AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL REMARKABLE VISIONS, AND OF THE LATE DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT AMERICAN RECORDS. By O. PRATT, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. THIRD AMERICAN EDITION. NEW-YORK: JOSEPH W. HARRISON, PRINTER, No. 465 PEARL-STREET. 1842. TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE This edition was based off scans of the above-noted edition, available at Archive.org. The original uses some slightly odd English orthography--for example, unusual comma placement and an instance of using 'was' where 'were' appears to be correct. In such cases, the original has been maintained. Obvious printer's errors (intructed for instructed, brethern for brethren, and perhaps three similar errors) and some unmatched quotation marks have been corrected as seemed reasonable. Email tomnysetvold@gmail.com with corrections or to participate in proofreading of similar early books of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. FACTS IN RELATION TO THE LATE DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT AMERICAN RECORDS. Mr. Joseph Smith, jun. who made the following important discovery, was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23d December, a. d. 1805. When ten years old, his parents, with their family, moved to Palmyra, New-York; in the vicinity of which he resided for about eleven years, the latter part in the town of Manchester. Cultivating the earth for a livelihood was his occupation, in which he employed the most of his time. His advantages for acquiring literary knowledge, were exceedingly small; hence, his education was limited to a slight acquaintance with two or three of the common branches of learning. He could read without much difficulty, and write a very imperfect hand; and had a very limited understanding of the ground rules of arithmetic. These were his highest and only attainments; while the rest of those branches, so universally taught in the common schools, throughout the United States, were entirely unknown to him. When somewhere about fourteen or fifteen years old, he began seriously to reflect upon the necessity of being prepared for a future state of existence; but how, or in what way, to prepare himself, was a question, as yet, undetermined in his own mind. He perceived that it was a question of infinite importance, and that the salvation of his soul depended upon a correct understanding of the same. He saw, that if he understood not the way, it would be impossible to walk in it, except by chance; and the thought of resting his hopes of eternal life upon chance, or uncertainties, was more than he could endure. If he went to the religious denominations to seek information, each one pointed to its particular tenets, saying--"This is the way, walk ye in it;" while, at the same time, the doctrines of each were in many respects, in direct opposition to one another, It also occurred to his mind that God was the author of but one doctrine, and therefore could acknowledge but one denomination as his church, and that such