Martin Harris confesses that he lost the translation manuscript.
Joseph returns to Harmony, where the angel takes back the plates and Joseph loses the seer's gift for a season. Smith says that the angel returned the Urim and Thummim to him "immediately" upon his return from Manchester and that he received a revelation condemning Harris (D&C 3), then both plates and Urim and Thummim were again taken.
Joseph's history says the plates were returned to him after "a few days" . However, Lucy Smith claimed that they were returned to him on 22 September 1828 , while David Whitmer said they were returned after three months. Joseph says that he "did not however go immediately to translating, but went to laboring with my hands upon a small farm ... in order to provide for my family." Still, by the time Lucy and Joseph Sr. visited Harmony in early September , some translation had been done, with Emma as scribe.
[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]
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