One More Time—Malay is Not the Land of Promise Part II

Continuing from the last post, the “exceedingly large” ships that Hagoth built would have been deep-sea, ocean-going sailing vessels, driven by the weather, with wind in their sails and the currents driving them forward. Certainly the size and design of Nephi’s ship five centuries earlier would have been known among his descendants because of the vital role it played in bringing their ancestors to this land. In addition, the ships to be described as “exceedingly large” must have been much bigger than the other ships the Nephites were building and sailing at the time in coastal waters (Helaman 3:10,14).

To make it clear what Joseph Smith knew in 1829 when he chose the word “ship” to describe the vessels Hagoth built, the first steamboat to successfully navigate a paddle wheel in North America was Samuel Morey’s 1793 vessel on the Connecticut River in Orford, New Hampshire, but it was not until 1807 that commercial operations took place between New York City and Albany, a 32-hour trip of 150 miles. In 1811 steamboats sailed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first oceanic voyage was in 1819 from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England, a voyage taking 29 days, but regular trans-Atlantic voyages did not take place until 1838. In the meantime, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon plates in 1829, when steamboat travel was new and basically along rivers. The idea of a ship heading into the ocean was still that of a weather vessel sailing ship.

Thus, the “exceedingly large ship” Hagoth built would have been described as the term was known to Joseph Smith in 1829—that is, a sailing ship “built for navigation furnished with a bowsprit, and three masts, a main-mast, a fore-mast, and a mizzen-mast, each of which is composed of a lower-mast, a top-mast, and top-gallant mast and square rigged.” Therefore by 1828 standards, “an exceedingly large ship” would have been thus described. Certainly, one that is meant for deep-ocean sailing. Therefore, we cannot suggest that Hagoth’s ships were small, light, shallow-bottomed coastal vessels as John L. Sorenson claims in his writings, but ships meant to cross deep water.

While this suits sailing westward from the Western Hemisphere out into the Pacific Ocean, it does not work sailing anywhere from the Malaysai Peninsula, since all of Indonesia is crowded with islands. According to the Indonesian Naval Hydro-Oceanographic Office, Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world and consists of five major islands and about 30 smaller groups with the total number of islands at 17,508. Navigating and maneuvering among islands with their cross-currents, swirling winds, shoals and reefs is claimed to be the most difficult sailing avenue possible.

Finding a Land of Promise is more than looking on a map and searching a little history—it is understanding the Nephites, what they did, how they existed and lived, and how their commercial enterprises flourished. After all, Mormon tells us in numerous places that the Nephites not only spread out and covered the face of the land, but also became rich as in “their exceedingly great riches and their prosperity in the land; and it did grow upon them from day to day” (Helaman 3:36). There has to be a way for a people to become rich and prosper, something that can be accomplished through food sources (farming, planting and selling crops), timber (cutting and shipping lumber), textiles (weaving and making clothes and fabrics and transporting and selling them), merchandising (making and selling pottery, utensils, machinery, farming implements, etc.), and in all this transporting it from place to place. To do this you need connecting roads, seaports, ships, teamsters, commercial centers, merchants, transporters, shippers, marketplaces, etc. They also would need ore deposits, mining facilities, mines, miners, refiners, blacksmiths, metal smiths, etc., in order to “became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; and they did have an exceeding plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north” (Helaman 6:9).

A Land of Promise besides matching geographical and topographical features, also has to satisfy the societal development and understanding of the Nephites and the Jaredites before them. You cannot just look at a map and point a finger and say “this must be the place because—“ and then list some matching features, such as two lands divided by a narrow neck, the south land surrounded by water, an inlet or bay for ship building and launching, mountains (whose height is great), a major river, and some ruins, forts and fortresses, passes, etc. All of these are important and necessary to have, but in total, the entire scriptural record must be understood in light of the Nephites’ way of life, of all that Mormon and Nephi told us—clues if you will—to show us where they were and how they got there.

The Malay Peninsula, Baja California, Mesoamerica, the Great Lakes and eastern United States, the Heartland, etc., all of these theories fall far short of matching the entire concept of a land that was suited to the Nephite way of life as Mormon described it. The mistake that all these theorists make is that they start with a place, then try to match scriptural references to it. In all cases, some items do match—but then, any place on earth could be found to match some Book of Mormon descriptions—but none match all the points Nephi and Mormon have given us.

(See the next post, “One More Time—Malay is Not the Land of Promise Part III,” for more on why the Malay Peninsula fails to match the scriptural record in all areas)