19th I recieved the New York Weekly Herald, filled with News also the
Morning Papers say that half of the business part of the City of
Mo is now lying in ruins by fire five banking houses
evry insurance office, twenty seven steem Boats, together with
the Telegraph office are among the vast property destroyed, also
several terrible ship wrecks & loss of life. New York
is also burnt up, the Herald has the full particulars of the dredful
riot & bloodshed in New York also the continued wars of
and the sweeping progress of the Cholera in America esspecially in
the western states it says that 21 deaths occurred by Cholera on
a ship loaded with Latter Day Saints, or Mormons. Pestilence
is raging among the 25,000 gold seekers gatherd in to go to the
gold digings by the way of the all the Earth seems to be
in confusion & commotion with war, savord, plague pestilence
fire earthquakes & storms the Bible Doctrin & Covenants, & Book of
Mormon are truly being fulfilled. Among other interesting News
the Herald contains an account of a visit of the Engeneers of
the Panama rail road Expedition to the People lately discoverd
called the at the which con
tains 113 Islands which are held in the sole possession of the
Mandingo Indians who do not pe[r]mit the residence therein
of any human being not of their own tribe & linage, they
will not as yet communicate to any but their own tribe any knowledge
of their records or History. They live by themselves some occupying
the Islands some the main land but all firmly united as a band obeying
one chief or Old man (a Patriarch) who is believed to be endowed by
God with all wisdom might and power the Government is Patriarchal
the Old man (or Patriarch) is the spiritual adviser as well as Chief
Jud[g]e of all temporal affairs He is powerful in mind & body and all
his faculties are evergreen, God endows him with peculiar health
He is acknowledged & regarded as the vicegerent of God and all his
orders are obeyed, Hie is also the great Medicine or Cure all in cases of
sickness or infirmity they apply to him And whether relief is obta-
ined or not the applicants are contented. Col propounded
the question upon whom does the office of old man (Patriarch)
descend at the decease of the present "old man." The reply was to
the next oldest man of the tribe. Suppose the successor should
not be endowed with the same qualities of intelligence. reply that
cannot be for when the mantle descends the Great spirit imbues
that mind with all knowledge. x x
The main land is seldom if
ever approached by foreigners & nothing is known of it the Islands
produce the Cocoa nut tree x x x
Before reaching the entrance of the
Mandingo Bay some 20 miles from land we discoverd a fleet
of canoes under sail managed with a skill that equals the best
water hall boatman & on bearing down found them to contain
Mandingo Indians upon fishing Excursions x x x
The men are short
& stumpy not over 4 feet 6 inch on the average thick & square built
and are capable of enduring great fatigue their heads are remarka-
ble large & round features prominent with all the physiognomy of
the Jew they have a plurality of wives according to their means
they permit No Communication with foreigners & women so offending
is stoned to death it is a part of their religious creeb to keep
their race pure & unadulterated they profess to have a restorative
for the organs of production the effect of which upon one administration
will last for eight years our surgeon obtained some of the remedy
which has been pronounced part & parcel of the body of the turtle
