Thus, when king Limhi’s 43-man expedition passed into the Land Northward, they may well have been traveling among mountains, canyons, and along deep ravine rivers with no idea how far they were traveling away from Zarahemla since there were no familiar reference points for comparison. They could have been traveling in circles for all they knew—they were, after all, lost.
It should also be noted, that once the 43 men saw some semblance of civilization (buildings, dead bodies, dead animals, etc.), they would have kept looking and continued on until they had covered some distance trying to find any survivors, who they would have assumed were somewhere further on in the midst of the lands over which they traveled. Finally, having seen no living beings, they would have likely assumed all had perished, and just as likely assumed that this area was, in fact, the remains of the city of Zarahemla and the Nephites whom they had sought.
The idea set forth by Mesoamerican theorists that this area of “buildings of every kind,” and “discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel” (Mosiah 8:8), was in a small area near a particular point (the narrow neck of land), is unfounded, as is the idea that all of this was found near the narrow neck of land. When reading the Ether account, it is easy to see that these last battles covered large areas of land extending over even larger areas.
Stated differently, we have no idea where in the Land Northward the 43 men were when they found Ether’s record, where they were when they saw “buildings of every kind,” and where they were or how far they traveled across the land in trying to find people living there—after all, if they thought this was the Zarahemla area, they would have gone to far extremes in travel trying to find those who survived to seek their aid in freeing their people in the city of Nephi from bondage. To assume that this was all done in a small area, near a single reference point (narrow neck of land) is extremely speculative, and certainly cannot be used to determine any specific location.
3. Short distances between major locations. This is based on the travel of Alma and his group and the distance they would have covered in their 21-day trip between the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla. This concept also presupposes that Alma and his party left from the city of Nephi and traveled directly to the city of Zarahemla; however, there is no indication in the scriptural record that this was the case.
Alma and his followers were encamped in
the Land of Helam, which were on the borders of the Land of Nephi when they
received word the king’s men were coming for them
Secondly, Alma and his party did not arrive in the city of Zarahemla, but in the Land of Zarahemla (Mosiah 24:25). In fact, we do not know if Alma had in mind when he fled from the Waters of Mormon that he would travel to Zarahemla at all. All we know is, that Alma and his party were in the area of Mormon when they were apprised of the approaching king’s army who were looking for them (Mosiah 18:32-34). After only eight days fleeing from the king’s men, Alma and his party stopped in “a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water” (Mosiah 23:4), where they “pitched their tents and began to till the ground and began to build buildings” (Mosiah 23:5). There is no indication here that they were planning to move on at a later date.
If they knew they were, or were planning to, end up in Zarahemla, it seems doubtful they would be building buildings in a stopover area such as the place they called Helam. The fact that they built a city they named Helam (Mosiah 23:20) should suggest that this was to be where they planned to settle. Nor were they warned to flee this area when an army of Lamanites descended upon them (Mosiah 23:29). It was not until some time later that the Lord told Alma that he would deliver he and his party out of bondage (Mosiah 24:16), and led them only a day’s march away where they pitched their tents once again (Mosiah 24:20). Then they were warned again to flee, and on this third leg of their journey, they traveled 12 days under the guidance of the Lord and arrived in the “land of Zarahemla” (Mosiah 24:25), not the city of Zarahemla—the land of Zarahemla.
Thirdly, and most importantly, we do not know that Alma traveled in a direct line from the Waters of Mormon to the Land of Zarahemla, let alone where along this path they reached the city of Zarahemla. Thus, to try and calculate a distance based on 21 days travel, broken up between a lengthy stay in Helam (Mosiah 23:19), and another brief stay in a valley they called Alma (Mosiah 24:20), before reaching the land of Zarahemla.
There is simply no way to use this 21-days of travel, since we do not know exactly where they started from (Waters of Mormon), where exactly they ended up (land of Zarahemla), nor whether or not they traveled in a straight line or ended up taking a circuitous route.
Ether hid in a cave during the day and
then went out to investigate the happenings and progress of the war by night
As they state: “While in hiding, Ether made the remainder of the record he had apparently begun earlier and watched the progress of the Jaredite war.” So after eight years of intermittent combat, battles were still going on in the land of Moron, still within Ether’s viewing range. And he was still in his cave after a population of more than two million, which had covered “all the face of the land,” had been killed (Ether 14:11, 22–23; 15:2). Finally, after the cataclysmic battle near the Hill Ramah, the Lord sent Ether from his cave to make the last entry in his record and deposit it where Limhi’s exploring party would find it.”
It should be noted that at least two battles between Coriantumr and his early enemies were fought in the valley of Gilgal (Ether 13:27, 30). The wilderness of Akish also appears twice before the rise of Shiz—once as a battlefield, and once as an area where Coriantumr took refuge from Lib (Ether 14:4–5, 14). Neither appear in the narrative after Shiz came on the scene.
In addition, the pursuits by both Lib and then Shiz chased Coriantumr through the plains of Agosh (Ether 14:15), into the land and valley of Corihor (14:27–28), the valley of Shurr and upon the hill Comnor (Ether 14:28), to the waters of Ripliancum (Ether 15:8), to a place called Ogath (Ether 15:10), and to the hill Ramah (Ether 15:11). None of these occur earlier in the narrative. Incidentally, traditional lands eventually completely drop out of Mormon’s account of the wars leading to the Nephites’ final battle as well (Mormon 4:19–5:8; 6:1–4).
The
cave in which Ether hid, would have been away from the normal routes, since
there were thousands of Jaredites around the area bent on killing—it is
unlikely Ether’s hiding place(s) would have been close where he could be
spotted
Despite all the various lands being covered in these final battles, as both armies moved back and forth across the land, the Mesoamerican theorists claim that for Ether to “observe most of the action while moving about only short distances from his cave base” at night—thus, to them, the final battles must have taken place within a relatively small area near Moron, which, according to Moroni, lay “near the land which is called Desolation by the Nephites” (Ether 7:6). Putting all of this together, Sorenson suggests that “a hundred miles from Moron to the hill Ramah would probably accommodate all these facts.”
However, this distance would hardly covered all the areas where the battles of huge enemy forces covered—after all, when fleeing from an enemy bent on their destruction, covering a short distance is hardly what one would do.
(See the next post, “The Final Jaredite Battleground – Part III,” for more on the points Mesoamericanists use to defend their Limited Geography theory for the Land of Promise; and where exactly was the last Jaredite battleground)
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