"Our Patriarch and Prophet, too, Were massacred. They bled, To seal their testimony, They were numbered with the dead." CHAPTER II. The Hill Cumorah, where the Plates of the Book of Mormon were Concealed by Moroni and afterwards Delivered by him to Joseph Smith.--Some Valuable History Pertaining to this Thrice-named Hill. A beautiful picture of the Hill Cumorah is presented on the opposite page. The hill is situated in the northwestern part of New York, about thirty miles south of Rochester. It is also near the New York Central Railroad, and only three and a half miles from Palmyra station to the south, and on the Canandaigua turnpike. This noted hill has been three times named and by three distinct and great nations. For particulars concerning its historical importance we begin our study in the year 1823. At that time there was found in the side of this historic hill, by an obscure boy, a number of gold plates. These plates were very ingeniously concealed in a stone box and, bearing a record and being now translated, supply us with all the earlier information contained on them. There is a vast amount of valuable history pertaining to this hill, which is far more picturesque than the hills which surround it. There is an extensive valley on the east, as well as one on the west side of the hill, where the turnpike runs south, passing through the town of Manchester in the rear of the hill about two miles. Manchester, as well as the Hill Cumorah, is situated in the township of Manchester. The most prominent view of the hill is its north front. It extends south nearly a mile, where it terminates into a more level plateau, which is occupied as an agricultural district. From the highest point of the hill, which is the northern end, where the writer has stood a number of times, is one of the most lovely sights imaginable. To the east is the New York Central Railroad, about four miles north is a most lovely town named Palmyra, and two miles northwest is where the father of Joseph Smith located a farm when the latter was only twelve years of age. Finally, the whole country surrounding the hill from the most elevated spot, as far as the natural vision can grasp, is indeed a most charming scene of farms, orchards, houses, barns and rolling hills, with occasional forests, and in the proper season, fields of golden grain, barns well-filled, orchard trees laden with apples, peaches and pears, with here and there patches of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, currants and garden vegetables in variety. All of these beautiful scenes have engraven upon my mind a picture which defies the artist's brush to place on canvas. [Image: The Hill Cumorah.] The first name given to this hill (and by a lost nation who left the Tower of Babel 2000 B.C.) was Ramah, as found in their history, page 606, new edition. This history is called the Book of Mormon, and this portion is written by a historian named Ether.