A.D. 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records into my
hands.

These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance
of gold, each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long and
not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings,
in Egyptian characters and bound together in a volume, as the leaves
of a book with three rings running through the whole. The volume was
something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed.
The characters on the unsealed part were small, and beautifully
engraved. The whole book exhibited many marks of antiquity in its
construction and much skill in the art of engraving. With the
records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called
"Urim and Thummim," which consisted of two transparent stones set in
the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.

Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the
record by the gift, and power of God.

In this important and interesting book the history of ancient
America is unfolded, from its first settlement by a colony that came
from the Tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages to the
beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. We are informed
by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by
two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and
came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly
from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ.
They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The
Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came
from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the