Connection Between Peru and the Book of Mormon

It is always a lot of fun to show the connection between the scriptural record of the Land of Promise and the Andean area of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. This has all been stated before here, but this is intended to follow up with the last post on “The Advanced Civilization of the Nephites” and how that advanced civilization mirrors the advanced civilization found in ancient Peru.

As an example:

• When Moroni describes two animals that were on a par with elephants in their usefulness to the Jaredites, more so than horses and asses (a domesticated ass is a donkey), that were unknown to Joseph Smith in 1829 New England, we can search the entire Western Hemisphere and find only two animals that meet that criteria: the South American Llama (far left) and Alpaca (left).

• When Mosiah wrote about two unknown grains that were on a par with corn, wheat and barley, but obviously of great importance as a Nephite crop, that were unknown to Joseph Smith in 1829, we can search the entire Western Hemisphere and find that only two crops meet such a high standard grain— Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and kiwichi (Amaranthus caudatus). Today Quinoa is considered one of the most perfect of grains, with an Excellent Healthiest Food Rating, in the International Food Rating System, and has a high concentration of nutrients for the calories it contains. These grains were unknown outside the Andean area in the 1830s.

• When Mormon mentioned the highway that ran by the Disciple Nephi’s house, and Samuel the Lamanite preached that many highways would be broken up, and Nephi also reported that “many highways” and “many roads” were made, “which led from city to city, and from land to land, and from place to place,” we can look at only two sites in all of the Western  Hemisphere that had roads anciently, Mesoamerica and the Andean area of South America. In fact, when the Spanish arrived, they wrote that nothing in Ancient Peru were more remarkable than the public roads. “No ancient people has left traces of works more astonishing than these, so vast was their extent, and so great the skill and labor required to construct them.” An early Spanish chronicler upon traveling the roads, wrote: “The width of the roadways varied from twenty to twenty-five feet, and they were made level and smooth by paving, and in some places by a sort of macadamizing with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement. This cement was used in all the masonry. On each side of the roadway was “a very strong wall more than a fathom in thickness.” These roads went over marshes, rivers, and great chasms of the sierras, and through rocky precipices and mountain sides.”

• When Alma wrote: “And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land -- but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate,” we can look over the entire ancient world of the Western Hemisphere and find only one place where there was an herb or plant that cured fevers—malaria—and that is the cinchona tree of Andean Peru, which only grew in Peru until in the middle of the 19th century when cinchona seeds were smuggled out of South America by the British and the Dutch, with the latter planting in Java, and the former in Ceylon and India. It wasn’t until 1820 that the alkaloid chemical in the bark of the tree was isolated and named quinine. Even today, it is the only remedy for malaria, and is used for fevers in general along with a number of other diseases, maladies, and medical problems. It did not become a commonly known cure until the early 1900s in the U.S., long after the Book of Mormon was in print, and was not known as being indigenous to Peru area until well into the 1900s.

The Prevailing Westerlies and West Wind Drift of the Southern Ocean make sailing before the wind an easy, straight course to the Western Hemisphere

• When Nephi wrote that his ship, not built like those of men, but built after the manner the Lord had prescribed, was driven forth before the wind all the way to the Land of Promise, the sea lanes, currents and winds were not known in the southern hemisphere in 1829 New England. In fact, the United States Navy had almost no presence in the waters of the southern Pacific, let alone in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. The southernmost waters of the World Ocean, let alone the Great Southern Ocean, was not even discerned until 1937 when it was suggested to have existed, and in 1953 was identified by the IHO, and not defined until 2000. Only recently has the National Geographic Society begun to reference this Southern Ocean. It wasn’t until the Age of Sail (16^th to 19^th centuries) that ships discovered this ocean with its West Wind Drift and Prevailing Westerlies that move ships along at high speeds, and the terms Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties, and Screaming (or Shrieking) Sixties were given to label these southern latitudes. During the Age of Sail, the Roaring Forties was a major aid to ships sailing from Europe to the East Indians or Australasia, and in modern usage is favored by yachtsmen on round-the-world voyages and competitions. In 1829, Joseph Smith would not have known of such a current and wind that would take a vessel directly from the southern Arabian coast to the west coast of South America, where he claimed the Lehi Colony landed at the 30º South Latitude (Bay of Coquimbo and La Serena).

• Also when Nephi wrote about his ship not being built after the manner of men, Joseph Smith in 1829 New England, would not have known that a sailing ship designed and built in 600 B.C. could not have sailed across the deep oceans because of their designs and lack of construction techniques that could withstand the constant pounding of deep ocean waves and currents.

• When Jacob told his fellow countrymen in the mid-sixth century B.C. that they had sailed across the sea and landed on an “isle of the sea,” Joseph Smith could not have known, nor did anyone else in the world at the time, that the western lands of South America were once an island and that the land to the east of what is now the Andes Mountains was under water.

• When Samuel the Lamanite told the Nephites that at the time of the crucifixion, mountains would fall, and level ground would rise up into mountains “whose height is great,” Joseph Smith could not have known that the Andes Mountains were the last to rise in the Western Hemisphere and that the tectonic plates moving in collision in South America would cause the entire Andes mountain chain to rise up to heights over 20,000 feet, by far the highest mountain range in all of the Western Hemisphere.

• When Nephi tells us, along with other Nephite prophets, that copper, gold and silver were in abundance in the Land of Promise, Joseph Smith could not have known, nor did anyone else in the U.S. at that time that Peru and Chile would be among the top producers of all three of these ores in the world, with Chile the leading producer in the world in Copper, producing 1/3 of the world total, and Peru third; and Peru sixth in world gold production; and Peru the leading world producer of silver, Bolivia sixth and Chile seventh. In the 1830s, Mexico was the country people in the U.S. knew was the big producer in the Western Hemisphere, but Mexico falls short of either Peru or Chile in all three areas: Mexico 18^th in copper, far behind , 11^th with only about half the gold production of Peru; Mexico 2^nd in silver behind Peru.

• Other areas that match, are the buildings, temples, and palaces; north-south directions; ancient metalworking, coinage, mines; ancient fine-twined linen and textile work; matching climate for Jerusalem seeds to grow in abundance; building of stone walls, fortresses and resorts; land northward containing many waters, rivers and fountains; use of thin sheets of gold around 600 B.C.; slings used as weapons; ancient steel works, and many other matches.

In all, the connection between Peru and the Book of Mormon Land of Promise is startling.