Letter from Joseph Henry Dean, 17 June 1890
Pres. Woodruff, Cannon and Smith.
Dear Brethren:
Bro. W. O. Lee and I have
just returned from a month's trip on foot around this island.
We traveled 90 miles over ground that has not been broken
before, and were treated with kindness and consideration by
the natives. We sowed much good seed and the Spirit of
the Lord was with us to the confounding of our enemies.
In one place a crowd of thirty natives ministers (pro-
testant) came to the chief's house where we were staying and
began to ask questions. They are very shrewd and smart
after the manner of man, having taken a four year's
course at school to prepair them for the profession. The
whole village came together to hear what was said. They
held their tempers pretty well for a while until we got
them tied up on the subject of divine authority. They
got so confused and tangled up that they were easily
beaten. Then to hide their shame they began abusing us,
calling us anti-christ, evil spirits, murderers, adulterers etc.
terms they had learned from their white ministers. This
was more than the crowd could stand. The chief of the
village backed up by the expressions of approval of the
whole crowd told them to stop short off, or he would club them
out of his house. He gave them a terrible scour scoring
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