I reached Portsmouth on the 7th day of September, and while there on the 9th, I read in the newspaper of the total wreck of the steam vessel, on which I was about to sail from Liverpool, when I was warned by the Lord not to go on board the ship. MY LAST MISSION TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. BY WM. W. CLUFF. CHAPTER I. ELDERS CALLED HOME FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--NATIVE ELDER LEFT TO PRESIDE--GIBSON'S ARRIVAL IN SALT LAKE--JOINS THE CHURCH--ASKS FOR A MISSION TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--HIS DEEP-LAID SCHEME--LEADING ASTRAY THE HAWAIIAN SAINTS--FIVE ELDERS SENT TO INVESTIGATE--ARRIVAL AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--ATTEMPT TO GO ASHORE IN A BOAT--CAPSIZED IN THE SURF--ELDER LORENZO SNOW LOST--AFTER A LONG SEARCH, FOUND UNDER THE BOAT--EFFORTS TO RESUSCITATE HIM--RESTORED TO LIFE ONE HOUR AFTER BEING DROWNED. In the summer and autumn of 1857, a United States army was marching towards Utah, evidently with hostile intentions towards its people. It was thought wisdom, by the authorities of the Church, to concentrate the strength of the Saints for any emergency, by calling home the Elders that were on foreign missions. When the last of the Elders from Utah left the Sandwich Islands, on the 1st of May, 1858, the care of the Saints on each of the islands was entrusted to a native Elder. Kailihune was appointed to preside over the gathering place on Lanai. He was among the first fruits of the labors of the Elders, and for a long time had been very efficient and faithful. During our difficulties with the government Walter M. Gibson, an adventurer, came to Utah. His ostensible object was to induce President Young, and the general Church authorities, to remove our people _en masse_, to the East India Islands. He painted, in glowing colors, the splendid facilities and opportunities those islands offered for immigration and colonization, by an enterprising and industrious people like the Latter-day Saints. In his ignorance, he supposed that the object of the founder and leaders of the Church was to found a powerful and independent nation. The object of these schemes was, evidently, his own personal aggrandizement. It had, no doubt, been a favorite project of his, for years, to found a government somewhere on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Failing in his scheme for the removal of the Church, some other plan must be devised for the accomplishment of his cherished purpose. He professed to become a convert to our faith, and was baptized into the Church. He then requested to be sent on a mission to the Polynesian Islands. He desired a roving commission from the Presidency of the Church, authorizing him to travel and preach, on any or all of the islands, in the Pacific Ocean.