This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 January 1838

  • Source Note
  • Historical Introduction
Page [80]
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Sir.—
Mo. Jany. 21st. 1838.
Sir.— I should have written you long since but for ill health, I have anxiously waited to recover, that I might give you a full history of my excursion to <​the​> north according to my promise; and were it not for the recent intelligence from , which gives me so much surprise, should still defer— you will be able to judge from the formation of my letter how week and infirm are my nerves. I have been sick six weeks, and a large part of the time confined to my room and bed.
I was absent, when north. some twenty days, and should not have returned then but for the failure of to forward provisions as he agreed. I labored incessantly every day except one,—rain, snow or frost. I lay on the cold damp earth; had but little to eat, and that indifferent; but explored a great any and precious country. I ran many lines with compass and chain, found a great many of the finest mill-Sites I have seen in the western country <​or world,​> and made between forty and fifty choice locations.
Notwithstanding the feeble sta[t]e of my health, I had previously made preparations, and yet expect to start to morrow morning (Monday) to view still east of where I previously went.
I learn from , by the last letters, that you have publickly said, that when you were here I confessed to you that I had willfully lied about you— this compels me to ask you to correct that statement, and give me an explanation—until which you and myself are two.
Mr. Joseph Smith Jr [p. [80]]
Mo. Jany. 21st. 1838.
Sir.— I should have written you long since but for ill health, I have anxiously waited to recover, that I might give you a full history of my excursion to the north according to my promise; and were it not for the recent intelligence from , which gives me so much surprise, should still defer— you will be able to judge from the formation of my letter how week and infirm are my nerves. I have been sick six weeks, and a large part of the time confined to my room and bed.
I was absent, when north. some twenty days, and should not have returned then but for the failure of to forward provisions as he agreed. I labored incessantly every day except one,—rain, snow or frost. I lay on the cold damp earth; had but little to eat, and that indifferent; but explored a great and precious country. I ran many lines with compass and chain, found a great many of the finest mill-Sites I have seen in the western country or world, and made between forty and fifty choice locations.
Notwithstanding the feeble state of my health, I had previously made preparations, and yet expect to start to morrow morning (Monday) to view still east of where I previously went.
I learn from , by the last letters, that you have publickly said, that when you were here I confessed to you that I had willfully lied about you— this compels me to ask you to correct that statement, and give me an explanation—until which you and myself are two.
Mr. Joseph Smith Jr [p. [80]]
Page [80]