“The Prophet Joseph informed us that the record of Lehi was contained on the one hundred sixteen pages that were first translated and subsequently stolen, and of which an abridgment is given us in the First Book of Nephi, which is the record of Nephi individually, he himself being of the lineage of Manasseh; but that Ishmael was of the lineage of Ephraim, and that his sons married into Lehi’s family, and Lehi’s sons married Ishmael’s daughters, thus fulfilling the words of Jacob upon Ephraim and Manasseh in the 48th chapter of Genesis (vs 16) which says: ‘And let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.’ Thus these descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim grew together upon this American continent, with sprinkling from the house of Judah from Mulek descendants, who left Jerusalem eleven years after Lehi, and founded the colony afterwards known as Zarahemla and found by Mosiah –thus making a combination, an intermixture of Ephraim and Manasseh with the remnants of Judah, and for aught we know, the remnants of some other tribes that might have accompanied Mulek. And such have grown up upon the American continent.” (Articles of Faith, App 15, Notes of Chapter 15, pp 504-504; Snow: Journal of Discourses, vol 23, pp 184-185)Elder Talmadge, in this same appendix, went on to write: “[there is] an impressive array of evidence pointing to the Old World and specifically to Egypt, as the source of many of the customs by which the American aborigines are distinguished. The article is accompanied by a map showing probable routes of travel from the Old World to the New, and two landing places on the west coast, one in Mexico and another near the boundary common to Peru and Chile, from which places the immigrants spread.” (Articles of Faith, p 508).
The prevailing view of early Church members who knew Joseph Smith is that they believed the Lord had revealed to the prophet that Nephi's ship landed in Chile. Elders Orson Pratt and Elder Franklin D. Richards, openly taught that the prophet received a revelation that Nephi's ship landed at 30 degrees south latitude in South America. Both apostles knew Joseph Smith, and it goes without saying that apostles are themselves prophets, seers, and revelators--special witnesses of Christ---and certainly are men who would not have taught a falsehood or a doctrine that conflicted with one taught by Joseph Smith. Evidence supporting this revelation to Joseph Smith is that the words thereof were written in the "handwriting of Frederick G. Williams, Counselor to the Prophet, and on the same page with the body of an undoubted revelation" which is now part of the Doctrine and Covenants.
The Church included the revelation that Nephi landed in Chile as a footnote to the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon. Indeed, contrary to the revisionist thinking of some later Book of Mormon scholars, B. H. Roberts reminds us that the dominant belief among the early Church members was that Joseph Smith revealed that Nephi landed in South America.
In his History of the Church in Peru, Dale Christensen cites: On October 29, 1959 a conference was held with some 300 people in attendance (in Santiago, Chile). At this meeting Elder Harold B. Lee presented the names of the Andes Mission Presidency . . . It was explained that the southern headquarters would be in Santiago, Chile, but the main office would be in Lima, Peru . . . the Presidency and the Twelve had decided to organize a new mission to consist of the countries of Peru and Chile. The name that was chosen for this new mission was the Andes Mission. The following are excerpts are from a stirring address given in the morning session of the Conference by Elder Harold B. Lee of the Council of the Twelve Apostles: "there have been a flood of memories and thoughts running through my mind; where the followers of Lehi landed no one knows exactly where this location was. In the wisdom of the Lord it has not been definitely revealed. We know that at the time of the crucifixion of the Lord, the whole face of the earth was changed and the arrangements of mountains and valleys and rivers may not be the same as they were before that time. But from the writings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of other inspired men, it seems that all are in agreement that the followers of Lehi came to the western shores of South America.” (B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, Vol. 3., p 501; Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 1, "Book of Mormon Geography").Having said all that, it should still be understood that the ancient prophets who lived in the Land of Promise and who wrote about their land are the best source of information relative to the geography of the Book of Mormon.
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