locate the place where treasure was
buried.

After living in Palmyra for about ten years, the Smith family moved
southward a few miles and settled in Manchester, the northern town of
Ontario county. Their residence was a primitive one, even for those
days. William Van Camp, the aged editor of the _Democratic Press_ at
Lyons, recalls the fact that it was a log house from the following
circumstance. Martin Harris, a farmer near Palmyra, visited the Smiths
while he was yet in doubt concerning the doctrines of Mormonism. One
night, while he was in his room, curtained off from the single large
room of the interior, there appeared to him no less a personage than
Jesus Christ. Harris was informed that Mormonism was the true faith, and
Van Camp knows that it was a log house, although no vestige now
remains, because Harris told him that his celestial visitor was lying on
the beam overhead!

One mile from the Smith residence was the farm of Alonzo Sanders, now
owned by William T. Sampson, commander in the United States Navy. This
farm is four miles south of Palmyra, on the road toward Canandaigua. It
includes a barren hill which rises abruptly to the height of one hundred
and fifty feet. The ridge runs almost due north and south, and from the
summit there are beautiful views of the hills surrounding Canandaigua
and Seneca Lakes. It is known to the present generation as "Gold Bible
Hill:" to Joe Smith it was known as "the Hill Cumorah," where the angel
Moroni announced to him the presence of the "golden plates" giving an
account of the fate which attended the early inhabitants of America.
With these plates would be found the only means by which they could be
read, the wonderful spectacles known as the "Urim and Thummim." Joe was
not averse to such a revelation, for his hazel rod and his "peek-stone"
had already failed him. There had been various religious awakenings in
the neighborhood, and when the various sects began to quarrel over the
converts Joe arose and announced that his mission was to restore the
true priesthood. He appointed a number of meetings, but no one seemed
inclined to follow him as the leader of a new religion. In September,
1823, an angel appeared to him, forgave his many lapses from grace and
announced the golden plates.

These plates, however, were not found for several years. In the mean
time the scene of Smith's operations shifted along the banks of Seneca
Lake and down the tributaries of the Susquehanna