One of the most important sources related
to Martin Harris’s visit
and consultation with scholars Samuel Mitchill and Charles Anthon
is a small piece of paper known today as the “Caractors” Document
(also known as the “Anthon Transcript”).
This document was most likely created 
sometime between the years 1829–1831
by John Whitmer,
who was called by revelation to be an early historian and recorder of the restored Church of Jesus Christ.
The transcript is filled with characters that are believed to have been taken from the Book of Mormon plates
and shown to Mitchill and Anthon by Harris for their examination in the winter of 1828.
Now the document itself is not the original text examined by Mitchill and Anthon,
however it does appear to be an early copy of a now-lost original prepared by Joseph Smith.
A description of the characters shown to Mitchill and Anthon by Martin Harris
have come from several sources (though unfortunately none from Mitchill himself).
In his 1838 history,
Joseph Smith quoted Harris quoting Anthon
as determining that the characters were “Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic”.
In a letter to Eber D. Howe, dated January 15, 1831,
early Latter-day
Saint convert and printer W. W. Phelps
portrayed Anthon as describing the characters as “ancient shorthand Egyptian.”
Anthon himself left three accounts
of his visit with Martin Harris.
However, in each of them,  his description does not seem to match the  “Caractors” document that survives today.
In his earliest account given in 1834, for example,
Anthon described the transcript he saw as having contained:
Similar descriptions were given by Anthon in 1841 and also 1844.
Anthon spoke of the writing he saw as arranged
in columns, whereas the “Caractors” document
is arranged in rows.
Anthon likewise spoke of seeing a Mexican calendar or zodiac on the text he examined,
something entirely absent from the “Caractors” document.
So precisely what
characters were originally prepared by Joseph
and examined by Anthon is therefore not entirely
clear.
Scholars have debated whether the characters on the surviving “Caractors” document are authentic.
Skeptics of Joseph Smith,
beginning with Anthon himself,
have largely dismissed the characters as either fabricated or copied from sources available to Joseph,
However Latter-day Saint scholars have argued for
their resemblance to ancient Egyptian scripts,
as well as scripts from ancient America.
A few non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists have also weighed in,
with some having denied any resemblance to ancient Egyptian, and others having affirmed such.
So at this point no consensus
has been reached as to what script (ancient or modern)
the characters of the Anthon transcript
closest resemble or should otherwise be compared to.
A lot of questions remain about the Anthon Transcript.
Theres the contradictory accounts left behind
by Charles Anthon and Martin Harris,
there's the absence of a translation of the characters which finds broad academic acceptance,
and the fact that the document that survives today
is just a copy (or maybe even a copy of a copy) of a presumably now-lost original,
so given these issues, students of the Book of
Mormon and early Latter-day Saint history
should be cautious as they evaluate the
surviving evidence.
When uncertainties such as those surrounding
the Anthon Transcript persist,
readers can take the opportunity
to faithfully apply the counsel given by the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants
Future discoveries might one day solve the mystery of the Anthon Transcript.
But until that time, the Book of Mormon itself is available for all to read and gain a testimony of
by the power of the Holy Ghost.
