How Did Mulek Get to the Land of Promise? – Part III

Continuing on with the last post, the fourth way Mulek could have reached the Land of Promise:

4. He left the Arabian Peninsula and sailed in the same direction that the Lehi Colony took, down through the Indian Ocean and into the Southern Ocean, picking up the Prevailing Westerlies in the West Wind Drift and eastward across the southern Pacific Ocean to the west coast of South America to land on the west coast of the Land of Promise.

In this, the final of the four possible routes for Mulek to reach the Land of Proise, the seashore Mulek was led to would have been the same seashore where the Lehi Colony went. The bountiful fruit, honey, and other agriculture of the area, provided the Nephites by the earlier Jaredites, would have provided the later Mulekites with the food and means to live and build a ship as the Nephites had done. And as to why no mention is given, there is quite a bit about a lot of things not covered in the Book of Mormon. It may have been included, but abridged out by Mormon who could only retain 1/100th of what he had available to make his final record. But the point is, the course the Nephites took was likely the safest, quickest, and easiest method of getting to a shore where a ship could be launched and reach the Land of Promise. To consider that the Mulekites would have gone another direction, or the Jaredites long before them, seems unnecessarily difficult and unproductive, and serve no apparent purpose.

Once upon the currents, being blown toward the Land of Promise as had been the Lehi Colony a few years earlier, the Mulekite ship would have been swept across the southern Pacific within the Southern Ocean toward the southern tip of South America. Once reaching the continental shelf, the northern edge of that current is turned northward and becomes the Humboldt, or Peruvian, Current.

This current flows northward along the western coast of South America until it reaches the 30º South Latitude where the winds and current come to nearly a standstill in what is called the Tropic of Capricorn. At this point, the ship could have been steered out of the north flowing current and in toward land. But rather than land there at the Bay of Coquimbo as the Lehi Colony had, the ship could have been swept further north in the coastal waters toward the great bulge of Peru where all the currents are pushed back out to sea.

The ocean depth along this coastal area is very deep, causing the deep flowing cold, icy waters off the Antarctica Ocean to eventually surface, forming one of the great fishing areas of the world. As these cold waters rise to the surface, they warm, forcing the surface waters to submerge, creating a drag toward and along the bulge of Peru. At this point, about halfway up the bulge, to about the 13º South Latitude, the currents push outward, or westward, from the coast and enter back into the Humboldt Current which is pushed further out to sea and forms the northern counter-clockwise circle of the South Equatorial Current.

If a ship were to continue further north, it would be swept out to sea in this exchange of currents and curve downward toward Polynesia. If it stayed as far north as possible in this exchange of currents, it would be swept further westward in the South Equatorial Current and head back toward Indonesia. Either way, if a ship did not seek land at the point of about the 13º South Latitude, it would end up in Polynesia, or back in the circle of the South Equatorial Current.

Thus, this is where the Mulekite ship would have landed—at an area just south of present day Lima, Peru. This is the area called Pachacamac by present-day archaeologists and anthropologists, but in the day of the Mulekites, they called it Zarahemla, for the Lord did bring them “across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth” (Omni 1:16).

The Nephites and the Mulekites were both brought to the Land of Promise by the hand of the Lord. He guided both from Jerusalem to the sea, and then guided both across that sea, to the Western Hemisphere. Some four hundred years later, he guided Mosiah to Zarahemla where the Mulekites were so the latter could be taught the gospel, join with the Nephites and become believers in, and followers of, Christ. For whatever reason, it was the plan from the beginning, to bring to the Western Hemisphere not only the lineage of Ephraim (Ishmael) and the lineage of Menassah (Lehi), but also the lineage of Judah (Mulek) and whatever other lineages that might have been among those who brought Mulek out of Jerusalem and to the Land of Promise. The end result was, that both groups came from the same area, traveled the same way to the sea, and reached the Land of Promise in the same manner along the same route with Mulek traveling further north than Lehi and into present-day Peru before landing.