries, went on shore and found fifty or sixty miserable looking Frenchmen and one American, which constituted the inhabitants of the island. Elders Grouard and Rogers ascended a hill on the island, where they had an opportunity to pray undisturbed, a privilege which they had not enjoyed for months.

Continuing the voyage, the "Timoleon" made the southwest cape of Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania), March 20th; on the last day of March and the first of April she passed the islands called the "Three Kings," near New Zealand, and thence pursued her course toward the Society Islands.

Tuesday, April 30. At 2 o'clock in the morning, on board the "Timoleon." Elder Addison Pratt heard the cry of "land ahoy;" he forthwith went on deck and obtained a plain view of the island of Tubuai. Soon afterwards he imparted the good news to his missionary companions, Elders Noah Rogers and Benjamin F. Grouard, who slept below. Early in the morning the ship ran down along the coral reef which surrounded the island; and when it came to an opening in the reef, leading into the smooth water inside, a canoe was seen coming out to meet the ship, which now tacked its main top sail and lav to. As the canoe was approaching Elder Pratt observed, by looking through his spy glass, that the natives manning the little craft were precisely like those he had been familiar with on the Sandwich Islands. His heart leaped for joy, for they looked like old acquaintances. When they came alongside the ship, their canoe dropped under the lee-main

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