MIGRATIONS TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND THE NATIONS THAT AROSE FROM THEM.[1]  
According to the Book of Mormon there have been three migrations from the old world to the new. These, in their chronological order, are, first, the colony of Jared; second, the colony of Lehi; and third, the colony of Mulek. It is necessary to the completeness of this work to give a brief account of each of these colonies, together with their development into great nations in the western world, a summary of their history, and a brief description of their civilization.
 
I. THE JAREDITES.
 
Migration and Place of Landing.
 
The colony of Jared, according to the Book of Mormon, departed from the Tower of Babel about the time of the confusion of languages; which, if the Hebrew chronology of the Bible be accepted, was an event that took place 2,247 B. C. Through a special favor to the family of Jared and his brother, Moriancumr,[2] the language of these families, and that of a few of their friends was not confounded. Under divine direction they departed from Babel northward into a valley called Nimrod, and thence were led by the Lord across the continent of Asia[3] eastward until they came to the shore of the great sea—Pacific Ocean—which divided the lands. Here they remained four years; and then by divine appointment constructed eight barges in which to cross the mighty ocean to a land of promise, to which God had covenanted to bring them; to a land "which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had reserved for a righteous people." After a severely stormy passage—continuing for 344 days, the colony landed on the western coast of North America, "probably south of the Gulf of California."[4]
 
Soon after their arrival the people of the colony began to scatter out upon the face of the land, and multiply, and till the earth; "and they did wax strong in the land."[5] Previous to the demise of Moriancumr and Jared, the people were called together and a kingly government founded, Orihah, the youngest son of Jared, being anointed king.
 
Capital and Centres of Civilization.
 
The capital of the kingdom was doubtless the city of Moron, in a province or "land" of the same name, the location of which is unknown except that it was near the land called by the Nephites "Desolation." "Now," says Moroni, "the land of Moron, where the king dwelt, was near the land which is called 'Desolation' by the Nephites;"[6] and later he informs us that this "land of Moron" was the land of the "first inheritance" of the Jaredites.[7] This locates the land of Moron near the land called by the Nephites "Desolation," and the land Desolation, according to the Nephite records, bordered on the north of the land Bountiful, at that point where it was but a day and a half's journey for a Nephite from the sea east to the sea west.[8] This would bring the southern borders of the land Desolation well down towards the continent of South America, perhaps to some point on that narrow neck of land known to us as the Isthmus of Panama. The northern limits of what the Nephites called the land Desolation may not be so easily ascertained. Whether it extended north and westward beyond the peninsula of Yucatan or ended south and east of that peninsula may not be definitely determined; but from the general tenor of the references to it in the Book of Mormon, it was, when compared with the whole country, occupied by the Nephites, a small division of the country, a local province, and bounded on the north by what the Jaredites called the land of Moron, the land of the Jaredites' first inheritance.[9]
 
According to the late Elder Orson Pratt the place of the Jaredites' "first inheritance," or landing, was "on the western coast, and probably south of the Gulf of California,"[10] though he gives no reason for his statement. Elder George Reynolds, speaking of the land of Moron, "where the Jaredites made their first settlement," says: "It was north of the land called Desolation by the Nephites, and consequently in some part of the region which we know as Central America."[11] This conclusion, of course, is based upon the idea that the land Desolation was comparatively but a small Nephite province, an idea that, as already remarked, is forced upon the mind from the general tenor of the Book of Mormon references to it.
 
This land Desolation, so named by the Nephites because of the evidence of ruin and destruction that everywhere abounded in it, when first discovered by them, not because its lands were not fertile, was evidently a great centre of population in Jaredite times. About 123 B. C. a company of Nephites—forty-three in number—sent out by one Limhi, came into the land afterwards called Desolation and described it as "a land which was covered with dry bones, yea, a land which had been peopled, and which had been destroyed."[12] Another description of the land found by Limhi's expedition is that they "discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with the ruins of buildings of every kind; * * * a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel."[13] "And for a testimony that the things they said were true, they brought from the land twenty-four plates which were filled with engravings, and the plates were of pure gold. And behold, also, they brought breast plates, which were large, and they were of brass and of copper, and perfectly sound. And again, they brought swords, the hilts of which had perished, and the blades were cankered with rust; but no one in the land could interpret the language or the engravings that were on the plates."[14]
 
It is evident that the land of Moron, north of Desolation, was the chief centre of Jaredite civilization, and the principal seat of government from the time of their first landing in America—some twenty-two centuries B. C.—to the last civil war which ended in the destruction of the nation, in the sixth century B. C. The evidence of the foregoing statement is seen in the fact that Moron is the land of their first inheritance; and also that nearly all their great civil wars throughout their national existence, down to and including the last, raged in and about the land of Moron[15]—except the last great battles of the last war which were fought about the Hill Ramah, the Hill Cumorah of the Nephites. This fixes the center of Jaredite civilization for a period of some sixteen centuries in Central America. True, there is evidence that the Jaredites occupied at one time very much of the north continent;[16] but the land Moron, in Central America, was the seat of government and the center of civilization of the great empire. In the reign of the fourth king of the Jaredites, Omer, a conspiracy overthrew his authority; and would doubtless have ended in his assassination; but, warned of God in a dream, he departed out of the land with his family, and "traveled many days," and "came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed"—that is, by the Hill Cumorah, south of Lake Ontario, in the state of New York—"and from thence eastward, and came to a place that was called Ablom, by the sea shore, and there he pitched his tent."[17] Here he was joined later by others who fled from the tyranny of those who had usurped the kingdom.[18] This land of "Ablom", the late Elder Orson Pratt suggested, was "probably on the shore of the New England states."[19] So far as known this marks the northern limits of Jaredite occupancy of the north continent.
 
In the reign of the sixteenth king—in whose days "the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants,"[20] a "great city was founded at the narrow neck of land," that is, at some point on the Isthmus of Panama. That city marked the southern limits of the Jaredite empire. They never entered South America for the purpose of colonization, but preserved it "for a wilderness," in which "to get game."[21]
 
The width of the empire east and west, north of the Gulf of Mexico, may not be determined. Whether it extended from ocean to ocean, or was confined to the Missouri-Mississippi valleys, and thence eastward south of the great lakes to the Atlantic, may not be positively asserted; but personally I incline to the latter opinion, notwithstanding the statement of the Book of Mormon to the effect that "the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants." This I believe to be merely a general expression meant to convey the idea of a very extensive occupancy of the north continent by the Jaredites; but as it does not compel us to believe that the writer had in mind Labrador, the regions of Hudson's Bay and Alaska, so I do not think it requires us to believe that the Jaredites occupied the Rocky mountains, and regions westward of them. My principal reason for thinking that the Jaredite empire was limited northward to the great lakes, eastward from the Rocky mountain slopes—northward of the Gulf of Mexico—to the Atlantic, and southward to the Isthmus of Panama, is because—as will appear later—to that territory, magnificent in its extent, are more strictly confined what I regard as the evidences of Jaredite occupancy.
 
Extent and Nature of Civilization.
 
The extent of Jaredite civilization would be coextensive with the territory they occupied, the limits of which have already been considered. Of its nature one may judge somewhat when it is remembered that they were colonists from the Euphrates valley, shortly after the flood; and very likely the nature of their buildings, especially of their public buildings, temples and other places of worship, would take on the general features of the buildings in ancient Babel modified in time, of course, by their own advancement in architecture.
 
That they were a prosperous and civilized race in their new home in the western hemisphere is quite clear. In the reign of the fifth monarch, Emer, the people had become strong and prosperous, "insomuch that they became exceeding rich, having all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things; and also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. They also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man; * * * and thus the Lord did pour out his blessings upon this land [North America], which was choice above all other lands."[22]
 
In the reigns of Riplakish and Morianton, their tenth and eleventh monarch respectively—there were twenty-eight legitimate kings in all, besides a number of usurpers who held authority for a season in the Jaredite nation—many spacious buildings were erected and many cities were built; and the people "became exceeding rich" under those reigns; while in the reign of the sixteenth monarch, Lib, they seemed to have reached a very high state of civilization, which extended over the "whole face of the land northward:—"
 
They were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain. And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work. And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness. And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth. * * * And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts. And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship. And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord.[23]
 
This represents a people far advanced in civilization, in agriculture, in mining, in manufactures, and in the arts. This blessed condition was in fulfilment of the promise of the Lord; for when he called out of Babel Jared and his brother, Moriancumr, the Lord promised the latter that he would lead them "into a land which is choice above all the lands of the earth." "And there will I bless thee and thy seed," said the Lord, "and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation. And there shall be none greater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth."[24]
 
If we take this brief glimpse of the civilization of the Jaredite nation quoted above, and couple it with the promise of God to Moriancumr, we have every reason to believe that the Jaredites became a very great, prosperous, and powerful people. Their occupancy of the western world, however, was confined to the northern continent. Here their civilization rose, and here it fell, after enduring between fifteen and sixteen hundred years, if we accept the Hebrew chronology for the date of the confounding of language at Babel.
 
Numbers.
 
The number of Jaredites, of course, varied at different periods of their long national existence. In the reign of the fourth king, Omer, a grievous civil war broke out among them which "lasted for the space of many years," and led to "the destruction of nearly all the people of the kingdom."[25] From time to time they were subject to these civil wars which very naturally checked the increase in their population. Still they became very numerous, sufficiently so, as already shown, to occupy an immense empire of country, extending from the Isthmus of Panama northward, including Central America, Mexico, thence northward to the great lakes, and from the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. In their last great civil war, after it had raged many years, we are informed by the sacred historian that there had been slain by the sword "two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children."[26] Upon which the late Orson Pratt remarks, in a foot note on the passage, that including the wives and children of the two millions of men who were slain, "the numbers would probably have been from ten to fifteen millions." Their numbers may have been even greater than this at other periods of their history.
 
Literature.
 
The Jaredites also had a literature. When the Nephite king Mosiah translated some of their records—the twenty-four plates of Ether, brought by Limhi's expedition from the land Desolation—it is stated that they gave an account not only of the people who were destroyed (the Jaredites) from the time they were destroyed back to the building of the great Tower at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and scattered them abroad upon the face of the earth, but they also gave an account of events beyond that time "even up to the creation of Adam." It is only reasonable to conclude that the record engraven on gold plates by the last Jaredite historian, the prophet Ether, was but one of many such records among the Jaredites; for since they came from the Euphrates valley with a knowledge of letters, there is nothing in their history which would lead us to suppose they lost that knowledge; but on the contrary everything to establish the fact that they continued in possession thereof; for not only was Ether, the last of their prophets, able to keep a record, but the last of their kings, Coriantumer, was able to write; for in the days of the Nephite king, Mosiah I, a large stone was brought to him with engravings on it which he interpreted by means of Urim and Thummim; and the record on the stone gave an account of Coriantumer, written by himself, and the slain of his people; and it also recorded a few words concerning his fathers and how his first parents came out from the Tower at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people. So that, from first to last, the Jaredites had a literature.
 
Government.
 
Before the demise of the two brothers, Moriancumr and Jared, who led the Jaredite colony to the western hemisphere, the people were called together and a kingly government founded. Monarchial government was not established without remonstrance from Moriancumr, who declared that such government would lead to the destruction of liberty.[27] But Jared pleaded that the people might have the kind of government they desired, and proposed that they choose from among his own or his brother's sons the man they would have for king. The first choice of the people was Pagag, the eldest son of Moriancumr; but influenced, doubtless by the desire of his father that some other form of government should be established, Pagag declined the kingly honor. So also several of the sons of Jared declined to serve in that office, perhaps for the same reason. Finally, however, one of the sons of Jared, Orihah, accepted and was anointed king. The choice seems to have been a fortunate one, for it is said that Orihah walked humbly before the Lord and he remembered the great things the Lord had done for his fathers, as also did his people; and he executed judgment upon the land in righteousness all his days, and his days were many.[28] Orihah was succeeded by his son Kib, in whose reign the first rebellion took place; for the son of Kib rebelled against him, and even imprisoned the king until another son born in the old age of the captive monarch gathered sufficient strength to reinstate his father upon his throne. This was the commencement of a long series of such rebellions in the Jaredite dynasty.
 
Of the nature of Jaredite government little can be learned beyond the fact that after the election of the first king, Orihah, the hereditary principle was recognized; and although there were frequent contestants for the throne, and occasional usurpations of the kingly authority, the legitimate line of hereditary monarchs seems to have been reasonably well maintained. It appears not to have been part of the constitution of the government, however, that the rights of heredity in the royal house should descend to the eldest son. It frequently happened that the son born in the old age of the reigning monarch succeeded to the kingly power, a course which perhaps accounts for the occasional rebellions of their brothers, though the rights of the first born are never urged as the cause of the quarrels.
 
Of the subordinate officers of the kingdom nothing is said; by what means judicial powers were exercised we are not informed; what the nature of the military organization was, or what system of taxation was adopted, we do not know. On all these matters Moroni's abridgment of the record of Ether is silent.
 
Religion.
 
Relative to the religion that obtained among the Jaredites, we are left in well-nigh as much ignorance as we are concerning the nature of the subordinate feature of their government. The two brothers, Moriancumr and Jared, seem to have been among the righteous people of Babel; so much so in fact that Moriancumr was a very great prophet of God, and had direct access to the source of revelation; for by revelation he learned of God's intention to confound the language of the people, and thus stop the impious work in which they were engaged, when building the city of Babel and its tower. It is in consequence of their high favor with God that the language of these brothers and that of their friends was preserved; and they with their families and friends, led away to "a land which was choice above all other lands," where God fulfilled his promise to make of them a great nation. It is doubtful if a prophet ever lived in ancient times who held more direct communion with God than did this prophet Moriancumr. It will be remembered that he took into the mountain sixteen transparent stones, which he had prepared, and asked God to make them luminous; that in the journey of the colony across the great deep in the eight barges that had been prepared, they might not be in darkness. As the Lord stretched forth his hand to touch the stones, in compliance with the prophet's request, the veil was taken from the eyes of Moriancumr, and he saw the finger of God, and fell prostrate before him in fear. But even his fear could not crush his faith. He so far prevailed with God through faith that he beheld him face to face, and talked with him as a man speaks with his friend. That is, he saw and talked with the pre-existent spirit of the Lord Jesus, for the Lord said to him: "This body which ye now behold is the body of my spirit, * * * and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh." A greater revelation of God than this, previous to the coming of the Lord Jesus in the flesh, no other prophet ever received. Moreover Jesus said to him: "Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood. * * * Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. * * * In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally, even those who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. * * * Seest thou that ye are created after mine image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image."[29]
 
Moriancumr was commanded not to suffer the things he had seen and heard to be revealed to the world until the Lord Jesus should have lived in the flesh. He was commanded, however, to write what he had both seen and heard, and seal it up that it might be preserved to come forth in due time to the children of men. In addition to the revelation of his own person to him, the Lord revealed to the prophet Moriancumr "all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth." While Moriancumr was prohibited from making known to his people the great things thus revealed to him, his knowledge of the things of God must have given him wonderful power and influence in teaching his people the righteous truths which are fundamental and universal. This confidence and strength must also have been imparted to others, for certain it is that the Jaredites had prophets of great power sent to them from time to time to teach and reprove them; and even some of their monarchs were shining examples of spiritual power and righteousness. The fifth monarch, Emer, possessed such faith that he, like Moriancumr, had the blessed privilege of seeing "the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day."[30] And of the whole people it is said, "never could [there] be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord."[31] All of which is good evidence that the Jaredites at this time (in the reign of Lib, the sixteenth monarch) were a righteous people; and this righteousness was doubtless brought about by the preaching of faith in God and his laws as only Moriancumr and other prophets whom God raised up to the Jaredite nation could preach it. But it was with the Jaredites as with other nations. Their righteousness was not continuous, and it is more than likely that their faith ebbed and flowed as the faith of all people seems to ebb and flow. There were times when the prophets of God were rejected; when their severest warnings of coming calamities seemed to produce no effec............