--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1845 to 1846. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 6 number: 14 published: 1845-08-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Spirit of the Last Days,” *Times and Seasons* 6, no. 14 (August 1, 1845): 986." printed_title: SPIRIT OF THE LAST DAYS. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-08-01_6_14 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v6n14.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-08-01_6_14 start_page: 986 end_page: 986 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1845 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-08-01_6_14 publication_year: 1845 --- # Spirit of the Last Days We give below a frightful sketch from an English paper, to show that the spirit of the last days, like the atmosphere, presses upon the whole globe. The Savior's words are forcible; They will kill one another: Frightful Fanaticism-There are several Austrian Steamboats which carry passengers from various places to and from Constantinople; particularly Pilgrims, Dervishes and other religious travellers [travelers]. A terrible event lately occurred on board the Austrian Steamer Express, from Trebizond to Constantinople, which exhibits the fanaticism prevailing in that country. She took in passengers at Sinops, and among others, two Dervishes from Candabar, in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], who had been expelled from Trebizond and Samsone. A few hours after the ship had put to sea, the two Dervishes, having first repeated devoutly their prayers before the whole ship's company, rose up with sudden fury. One drew out a pistol, and the other a double-edged dagger or dirk from his girdle, and they both then fell upon the passengers with the most determined purpose of murder. The pistol was fired at a young Greek, who died of the wound he received.-The murderer then drawing his large knife, attacked an Armenian with it, and actually ripped up his belly, killing him on the spot. The next victims were the restaurateur of the vessel and his waiter, who received several severe wounds from the dagger of the other assassin. The agent of the steamboat, hearing some scuffle, went forward to inquire the meaning of it, when he and a sailor who accompanied him were assailed by the furious ruffians, and dangerously wounded-the agent without hope of recovery. All this passed in a few seconds of time. Nobody aboard was armed, and the scene of terror and confusion among the crew and the passengers surpassed all description.-The captain was writing in his cabin when the alarm reached him. He showed great presence of mind. He recollected that on one of he paddle-boxes there was a musket with a bayonet. He sprang at once upon the paddle-box, detached the bayonet from the gun, and with his weapon fell upon the most furious of the Dervishes. He pierced him through the neck and fell dead upon the deck. At the same time, one of the ship's engineers dashed out the brains of the other by beating him about the head with a bucket. The struggle for a few minutes between the two fiends and their assailants was terrible. Five, including the Dervishes, in this frantic assault of fanaticism, were killed, and four others wounded. The Dervishes were supposed to be mad with opium; and considered the murder of Gleours as a high-religious act of self-devotion, for they must have known that they were thereby rushing to inevitable death themselves.