Continuing
with the subject of Lehi’s landing at the 30º south latitude and the unique,
but direct journey, that led him there, and more importantly, what exactly was
found there.
Top: Coquimbo Bay as Lehi would have
seen it, a wide-sweeping, half-moon-shaped bay of “quiet waters”; Bottom:
Photos of the Mediterranean Climate La Serena, which abuts the beach area of
the bay
When
Nephi wrote that “…as
we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass
and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals,
which were for the use of men” (1 Nephi 18:25,
emphasis mine). That is, adjacent to their landing site (Coquimbo Bay) and
where they pitched their tents and planted their seeds (now called La Serena), which
was a Mediterranean Climate conducive to seeds from Jerusalem’s Mediterranean
Climate, was a large temperate rain forest. This forest is the largest in South
America, and second only in the Western Hemisphere to the Pacific temperate
rain forest that runs from Prince William Sound in Alaska to northern
California along the Pacific Northwest.
Along the 30º south latitude in the
Mediterranean Climate, lies La Serena, the Fray Jorje National Park and the
northern portion of the Valdivian National Forest
This
Chilean forest is one naturally full of indigenous animals, such as the puma
(mountain lion), leopard, fox, and several species of small wild cat; there are
deer, pudu, and Huemul, as well as Guanacos (wild predecessor of llama), vicuna
(wild ancestor of alpaca), and also smaller creatures, like opossums,
armadillos, the Rhea—a flightless ground bird similar to an ostrich.
In
addition, Nephi added, “And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of
silver, and of copper” (1 Nephi 18:25). It always surprises me that people read
this last part over and over again without ever seeming to understand what is
being said. First of all, let’s look at the simple phrase: “ore, both of gold,
silver and copper.”
In
1829, when Joseph Smith translated the plates, the word “both” meant “two,”
that is, that two items (people or things) were considered as distinct from
others or by themselves—the one and the other. Yet, Nephi wrote “both” with
three items: gold, silver and copper. While those who might take the time to
think this out usually attribute it to an error in grammar, typo, or written by
an uneducated person, the correct understanding opens up a little wider knowledge of this statement.
First
of all, in Noah Webster’s 1828 American
Dictionary of the English Language, the word “both” was defined as “Two,
considered as distinct from others or by themselves; the one and the other,”
and “represents two members of a sentence,” and “is often placed before the
nouns with which it is connected.”
In
modern dictionaries, the word “both” is defined in the same manner, as “used to
refer to two things, regarded and identified together.” It comes from Middle English
“bothe,” and probably earlier from
Old Norse “bather,” which is the same as
Old High German “beide”– to be used before two words or phrases connected with
and to stress that each is included.
Thus,
the statement by Nephi begs the question, why was the word “both” followed by
three items? So let’s look at the three items: gold silver and copper. Are
these mutually exclusive? That is, does ore contain only gold, or only silver,
or only copper? The obvious answer is No.
Ore is a
mineral that contains metals that can be extracted; however, very few metals
exist in the free or native state and only metals like gold, silver, copper,
platinum and bismuth, are found in the free
or pure state as are mercury and bismuth. The rest of metals occur in
the combined form as compounds such as oxides, carbonates, sulphides,
sulphates, slicates, etc. Copper and silver are two metals that occur in free
as well as combined state.
As an
example, an oxide ore might contain aluminium, copper, or iron, combined with
bauxite cuprite, haematite, or magnetite; sulphide ore might contain iron,
copper or zinc, combined with iron pyrite, copper glance or pyrite, or zinc
blende.
Top Left: Gold
ore; Top Right: Silver ore; Bottom Left: Copper ore; Bottom Right: Ore containing
gold, silver and copper
Thus,
one of the most profitable and most sought after ores is that which contains
gold, silver and copper, which can be extracted profitably. Often in today’s
manufacturing processes, the gold, which is usually in small amounts, is used
to pay for the process of the silver and especially the copper extraction.
Gold is
often found in the same ore with silver, and silver is sometimes found in the
same ore with copper, but ore containing all three, though not rare, is
infrequent. As an example, some ore might contain gold, copper, silver, lead,
arsenic and antimony; on the other hand some ore might have a low gold content
but a high silver content, or low gold and silver, but high copper content; or
some ore might contain copper, malachite, azurite and cuprite.
The
point is, ore that has all three is combined with gold and silver, which are
both precious metals, and with copper, which is not a precious metal. Thus, one
ore might contain both gold and silver, as precious metals, and copper, a
non-previous metal. In this same usage of “both,” Nephi also said, “…the pains
of every living creature, both men, women, and children…” (1 Nephi 9:21), both applied to men and women (adults) and the other children (non-adult).
Around the vicinity of Lehi’s Landing at Coquimbo Bay, La Serena, there are
numerous mines. The one labeled Coquimbo, consumes 1964 GWh of electricity,
with copper mining using 53% of consumption (a very large mine), only two mines
produce more in northern Chile. It might be of interest to know that Chile is
the Number One producer of copper in the world, with 33% of the world’s market
While
Arizona is the largest copper producer in the United States, followed by Utah,
New Mexico, Montana and Nevada, far more dominant than the U.S., is the mining
production of copper in Chile, the world’s leading producer of copper, with
Peru next. Chile is fourth in the world in untapped gold reserves, after
Russia, but ahead of the U.S. Ore in Chile contains high levels of gold, silver
and copper.
About
a half mile south of Coquimbo is an old fishing cove and copper smelting area
which dates back to the Spanish. Today it is an attractive tourist beach resort
which features day campsites, a yacht club, hotels, cottages and other tourist
services. Its warm and gentle waters make this beach ideal to have a bath and
practice water sports such as windsurfing and diving, among others. Numerous
old mining sites are honeycombed all over the area where the Spanish extracted
and smelted huge amounts of gold, silver and copper to send back to Spain.
The El Indio Gold Belt (yellow
arrow) to the east of La Serena, contains gold, silver and copper; the gold and
copper mines outside Coquimbo (red arrow), and on the outskirts of La Serena is
the open pit mine of Carmen de Andacollo situated next to Coquimbo and La
Serena (where the miners live), where gold and copper are extracted, sits atop
huge gold reserves
From all
of this, we learn that Nephi found in the wilderness about the landing site in
the Land of Promise, ore containing gold, silver and copper. This means, that
any location for Lehi’s landing, must contain single ore containing gold,
silver and copper—and not somewhere in the country, but locally in the area
where Lehi landed.
Map showing the concentration of gold, silver and copper mines and deposits
in the Elqui Valley, situated just to the east of La Serena. By way of land
distribution and the closeness of all these areas, Coquimbo Bay lies along the
coast, adjacent to this on the east side is La Serena, and adjacent to La
Serena, on the east side, is the Elqui Valley
These
are the main descriptive clues Nephi left us about his landing site: 1) Waves
and currents driving his ship “forth before the wind,” and where that would
have taken him, 2) a Climate at the landing site where seeds from the
Mediterrean Climate of Jerusalem would grow “exceedingly” and provide an
“abundant” crop, 3) a forest where would be found animals of every kind,
including wild and feral animals, and 4) ore, containing gold, silver and
copper, evidently in large quantities.
All of
this is found at 30º south latitude along the coast of Chile, South America.
The Land of Promise at the end of the Indian Ocean gyre, the Southern Ocean,
and the Humboldt Current—all leading to a landing at this one singular
location.
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