A Peruvian -Mesoamerican Legend: Leaving Tulan Bountiful – Part XI

-->Continuing from the previous post regarding the legend that ties in South America to Mesoamerica and shows that the Peruvian Andes were the Book of Mormon home of the Nephites and that those who went north in Hagoth’s ships traveled to Mesoamerica.

The surviving Lamanites passed on their history from memory around the campfires for 1500 years

In comparing Mormon 2 we find dates, direction, astrological aid and names in Ixtlilxochitl’s account jumbled and some in error, but one in which we can see the connection of a handed down history recorded long after the fact.
    While the earlier posts are only a brief outline of Ixtlilxochitl’s entire account, the inclusion of an eastward migration, astrology, celebacy and female sacrifice all show much later practices—the treaty, seven tribes with two principal leaders, migration to another land, etc., all mirror the events between the Nephites and Lamanites from about 320 to 380 A.D. in Mormon’s account.

During the years shown in Mormon 2 and 3, Ixtlilxochitl’s account includes (with suggested meaning in italics following):
• Leader named Hueman – The Prophet Mormon

• He gathered together “all the histories from the creation of the world up to his time.” – Records from the hill Shim

• He placed these histories in a very large book – Mormon’s abridgement of the Book of Mormon
• This book listed “persecutions, hardships, prosperities and good happenings, kings and lords, laws, and good government of their ancestors” – A good explanation of the Book of Mormon

• Record also contained battles and wars of the people – These are found in the Book of Mormon, and were covered in more depth in the Large Plates
• Later natives called his book the “Holy Scriptures” and considered it almost the same as the bible – The material or books from which Mormon drew his abridgement were the writings of the various Book of Mormon prophets. In Helaman we find that these records were written down and distributed among the people. Obviously, they would have considered them holy scripture
• Hueman predicted the destruction of his people through war – Mormon, as earlier prophets all knew, saw the total destruction of the Nephites and predicted it in the writings to his son, Moroni
• Hueman became a great leader in 339 A.D. – This is about the time that Mormon became the Nephite General
• The wars between two kindred people began in the ancient seat of the kingdom – The final Nephite-Lamanite confrontation that resulted in the total annihilation of the Nephite nation began in the Land of Zarahemla—the seat of the kingdom for about 600 years
• Hueman’s people were forced to migrate from place to place by their enemies – The Nephites during Mormon’s command continually retreated northward until they reached the Old Jaredite lands of “many waters”

• Fighting continued for 8 years – These wars continued for several years. Any one period of fighting could have covered the eight years mentioned

• Hueman entered into a treaty among the seven tribes – Mormon established a treaty with the Lamanites. This treaty was among the four tribes of the Nephites (Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and the Zoramites) and the three tribes of the Lamanites (Lamanites,
Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites)
• Hueman’s people give up their ancient homeland in this treaty to occupy a land where the Ancient Ones lived – The treaty Mormon enacted with the Lamanites conceded everything south of the narrow neck to the Lamanites with the Nephites controlling the land northward (north of the narrow neck). This land northward was the homeland of the ancient Jaredites
• These northern lands were considered cursed – The land northward which bounded on the narrow neck and the land of Bountiful was called the land of Desolation. It was considered cursed because of the death that had occurred there
• Hueman’s people were banished from their land – The Nephites were banished, or unable to obtain the land of their inheritance in the land southward, as a result of the treaty. They never again held the lands of their inheritance in the land southward
• 52 years after the wars began they were still fighting – The final wars began in 327 A.D. and ended in 385 A.D. (55 years)
• Hueman’s people occupy a land of many waters – Mormon led his people to the land of many waters for their last stand against the Lamanites

• They named the new land Bountiful after their ancient land – There was a land of Bountiful in the land southward, just south of the narrow neck, including a city there by the same name. However, we do not know if it was named after the area of Bountiful along the Irreantum Sea. It is also possible that Zarahemla, meaning Bountiful-Plant-Land, might have been the cause of the name Bountiful which was settled about one hundred years after Mosiah moved his people to Zarahemla
• There were two principal leaders and five minor ones to make up the seven tribes that were all kin, but split into two factions – The seven tribes in the land of promise were known by two names, the Nephites and the Lamanites. Each of these major divisions had a leader, king, or chief judge

• Hueman had a son – Mormon’s son was Moroni

• Fought their battles by giving each other advance notice so both sides would be warned and prepared – From the time of General Moroni, letters were exchanged regarding pending battles. This tendency reached its fullest use during the final battles of the Nephite nation leading up to their annihilation when Mormon wrote to the Lamanite king about a final battle at the hill Cumorah           
• A large, great number of people were exiled, including men and women – This could mean that the Nephites were exiled from their land; it could mean that many Nephites left their land in ships during Hagoth’s time; or it could be those Nephites who defected from their own people to join with the Lamanites—or it could have no relationship at all
    While the above items are quite similar to the Nephite history, the following from Ixtlilxochitl’s account shows from a little to a considerable amount of discrepancy through inclusion of much later and not Book of Mormon happenings:
• Virgins would have carnal access to the temple priests.

• Hueman lived hundreds of years past his normal life span.
• Ixtliulxochitl dates these accounts in 439 A.D. (but they took place in 339 A.D.)
• Traveled toward the rising sun (east).

• They reached islands by canoe and boat.
• Men had taken a vow to remain celebic for 23 years; those who broke the vow were severely punished.
• People were idolaters, sacrificing virgins to their God (Lamanites yes, Nephites no)
• Records the war beginning in 326 A.D. (began in 322 A.D.)

• This 52-year war was the result of internal rebellion, civil war, and an attempt to “usurp the kingdom.” (These wars were not Nephite internal conflicts, though there was a religious rebellion and the Gadianton Robbers reined throughout the land—the wars were between the Nephites and Lamanites because of Lamanite aggression and a desire to annihilate the Nephite nation (Mormon 2:1; 3:4; 4:2, 13, 23; 5:6).
• Wars end in 378 A.D. No mention is made of a great, final battle (this final battle was the war that exterminated the Nephites).
    From all of this it can be seen that the emigrants into Mesoamerica from the land of promise brought with them their records and stories, handed them down from generation to generation, and over the 1500 years following, many were distorted, later events included, and dates and events mixed up. But the fact remains that the Indian cultures that survived to the 16th century in Mesoamerica were knowledgeable with the Nephite-Lamanite history and knew of many things outlined in the Book of Mormon.
    The point of this series is simply this: all of the claimed writings of the 16^th and 17^th century Mesoamericans and early Spanish, show the same thing. The origination of Mesoamerica was settled by people from the south leaving an area named Bountiful—the area we know as the Land of Promise—who originally were from Jerusalem, and landed in Mesoamerica and named this land Bountiful—the third such place given that name by these overall people, who first settled in the land covered by the scriptural record, and then some of them sailed north to Mesoamerica in at least four voyages, and covered distinctly by the numerous Mesoamerican codices, leaving the land of Promise in Hagoth’s ships, in a land called Bountiful, and settled in the north in a land they renamed Bountiful after their 1000-year homeland in the Land of Promise.