SUGGESTED KEY TO BOOK OF MORMON GEOGRAPHY

By J. M. Sjodahl

The main key to Book of Mormon geography is Alma 22:27–34. That passage was penned for the special purpose of furnishing important information on that subject, as far as knowledge concerning countries, rivers, cities, etc., can be conveyed without drawings or maps.

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A Well Known Theory

The best known theory concerning the geography of the Book of Mormon is that represented by the late Elder George Reynolds in his Story of the Book of Mormon.

According to this theory, which, however, Mr. Reynolds characterizes as a supposition, merely, the Jaredites went in a northerly direction from the Valley of Nimrod as far as the Caspian Sea, which they crossed; then, turning eastward, they journeyed along the Central Asia plateau; thence to the Pacific seaboard, most probably on the coast of China. Elder Reynolds does not state this as a proved fact. All that is actually revealed is that their journey was a long one, beyond the limits of the then inhabited world, to the coast of a sea that "divides the lands." Here they remained for a period of four years, at a place which they called Moriancumer, possibly after their leader, the Brother of Jared. Finally they crossed the Ocean. The voyage lasted 344 days. "It is generally understood," Elder Reynolds points out, "that the place where they landed was south of the Gulf of California, north of the Isthmus of Panama." After a history of about sixteen hundred years, the Jaredites were all slain at the battle of Ramah, later called Cumorah, in the state of New York, except the king, Coriantumr, and the prophet-historian, Ether.

According to the same theory, Lehi and his little flock journeyed across the peninsula of Arabia to its eastern coast. The land by the sea they called "Bountiful" because it was rich in fruit and wild honey. The sea was named by them "Irreantum," which is said to mean "many waters." Here they built a ship, in compliance with divine instructions. When it was finished, and the provisions were taken on board, they embarked and crossed the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and after an eventful voyage they landed at a point near where the city of Valparaiso now is situated, in Chile. From here they gradually spread northward; and after a history extending over almost a thousand years, the Nephites were exterminated at the hill Cumorah, in the State of New York.

According to the same theory, the attendants who had charge of the young prince of Judah, Mulek, the son of Zedekiah, were brought across the great waters and landed in the southern portion of North America. Here they remained for some years, and then they went southward to the place where they were discovered by Mosiah and his followers, about 200 years before our era.

To those who hold this theory, the entire North America is, in the Book of Mormon, called "Mulek", because the Lord brought Mulek into that land. South America is, for a similar reason, called "Lehi," because this great colonist landed there. Zarahemla, where Mosiah found the Mulekitesi, is located in the northern part of South America, as one grand division of the Land of Lehi, the Land of Nephi being the other.

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The Central American Theory

A theory, of more recent date, holds that the geographical scene of the history of the Book of Mormon is confined to a comparatively small area of Central America, viz., Guatemala, British Honduras, part of Yucatan, and Salvador. In this area, it is thought, the Jaredites, the Mulekites and the followers of Lehi, all established their first colonies', and from there, in due course of time, they spread out north and south, and peopled the American continents. But in the Book of Mormon, it is further thought, only the history of the original area has been preserved.

According to this theory, which has been forcefully advocated by Colonel Willard Young, after years of study of the Book of Mormon and standard works on American archaeology, the Jaredites, in their barges, came through the Dardanelles into the Mediterranean, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, crossed the Atlantic, and, finally, landed on the east coast of Central America, in the Bay of Honduras.

All of the lands and cities mentioned in the Book of Ether are, Colonel Young holds, located in Honduras and Guatemala-mostly in Guatemala. The land of Moron is in the upper valley of the Copan River, in Honduras and Guatemala. The land of Corihor is in the valley of the Motagua River around the city of Quirigua. The land of Akish is the land around the city of Jalapa. The land of Desolation is the lower valley of the Motagua River. The hill Shim is between Jalapa and Chiquimula. The place where the sea divides the land is the western end of the Gulf of Honduras between British Honduras and the east end of Guatemala. The land south is Honduras south of the Gulf of Honduras. The land north is Guatemala and British Honduras. The narrow neck of land is the small peninsula running northwest at the extreme eastern end of Guatemala. The hill Ramah is the hill between the cities of Chiquimula and Jocatan.

Lehi and his colony, according to Colonel Young, left the Gulf of Persia and crossed the Indian and the Pacific Oceans and landed on the shore of Salvador in Central America. The land of Nephi is the upper valley of the Humuya River in Honduras. The land of Zarahemla is on the west side of the Ulua River in Honduras. The land southward is Honduras, San Salvador and Nicaragua. The land northward is Guatemala, British Honduras, Yucatan and Chiapas.

The narrow pass leading from the land southward into the land northward is the narrow strip of land between the Omoa Mountains and the Gulf of Honduras. The hill Cumorah (Ramah) is between the cities of Jocatan and Chiquimula in Guatemala. The River Sidon is the Ulua River. The land Bountiful is on both sides of the Ulua River near the Gulf of Honduras.

Mulek and his colony, Colonel Young believes, came out of the Mediterranean Sea, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on the northern shore of Honduras near the mouth of the Ulua River.

The city of Zarahemla is at or near the present city of San Pedro Sula.

Still another Theory

Elder Stuart Bagley, who also has studied the subject thoroughly, agrees in some particulars with Colonel Young. In others he takes a different view.

The City of Nephi he finds at Uxmal, and Zarahemla about 300 miles south of this place. The Usumacinta river is Sidon, Bountiful is Chiapas, "The narrow neck" is Tehuantepec, and Desolation is north of this isthmus and includes Mexico north and west of high divide.

Difficult, but not Impossible

In view of the many differing opinons concerning this subject, an endeavor to find the correct one might be thought fruitless. But it should not be, since the divine promise, "Seek, and ye shall find", never fails. But in the search for truth, it often happens that preconceived ideas must be given up. We may have to sell all we have in order to obtain one pearl of great price.

Material for a Theory

In trying to form a consistent theory on Book of Mormon geography, we have as material, in the first place, the statements in the Book itself. These are the foundation and the substance. Nothing that contradicts any of them can be admitted.

Then we have certain statements concerning the subject, which can be traced back to some of the first leaders of the Church, who were the associates of the Prophet Joseph himself, and these cannot be set aside lightly, even if they are regarded as mere individual opinions; for even an opinion on a Book of Mormon question, expressed by one who, undoubtedly, had it from the Prophet himself, must be of more weight than, for instance, my opinion, if it differs from theirs. This is, I suppose, a self-evident proposition.

I refer now especially to the positive statements by Frederick G. Williams, and Orson Pratt concerning the landing of Lehi south of the Isthmus of Darien, and the just as positive assertion in the Times and Seasons, which was edited by the Prophet Joseph, to the effect that the city of Zarahemla stood in Central America, where also the boundary line between Bountiful and Desolation was drawn. (Times and Seasons, Oct. 1, 1842). Such statements, it seems to me, cannot consistently be set aside for the sake of a theory.

In the third place, we have now a great amount of archaeological and ethnological material concerning the American Indians, who are the decendants of the Jaredites, the Nephites, the Lamanites and the Mulekites. Much of this material is as yet only theoretical, but some must be accepted as solid facts, and, our theories concerning the geography of the Book of Mormon must have room for such facts. For truth is truth, wherever found, and, while it is true that the Book of Mormon furnishes the solution of many problems that puzzle archaeologists, it is equally true, that archaeology helps us to understand some obscure passages in the Book of Mormon.

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Nephites, Lamanites, Jaredites

The suggestions here offered assume that Lehi landed in South America some distance south of the Isthmus and that he proceeded to the Titicaca basin, in Bolivia, and the valley of Cuzco, in Peru, where he died.

Shortly afterwards, Nephi and his faithful followers separated themselves from their brethren and, after having journeyed "in the wilderness for the space of many days," established themselves first in Ecuador, and then colonized the lofty table lands of Colombia, in what they called the Land of Nephi. (2 Nephi 6:2-9).

For some time they lived in peace here, but as the years passed, both they and the Lamanites multiplied and were scattered "upon much of the face of the land," (Jarom 5-8), and whenever the two factions came in contact with each other conflicts arose. At, first the Nephites defended themselves successfully, but the outcome was that many of them perished. (Omni 5.)

Some time between the years 279 and 130 B. C, Mosiah, with a considerable following, emigrated from the Land of Nephi, and, after a long journey through the wilderness — the isthmus of Panama — reached the land of Zarahemla (Omni 13-15).

Other Nephites followed a somewhat different route and founded settlements on the Pacific side of Central America. This part of the promised land was known as Bountiful (Alma 22:33), but when the Nephites settled there they called their settlements the Land of Nephi, as they had named their country in their father's first inheritance in South America. (Alma 22:28).

A number of Lamanites also went into Central America. They were "the more idle part" of them. These led a nomadic life, probably pitching their tents in the mountain valleys (Alma 22:28, 29). As soon as the Lamanites in Central America were strong enough, numerically, the old struggle began again, and the Nephites were gradually driven northward.

Many Lamanites and Nephites must have remained in South America and Central America while the struggle raged in the northern continent. Concerning their history, no record is preserved in the Book of Mormon. After the massacre around Cumorah many of the conquerors and survivors, without doubt, gradually worked their way southward towards the lands of their fathers. Nothing is said in the Book of Mormon of their exploits, except that they continued to war among themselves (Mormon 8:6-10) until the whole face of the land was one continual round of murder and bloodshed, causing a state of savagery, ignorance, and error. The Book of Mormon record closes in the year 421 A. D., or thereabouts. The history of the vast multitudes not directly included in the Book of Mormon record, though contemporary with the compilers of that volume, as well as the history of the millions who lived on the American continents after the close of the Book of Mormon record until the Spanish conquest, must be read in the mounds and cliff dwellings, the ruined pueblos, temples, and forts, and other remains of past civilizations that are found all over the American continents, and in the traditions that have been preserved.

All Indians Are Not the Descendants of Lehi

Students of the Book of Mormon should be cautioned against the error of supposing that all the American Indians are the descendants of Lehi, Mulek, and their companions, and that their languages and dialects, their social organizations, religious conceptions and practices, traditions, etc., are all traceable to those Hebrew sources.

Because the Jaredite record is very brief we are apt to forget that it embraces many centuries — how many, we have no means of ascertaining— and that it gives an epitome principally of the history of Moron, where the Jaredites first established themselves. It stands to reason that the Jaredites gradually settled in favorable localities all over the American continents, and that both Nephites and Lamanites came in contact with them, and that an amalgamation took place everywhere as in the case of the Nephites and Mulekites in Zarahemla. If so, the Jaredite culture must have become a factor in the development of the institutions and languages of the country. But the Jaredites came from some center of population in Asia. Their language and culture were different from that of Lehi and Mulek. Their speech was probably closely related to the Aryan. And the impress they made upon the culture of the later arrivals has never been entirely effaced.

It has been asserted,* for instance, that the Mexican language, commonly called Nahuatl, is, in vocabulary and verb conjugation, purely Aryan, which had its origin in the highlands of east Iran, the country' of the Elamites. But while it has Aryan characteristics, it has also evidences of Semitic relationship in its pronominal system, and many of its words are traceable to Semitic roots. This dual relation ship would probably be found in other Indian tongues.** The Jaredite influence is, possibly more in evidence, in some respects, than the Semitic, but the mixture gives evidence of Jaredite and Nephite origin.

Nor is it improbable that America received immigrants from Asia and other parts of the globe, who may have introduced new creeds and institutions, although not mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Indian traditions concerning culture-heroes, such as Votan, Quetzalcoatl, Manco Capac, Bochica, Wixepecocha, and others, who came mysteriously to the people in their degraded condition and taught them to till the ground, to spin and weave, to build houses, and to worship, and then passed out of view as mysteriously as they had come, may point to such immigrations, as well as to those which we know from the Book of Mormon.