As related by Elder George Reynolds in the Millennial Star in 1879, Jules Remy and Julius Brenchley visited Utah in 1855. On their return home to Paris, France, they brought with them a copy of The Book of Abraham,1 "which they placed in the hands of "a young savant of the Museum of the Louvre, M. Theodule Deveria," with the request that he would translate it. This he attempted to do. Messrs. Remy and Brenchley afterwards published an account of their travels, and embodied therein M. Deveria's soi-disant translation."2 This translation of the facsimiles into French was published by Jules Remy in 1860 in Paris, France, being his second volume relating to his "Journey to the Land of the Mormons." The next year an English addition appeared in print, "scrupulously revised," and retitled, A Journey to Great Salt Lake City.3
The first LDS response to the French publication came from Louis Bertrand, the LDS Mission President over France at that time. Bertrand was converted to the Gospel through John Taylor, and Bertrand substantially assisted Elder Taylor in translating the Book of Mormon into French. Bertrand's response to Remy was included in his book entitled Memoire's D'un Mormon [Memoirs of a Mormon], published in Paris, France, in 1862.
The extent of Remy's publication seems to have had limited circulation among the Latter-day Saints because this issue wasn't addressed again in print until George Reynold's response was published in 1879, six years following T.B.H. Stenhouse's publication of The Rocky Mountain Saints.4 Stenhouse plagiarized Remy's book by reproducing Deveria's translation of the Book of Abraham facsimiles which he then compared with Joseph Smith's explanations of the same. Stenhouse's publication is the most frequently used source by critics of Joseph Smith regarding translation of the Book of Abraham. Although Remy's book only includes one illustration of the facsimiles, Stenhouse's book includes all three (along with Deveria's translation of each). Many online and printed sources that are antagonistic of Joseph Smith still use Deveria's 150 year old translations as their primary support for critiquing Joseph's ability to translate.
1 The Pearl of Great Price would have been the 1851 edition printed by Elder Franklin D. Richards in England. The next publication of the PGP took place in the United States in 1878.
2 George Reynolds, "The Book of Abraham--Its Genuineness Established [Continued]," The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star, 41/13 (March 31, 1879):193
3 "A Visit To The Mormons," The Westminster Review: July and October 1861 (New Series Vol. XX; London: George Manwaring, 1861), 76:360
4 T.B.H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873), 507-522
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