INTER-CONTINENTAL MOVEMENTS OF BOOK OF MORMON PEOPLE.  
The inter-continental movements of the Book of Mormon peoples must next be considered.
 
Of the movements of the Jaredites and the people of Mulek but little can be learned. The center of Jaredite civilization and national power was in that part of the north continent known to the Nephites as the land Desolation, a country which corresponds, as we have seen, to modern Central America,[1] and of which Moron was the capital. From this point the Jaredites evidently colonized in great part the north continent; for it is said in the reign of King Lib that "the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants."[2] But this is the widest extent of their colonization, as they confined themselves to occupancy of the north continent, and nothing more than hunting excursions ever carried them into the south continent.
 
Of the movements of Mulek's colony we have nothing more definite than that having landed first at some point in the south part of the north continent, they afterwards removed into the north part of the south continent—to the valley of the Sidon, and were permanently settled there when they were found by the migrating Nephites under Mosiah I.
 
As for the movements of the Nephites we have already traced them from Lehi's landing place to the valley of the Sidon, where they joined the people of Zarahemla, the descendants of Mulek's colony, and formed the Nephite-Zarahemla monarchy under Mosiah I.
 
Hereafter we shall find their movements tending chiefly in two directions: to the southward, and into the north.
 
NEPHITE MOVEMENTS SOUTHWARD.
 
The movements of the Nephites southward were prompted by two chief incentives: first, by a desire on the part of some restless, over-zealous spirits, who came with Mosiah to the valley of the Sidon, to regain possession of the Land of Nephi—the land of their forefathers; a choice land in itself, and made dear to some of them, doubtless, by many tender and sacred recollections; second, by a pious desire on the part of zealous missionaries to convert their brethren, the Lamanites, to the truth of their fathers' faith in God, and the truth of their fathers' traditions concerning the future coming of the Christ to bring to pass the redemption of the world.
 
The first, and perhaps the largest of these movements, having in contemplation the re-occupancy of the land of Nephi, was made under Zeniff, a man who describes himself as "overzealous" to inherit the land of his fathers.[3] This expedition was most likely undertaken during the reign of the second king of the Nephite-Zarahemla nation, viz., King Benjamin, who succeeded Mosiah I. In King Benjamin's reign there was a serious war between the Lamanites and the newly formed Nephite-Zarahemla nation. The Lamanites invaded the land of Zarahemla bent on ravaging the country, and the subjugation of the people. They were repulsed and driven back to their own lands, but not without much bloodshed.[4] During the war, but likely after the repulse of the Lamanites, Zeniff, with others, was sent among the Lamanites to locate their forces and ascertain their strength, that the Nephite-Zarahemla army might destroy them. But Zeniff, impressed with the many virtues of the Lamanites, desired that they might not be destroyed, and urged upon the leader of the Nephite expedition to enter into a friendly treaty with them. This, however, was so far from the mind of the Nephite leader that he ordered Zeniff to be slain, doubtless upon the charge of treason, or insubordination; whereupon there was a revolt in the expedition. The leader himself was killed; and Zeniff was rescued after much bloodshed. Fifty of the expedition—all that survived the unhappy conflict—returned to Zarahemla to relate the sad event that had befallen them. Zeniff now gathered a company about him who were desirous of repossessing the land of their forefathers, and with them he departed from Zarahemla. On the journey they suffered from famine, which much reduced their numbers; but finally they reached the land of Lehi-Nephi, and of Shilom, which was the place from which the Nephites under Mosiah departed northward in their second great hegira.[5]
 
The Lamanites received the expedition of Zeniff with favor, entered into treaty relations with them, and vacated the land of Lehi-Nephi and Shilom, that Zeniff and his people might possess it. It must not be thought, however, that the action of the king of the Lamanites was altogether disinterested; his ulterior motive was plunder of the Nephites as soon as their well-known industry should bear fruit. He allowed them to take possession of the cities and lands of their fathers only that he might bring them into bondage, and make their industry a source of revenue to himself and people.
 
The people of Zeniff rebuilt the walls of the ancient Nephite cities in the land of Nephi, as also the cities themselves, and brought the fruitful lands of their fathers again under cultivation; for under Lamanite occupancy they had been neglected. The cities also had fallen into decay, and the walls thereof had partly crumbled into ruins. As soon, however, as Nephite industry began to redeem the waste places and produce prosperity in the land, the Lamanites attempted their subjugation; but though they suffered some from their conflicts with the Lamanites, the Nephites, so long as Zeniff lived, maintained their independence. So also they did during part of the reign of their second king, Noah, son of Zeniff. During the reign of this second king, though he himself was a dissolute, unrighteous man, he greatly beautified the city of Lehi-Nephi, embellished the temple, and also built for himself a magnificent palace. He also erected many and magnificent buildings in the land of Shilom.[6] To carry out these improvements King Noah taxed his people to the extent of one-fifth of all their possessions, and of their income. He surrounded his dissolute court with a corrupt priesthood, and in every way demoralized his people and made his reign infamous. Still he successfully expelled the predatory bands of Lamanites which invaded his territory from the south, and who had for a time preyed upon his people.
 
About this time God sent a prophet among King Noah's people to warn them of impending calamity. Him they burned, not heeding his warning. But the mission of Abinadi, for such was the prophet's name, was not wholly in vain, for the heart of one priest, Alma, was touched; and he, repenting of his own wickedness, brought others to repentance. As might be expected, this course displeased King Noah, and he sought to destroy young Alma and his people. But Alma being warned of God of the king's intentions, fled with his people (numbering about four hundred and fifty souls) into the wilderness, some eight days' journey, where they founded a city which they called Helam.[7] Here they dwelt in security for a number of years. Finally, however, they were discovered by the Lamanites, who placed them under bondage, and appointed task masters over them. From this thraldom they were finally released by the interposition of the Lord, who directed Alma to take his flight in the direction of Zarahemla, which is reached in twelve days from Helam, where he was most heartily received by King Mosiah II, who made him High Priest over the Church throughout Zarahemla.
 
Meantime a large army of Lamanites invaded the land of Lehi-Nephi, before whom King Noah and his people fled; but being encumbered with their wives and children they were soon overtaken. Noah ordered an abandonment of the women and children; but this order part of the men of his army refused to obey, choosing rather to die with their wives and children. The remainder followed the king. When the Lamanites saw the helplessness of the Nephites, and being moved with compassion by the pleading of their women, they abandoned the slaughter of them, and permitted them to return to their cities, under covenant that they would deliver up one-half of their property, and thereafter pay annually one-half of the products of their labors. These hard conditions were accepted; and the people returned to their possessions; one Limhi, son of Noah, was chosen to be their ruler—their king, if such a title, under the circumstances, be not mockery.
 
The Nephite men who obeyed the orders of King Noah in the matter of abandoning their wives and children soon repented of their cowardice, and resolved to return and share their fate or avenge their death; and when King Noah opposed their manly resolutions they burned him at the stake. On returning to Lehi-Nephi it was to find, of course, that their people had gone into bondage to the Lamanites, under the circumstances already detailed—a bondage these returning fugitives readily shared.
 
Hard, indeed, was the fate of the Nephites under Lamanite bondage. The treaty stipulation prevented the Lamanites from making open war upon them; but the one-half of the products of their labor due their masters under the treaty they had formed was collected under every circumstance of cruelty, and the Lamanites themselves directed the labors of the unfortunate Nephites, placing task masters over them, who in every way insulted and oppressed them, even to the binding of heavy burdens upon their backs, and the application of the lash on the slightest provocation.
 
Under these circumstances it can be easily understood that the Nephites were restive and anxious for deliverance. Naturally their eyes and hearts turned to Zarahemla, where the great body of their brethren dwelt in security. Once King Limhi fitted out a small expedition of forty-three men and sent them to find Zarahemla, and bring deliverance. The expedition was a failure as far as its immediate object was concerned. It was lost in the wilderness, passed by the land of Zarahemla—evidently on the west of it, and went into the land northward, where it found the ruins of the Jaredite race—destroyed cities, ruined temples, fallen walls, a land covered with the bones of men and beasts. They also found breast-plates of brass and copper; swords, the hilts of which had perished; and the blades of which were cankered with rust. But what was of more importance they found what afterwards proved to be the record of Ether, consisting of twenty-four plates of gold, on which the last prophet of the Jaredite race had engraved an outline history of his people, and which subsequently King Mosiah, by use of the Urim and Thummim, translated into the Nephite language; so that the Nephites at Zarahemla were acquainted with the history of the people who had preceded them in the occupancy of the western hemisphere.[8]
 
It would naturally be expected that the people of Zarahemla would feel an interest in their brethren who went up to re-occupy the land of Nephi; and when, year after year passed away and no word came of their fate or fortunes, there were those who petitioned the king of Zarahemla to send an expedition in search of them. The repeated petitions at last met with favorable action, and one Ammon, a descendant of Zarahemla, with fifteen others started for the land of Nephi. After forty days' journey they reached Shilom, at which place King Limhi was sojourning at the time of their arrival. The joy of the meeting was mutual. Ammon and his associates rejoiced that their mission had such a happy termination; Limhi and his people, that they could now hope for deliverance from Lamanite bondage; and also they had joy in the proof which Ammon brought them that the Nephites of Zarahemla were not destroyed; for when Limhi's expedition returned from the land northward, where they found the ruins and bones of an extinct people, they supposed they had found Zarahemla, but that the Lamanites had destroyed that people.
 
Soon after the arrival of Ammon in the land of Nephi the people of Limhi devised plans for their escape from their Lamanite oppressors. The plans were successfully carried into effect, and Limhi and his people were welcomed to Zarahemla by King Mosiah II. Thus ended the most notable effort of the Nephites to repossess the land of their fathers' first inheritance, the land of Nephi. The occupancy of that land by Zeniff's people extended over a period of about eighty years.
 
Of the missionary expeditions that ventured into the land of Nephi for the conversion of the Lamanites, one of the most notable, as also one of the most successful, was begun and carried to its successful termination under the leadership of the four sons of King Mosiah II, named respectively, Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni. These young men, and Alma, son of the High Priest of the same name, in their youthful days were unbelievers in the traditions of their fathers; and they sought to destroy the Church of God which the elder Alma with so much toil had established through a faithful ministry. No parental authority, no persuasion of preaching, prevailed against the pride and skepticism of these young princes and the younger Alma. Gifted with eloquence, politic, large-minded, generous in word and deed, gracious and condescending to the people, Absalomlike he was rapidly stealing the hearts of the Nephites, threatening the very existence of the Church of God. At this juncture, out of respect for the prayers of the elder Alma, God visited these young men by sending an angel to reprove them, and warn them of impending calamities. The manifestation of God's power in this visitation was such that the young men were over-whelmed. Their conviction of sin was such that they repented thoroughly; and, Paul-like, from being persecutors of those who served God, they became zealous teachers of the truth, and sought with all their power to undo the wretched mischief they had done in seeking the destruction of the Church. This accomplished, so far as was possible, in the land of Zarahemla, their thoughts turned to the hosts of unbelieving Lamanites in the land of Nephi, more numerous than the Nephites and the people of Zarahemla combined. A holy desire took possession of them to preach salvation through the gospel to those hosts of Lamanites. Renouncing, therefore, all their claims as princes, and abdicating all rights of succession to the throne of their father, Mosiah II, these' princes headed the aforesaid missionary expedition to the Lamanites. In the midst of many afflictions, attended with much persecution, the sons of Mosiah and their companions preached the gospel extensively throughout Lamanite lands, and had a rich harvest of souls for their hire. They established a Church among the Lamanites; but such was the oppression practiced by the unconverted Lamanites upon those who accepted the teachings of the Nephites, that, under divine direction and to preserve their people from destruction, the young princes conducted an exodus of the Church from the land of Nephi, then in possession of the Lamanites, to Zarahemla, where they were welcomed by the Nephites, especially by Alma the High Priest; and a land—the land of Jershon, north of Zarahemla—was set apart for the home[9] of this body of Lamanite converts.
 
NEPHITE MOVEMENT NORTHWARD
 
The Nephites in the land of Zarahemla early appreciated the strategic importance of holding possession of the narrow neck of land—the isthmus which connected the southland with the northland. They perceived that if hard-pressed by their Lamanite enemies, who out-numbered them to the extent of two for one,[10] the narrow neck of land afforded them a means of escape into the great land northward, while by fortifying the narrow passage their enemies, however numerous, could be held in check, while they themselves would have a whole continent behind them in which to expand. The Lamanites also saw the strategic importance of this isthmus, and in some of the great wars in the last half of the century immediately preceding the coming of the Messiah, they sought to possess it, and the Nephites as strenuously sought to prevent them from taking possession of it.[11]
 
The first extensive migration of Nephites into the north continent occurred in the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth year of the reign of the Nephite judges, a period which corresponds to fifty-five B. C. That year five thousand four hundred men, together with their wives and children, left the land of Zarahemla for the northland. That same year one Hagoth, spoken of in Nephite annals as a "curious man," established ship-building yards on the borders of the land Bountiful, on the west side of the isthmus connecting the two continents. Here he constructed a number of large vessels, in which great bodies of immigrants were carried northward, to found new homes. Two of Hagoth's vessels that started northward never returned, nor was anything ever afterwards heard of them. The Nephites believed them to have been wrecked at sea. It is supposed by some that these Nephite vessels may have drifted westward and that their occupants may have peopled some of the islands of the Pacific.
 
About ten years after this first great migration northward the movement of population in that direction received a fresh impetus; for great numbers went from Zarahemla and extended their journey farther northward than heretofore. Contentions in the land of Zarahemla—contentions born of pride, seem to have been responsible in some way for this movement. Doubtless in the old centers of Nephite civilization the possession of large wealth led to class distinctions, and inequalities, most distasteful to a people who from the first arrival of their fathers on the promised land had been taught to look upon each other as equals. Migration from the land where distinctions based upon the possession of wealth, and the pride it fosters, presented itself perhaps as the easiest solution of the difficulty, and hence the impetus to the northward movement in this year 46 B. C.[12]
 
The Nephite historian, Mormon, in speaking of conditions that obtained about this time, gives one o............