The Sea East and the East Wilderness – Part III

Continuing with our discussion of the land setup that Mormon outlined in Alma 22:27, including the Land of Nephi, the Land of Zarahemla, and the Narrow Strip of Wilderness along with the East and West Wildernesses.
    As discussed in our last post, the majority of storylines of the wars and battles in Alma forward have to do with the Sea East and the eastern seashore. This is obvious once one looks at the placement of the cities that were built in the East Wilderness by Moroni after driving the Lamanites out of that wilderness (and the West Wildnerness) and back into their own lands to the south (Alma 50:7).

The Lamanites lived in tents in then East and West Wildernesses 

    Up until Capt. Moroni’s time, the Lamanites had infringed upon the Nephit lands north of the narrow strip of wilderness, occupying both the West and East Wildernesses where they curved “round about” up into the north along both seashores (Alma 22:27). After Moroni drove the Lamanites out of the East and West Wildernesses and back into their own lands to the south, Moroni had Nephites from the Land of Zarahemla move into the wildernesses and build cities, particularly in the East Wilderness, where they first built the city of Moroni (Alma 50:13), then several other cities, including Nephihah, Lehi, Morianton (Alma 50:14-15).

Moroni had the Nephites build cities in the area that was once the East Wilderness 

    With these cities in place, plus other cities built in the north, as well as having the city of Nephi in the south but also in the east, it simply made sense for most of the Lamanite attacks to center upon those cities that were closest to them and undoubtedly the easiest to reach and probably the least defended compared to the cities of Zarahemla and Bountiful.

With the concentration of Nephite cities along the east coast, the Lamanite kings decided to attack these strongholds, believing some of them would be weaker and allow them victories 

When the Lamanite armies came down to attack Zarahemla, they did so by entringthe Land of Zarahemla from the east, giving the Nephites plenty of time to send out an army to meet them

    Later, when Coriantumr attacked Zarahemla surprising its defenders, he came from a different direction. Prior to that, such attacks had been from the east, through the land of Zarahemla, but Coriantumr went west in the Land of Nephi, attacking from the coastal corridor along the Sea West in an unexpected move that caught the entire Zarahemla garrison by surprise.

Coriantumr, being a Nephite defector knowing where all the garrisons were located and the resort or outposts, knew the best way to attack Zarahemla undetected and his surprise attack was totally successful, so much so, he thought he could cut his way up the center of the land to Bountiful 

    Regarding more about the Sea East, we need to be careful when placing seas or wilderness areas which are named by cardinal compass points, i.e., South Wilderness, Sea East, etc., and need to keep in mind that those names were given under both Hebrew and Nephite habit of naming something in a direction from the relationship of the center of the land which was occupied. Not the “center of the land,” but the “center of the land then occupied.” The idea that an East Wilderness would have been so named when it was located northward of a South Wilderness makes little sense, and would have been more likely, if that was the placement, to have been called a North Wilderness—which none are in the Land of Promise—in fact, the only evident north wilderness is the Wilderness of Hermounts which was in the north and west region north of  Zarahemla and possibly in the unnamed land between the Land of Zarahemla and the Land of Bountiful (Helaman 4:5, 3 Nephi 3:25).
    We also have to keep in mind that information in the scriptural record often clarifies any possible confusion if we are not looking at a passage with our minds already made up. As an example, with the East Wilderness, Mormon tells us this is not somewhere in an isolated area in the center or northern part of the land, but along the narrow strip of wilderness for three reasons:

1. His discussion leading up to the mentioning of the East Wilderness has to do with the narrow strip of wilderness—this was the key issue at the time since it was the landmark he singled out that separated the Land of Nephi and the Lamanites from the Land of Zarahemla and the Nephites (Alma 22:27). If it was a separate wilderness, as some think, then its placement within the discussion of the important narrow strip of wilderness would have been out of order;
2. When Moroni was successful in driving the Lamanites out of the East Wilderness, he drove them directly into their own lands in the south (Alma 50:7), i.e., to the south of the narrow strip of wilderness (the Lamanite Lands or Land of Nephi, which Mormon had been discussing)—for as Mormon says, “they went forth and drove all the Lamanites who were in the east into their own lands, which were south of the land of Zarahemla," for they were already in the Land of Zarahemla, that is, the East Wilderness was in the Land of Zarahemla, thus they were north of their own lands (Alma 50:9), so south of there was the narrow strip of wilderness and then the Land of Nephi, the Lamanite lands (Alma 22:27). 

When Moroni drove the Lamanites out of the East and West Wildernesses, he drove them directly into their own lands, meaning they were alreadyh within the narrow strip of wilderness

Had there been a portion of the Land of Zarahemla (not in the East Wilderness between the East Wilderness and the narrow strip of wilderness (South Wilderness), then his comment about “into their own lands: skips an important part of that event,i.e., driving them first into the Land of Zarahemla and then into the Land of Nephi;
3. The East Wilderness stretched to the east seashore (Alma 50:9), thus the idle Lamanites who lived in tents in the East Wilderness were living in the overall Land of Zarahemla, called the East Wilderness at the time. This means the Lamanites living there were north of the narrow strip of wilderness that went from sea to sea (Alma 22:27) and when driven south into their own lands, would have been driven straight into their lands.

Thus we suggest with confidence that the narrow strip of wilderness was also called the South Wilderness, since Mormon would not have given us two wildernesses in the same south area, and the East and West Wildernesses were,, in fact, connected to that South Wilderness as they curved “round about” up the east and west coastal seashores (Alma 22;27). We also suggest with confidence that the East and West Wildernesses were mere extensions of that narrow strip of wilderness (also called the South Wilderness) that ran “round about” up the coasts until Moroni drove the Lamanites out and the Nephites built there.
    Perhaps to prove this point, it should be noted that the East Wilderness and the West Wilderness are not mentioned again in the scriptural record after Moroni drove out the Lamanites and the Nephites built in those areas—thus there was no separate East Wilderness. Though it was mentioned seven times before Moroni ended its existence.
    Along this same line, the Sea East, which is mentioned 24 times in the scriptural record is never mentioned again after the destruction that occurs during the crucifixion, in which it appears the overall continent of South America rose sufficiently to from completely out of water except for the Amazon Basin which is still very close to sea level. It seems significant that both of these locations, the Sea East, and the East Wilderness show us, the wilderness through an act of driving the Lamanites out and Moroni having the Nephites build cities within it to eliminate the wilderness, and the other an event caused by the numerous uplifting of mountains “whose height is great” that occurred during the crucifixion (Helaman 14:23) and in both cases, locations that were heavily mentioned before, are never mentioned afterward. This should suggest to the most cautious among us that these events did take place as we have discussed and in the location we have noted.
(See the next post, “The Sea East and the East Wilderness – Part IV,” for a further discussion of these wildernesses and seas that Mormon describes)