About two miles south of Joseph's home, in Manchester, is a large hill, the
highest in that part of the country. To this place Joseph went on the
morning after the angel's visit, as this was the spot he had seen in his
vision. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, Joseph found
a large, rounded stone, nearly covered with earth. Prying this up, he found
it to be the lid of a stone box which was buried in the earth. Raising the
lid, he looked in, and there indeed were the sacred treasures about which
the angel had told him. As he stood looking at them in wonder, the angel
Moroni came to his side, and Joseph was taught many things about the
future. He was shown in a vision the glory of the good and the darkness of
the evil.

[Illustration: THE HILL CUMORAH.]

Joseph was about to take the plates from the box, when the angel forbade
him, telling him the time had not yet arrived, but that he should come to
the hill in one year from that date when the angel would meet him. This he
must do for four years, at the end of which time, if Joseph was faithful,
the plates would be given to him to translate and publish to the world.

True to the angel's instructions, Joseph went to the hill Cumorah on the
22nd day of September of each year, at which time Moroni appeared to him
and gave him many teachings about the word of God.

During all this time Joseph had to labor hard on the farm, sometimes hiring
out to work for others. In October, 1825, he worked for a man by the name
of Josiah Stoal, who took Joseph to the State of Pennsylvania, and set him
with other men, digging for a silver mine which he thought he could find.