Hidden From Other Nations

Continuing with Ralph Olsen’s Malay Peninsula Theory for the location of the Land of Promise, we need to keep in mind that this area was extremely well known and well traveled by traders from as early as King Solomon about 400 years before Lehi left Jerusalem. Yet, the Lord promised Lehi:

“It is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever” (2 Nephi 1:8-9).

The problem is, that the area from Arabia to the “Spice Islands,” that is, the Malay archipelago (Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, etc.), was very well traveled in 600 B.C. There were three specific trade routes, called the “Silk Route” (see earlier posts), the “Cinnamon Route,” and the “Clove Route.”

Cinnamon, originally called Gui, was the principal spice of the Lingnan area of China, south of the Chang Jiang. So prevalent was its cultivation there, that when Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China, conquered the Nanyue Kingdom in 216 B.C., he named this lovely region Guilin, which means ‘Cinnamon Forest’. By this time the Chinese had come to believe that if you ate gui for a long time you would become immortal. Rice wine flavored with cinnamon is mentioned in several poems in the Chuci as a drink fit for the gods. Eventually, gui was exported from south China to Java, whose inhabitants then discovered that cinnamon trees grew wild on their own island. As a result, they cultivated and exported it, together with the Chinese gui, giving it the Malayan name of Kayu manis which literally means ‘sweet wood,’ which is believed to be the origin of the English word “cinnamon.” All of this opened up what became known as the Cinnamon Route during the last millennium B.C. and long into the A.D. period.

All three of these routes, or “roads,” covered the same coastal territory from southern China (Ts’uan-chou, Kuang-chou, Tongking, and Oc-eo) in the South China Sea, Sanfotsi (around present day Manila), and Toupo (Wak-Wak,), south of the Shang-hia-chu isles in the east Celebes Sea, to Java, Sumatra, Malay, then to Calcutta, to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and around India to Muziris (Muchiri—a port used by King Solomon’s ships, the Romans, European and Mediterranean countries, Egypt, and ports along the Red Sea; and known in ancient times as the port of Mahodayapuram, Shinkli and Myuirikkodu as early as 1500 B.C.), then to Barygaza (Bharuch), and into the Persian Gulf. These routes connected back and forth across the Arabian Sea moving up into the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea to northern markets and the Mediterranean Sea, and on to European and West Asian markets. One route also took ships to Madagascar and on to Rhapta, along the African coast across from the Menouthi islands, then north and up the Red Sea to Egypt.

This was a very busy trade area from Southeast Asia to India, Arabia, and Africa, and the coastal waters was constantly traveled by 600 B.C., that no ship moving anywhere along these coasts could have escaped detection from the numerous shipping in these waters. In addition, these were merchants, jealously guarding their knowledge of the routes and areas, so much so, that they would have paid particular attention to any ship they did not recognize, and any crew they did not know.

To think that Lehi could have traveled in this direction, along the same coastal routes these numerous traders sailed, without raising suspicion or at least curiosity as to their destination and purpose, is foolhardy. The men sailing these waters were hardened seamen, with their business and incomes at stake. They would have wanted to know everything they could about any unknown ship and people. After all, these waters were long filled with pirates and lawless renegades who just as often stole another ship’s goods as trade their own.

This is because spices, especially cinnamon, aloeswood (gaharu, jinko, agarwood, or oud), cloves, nutmeg, black pepper and ginger were considered as valuable as gold. Any ship in those trade route waters would be looked upon with great suspicion, and followed to learn who they were and where they were going. To think that the Lehi Colony could have passed unobserved, or their detination unknown, is far too simplistic for the time and circumstances of these coastal routes.

No, if the Lord was going to keep his promise to Lehi, then the colony could not have been led across the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean to the land of Malay (the romantic “East Indies” of ancient history) without being noticed and causing a stir.

Nor would there have been any need to build a special ship for such a short, normal coastal voyage, and any such voyage would have drawn the attention the Lord promised Lehi he would not receive. The only direction Lehi could have sailed in that period of time without being noticed and landing somewhere where no one would know, was south through the Indian Ocean, eastward along the Southern Ocean, and up the coat of the Western Hemisphere. No other course makes any sense, and based upon time winds and currents, would have taken far less time (though over twice as far) than a coastal voyage to Malay.