A had the qualities of Urim and Tumin, since through it a "as described above a " and by the interpreters found with the Nephite record, Joseph was able to translate the characters recorded on the planchas.a a David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon, described how my husband put the seer stone into a hat to translate: a We now describe how they translated the Book of Mormon. Joseph put the seer stone into a hat and put his face in the hat, drawing it towards her face to hide the light. Appeared a piece of something resembling parchment, and it appeared escritura.a a An Address to All Believers in Christ by David Whitmer, 1887, p. 12 a In a letter which asked my son, Joseph Smith III, wrote on March 27, 1876, I stated the following: a The first thing that led to my husband, he did using the Urim and Tumin , and that's the part that Martin Harris lost, and after that he used a small stone, which was not exactly black, but it was dark. a The Urim and Tumin was used, again, only for the translation of the portion given to Martin Harris, then the rest of the translation was performed using the Stone of Vidente.a James E. Lancaster, Saints Herald, November 15, 1962. a There is also a copy of this letter: a Early Mormon Documents, Volume 1, p.532.