A part of the book of Lehigh [Lehi] had been translated, about 150 pages & taken to Philadelphia by one of the parties, who put it in a bureau drawer at night, the next morning it was gone and has never yet been found. Joseph Smith was informed that for his transgressing the command, to keep it always under his care, he would be punished and the "gift" of reading through the spectacles was taken from him for about 3 months & never was allowed to see the "plates" again but at the end of his punishment, he was told that he might translate the book of Mormon, instead of the book of Lehigh but would not be permitted to see the "plates" that the "Characters" would appear before him & when he translated them correctly they would disappear & new ones come in their place if not translated correctly the first time they would remain until they were which in several instances he knew to be true because he said Joseph Smith was a man of limited education and could hardly write legibly. . . .
He said the Brass or Gold Plates were bound together at the back by having 3 rings run through & when a page was translated it turned back on the ring.
He said Smith translated by means of a pair of large bound Spectacles ie the "Book of Mormon", that the Characters would appear in the air & stay until correctly translated and then disappear that Smith was ignorant of the Bible that when translating he first came to where Jerusalem was spoken of as a "Walled City" he stopped until they got a Bible & showed him where the fact was recorded—Smith not believing it was a walled city.