rresistible,
that some cunning fellow had prepared the paper in question, for the
purpose of imposing upon the countryman who brought it, and I told the
man so, without any hesitation. He then proceeded to give me the history
of the whole affair, which convinced me that he had fallen into the
hands of some sharper, while it left me in great astonishment at his
simplicity."

The professor also states that he gave his opinion in writing to the
man, that "the marks on the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of
various alphabetic characters, and had no meaning at all connected
with them."

The following letter, which I received, relative to the occupation of
Joe Smith, as a treasure-finder, will probably remind the reader of the
character of Dousterswivel, in Walter Scott's tale of the Antiquary. One
could almost imagine that either Walter Scott had borrowed from Joe, or
that Joe had borrowed from the great novelist.

"I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, senior, and his family, in
1820. They lived at that time in Palmyra, about one mile and a half from
my residence. A great part of their time was devoted to digging for
money; especially in the night-time, when, they said, the money could be
most easily obtained. I have heard them tell marvellous tales respecting
the discoveries they have made in their peculiar occupation of
money-digging. They would say, for instance, that in such and such a
place, in such a hill, or a certain man's farm, there were deposited
kegs, barrels, and hogsheads of coined silver and gold, bars of gold,
golden images, brass kettles filled with gold and silver, gold
candlesticks, swords, &c., &c. They would also say, that nearly all the
hills in this part of New York were thrown by human hands, and in them
were large caves, which Joseph, jun., could see, by placing a stone of
singular appearance in his hat, in such a manner as to exclude all
light; at which time they pretended he could see all things within and
under the earth; that he could spy within the above-mentioned caves
large gold bars and silver plates; that he could also discover the
spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient
dresses. At certain times, these treasures could be obtained very
easily; at others, the obtaining of them was difficult. The facility of
approaching them depended in a great measure on the state of the moon.
New moon and Good Friday, I believe, were regarded as the most
favourab