Comments and Questions from Readers – Part I

Following are questions and comments from readers of this blog.

Comment #1: “Did the Nephites who migrated north on Hagoth’s ships and their descendants also all perish? Or did any descendants live on after Book of Mormon times since they were not living in the areas of the hill Cumorah battles?” Andy H.

When it comes to the Book of Mormon, we have two groups of Nephites to consider. The first, and the one the scriptural record is about, were those living their lives out in the Land of Promise from Lehi in 600 BC to Moroni in 421 AD. Of these, all died as far as we know based on Mormon and especially Moroni’s record, between 385 and 421 AD. As Moroni, regarding any Nephites who escaped Cumorah, stated: “After the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed” (Mormon 8:2, emphasis added). 

Hagoth built many ships—more than those mentioned in the scriptural record (Alma 63:7)

 

Obviously, we understand from Moroni’s statement that all the Nephites were killed. On the other hand, there was a second group of Nephites that describe a different outcome and they were made up of two groups: 1) Those that sailed to a land which was northward (Alma 63:5-6,7) , numbering 5,400 men, plus their wives and children (or at least some portion of that number); and 2) A ship that took its course to an unknown destination (Alma 63:8), which assumedly would have been West, since it was not north and would not have been south into Lamanite lands, and West would have taken them down into Polynesia as Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki drift voyage showed, and may have been the nucleus of the Polynesians of today. To what degree either of these later two groups survived in the north and in the west, we have not been told.

Comment #2: “I read that the Mulekites did not replace the Jaredite culture, but were absorbed into it—their language becoming corrupted, and eventually replaced by the Jaredite language.” Gregg D.

Response: The scriptures say nothing of the Jaredite language among the people of Zarahemla. Besides, if the Mulekites spoke the Jaredite language, why could they not understand the Jaradite Coriantumr when he entered their settlement, nor read the large stone upon which he engraved a history of his people?

As to the Mulekite language, Amaleki wrote: “...and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and...[neither] Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them.”  (Omni 1:17). The question need only be asked: what language had become corrupted?  The Hebrew, of course, for the people of Zarahemla came with Mulek from Jerusalem (Omni 1:15) where they spoke Hebrew, and were led across the sea by the Lord and landed where Mosiah found them and had dwelt there from that time forth (Omni 1:17).  Because the Mulekite language had originally been Hebrew, there was common ground for the Nephites to reteach them Hebrew and the task was evidently not so difficult.

Comment #3: Despite what you say about South America, I believe that Lehi sailed through Indonesia and across the Pacific Ocean and landed in Guatemala in Mesoamerica, as do several people who write about it” Allen W.

Response: It is interesting that you make such a claim, since we have written many times about the currents running west through Indonesia—hich currents woud preclude any whether ship from sailing eastward through the Indonesian waters.

Showing currents moving away from central America to the west and Mesoamerica in the opposite direction from any Pacific movement toward land

 

Perhaps another view, this one expressed by James Reynolds, on Plate 1 of the 1910 Universal Atlas of Science, who states that weather ships would be blown westward through Indonesia with the winds and currents coming off the Pacific Ocean. In addition, according Matthias Tomczak and J. Stuart Godfrey, the eastern boundary current of the Indian subtropics, the Leeuwin Current, is an anomaly compared with other oceans—it flows poleward. It is connected to waters that flow westward through the Indonesian archipelago from the Pacific Ocean, although most of the water that comes through the Indonesian passages flows directly westward toward the western boundary. This can be seen as lower salinity in the ocean current (Matthias Tomczak and J. Stuart Godfrey, Descriptive Physical Oceanography, Daya Publishing House, Daryaganj, Delhi, 2004).

The poleward-flowing Leeuwin Current along with the Western Australia Current off the western coast of Australia in the South Indian Ocean, and the Indonesian Through-flow, which brings water off the Pacific into the Indian Ocean and raises sea level north of Australia along the continental shelf, all contribute to the currents through Indonesia and the Indian Ocean flow westward. According to the spatial structure and annual variability of the main Leeuwin current, its undercurrent, and the south Indian Ocean currents, it is now verified without question that the ocean currents at this location flow strongly from Indonesia in the east, westward into the Indian Ocean.

 Juan Pizarro y Alonso was the half-brother of Francisco and Hernando Pizzaro, and a full brother to Gonzalo Pizzaro, conquered the mighty Inca Empire in 1533 AD

 

Comment #4: “The book I’m reading about the conquest of the Inca in Peru and western South America talk about first and second conquerors. What does that mean?” Reyes E.

Response: The Spaniards who invaded what is now Ecuador, Peru and Chile called themselves “first conquerors” for the 160 Spaniards who were with Don Francisco Pizarro at the arrest of Atahuallpa; and “second conquerors” for those who were with Don Diego de Almagro and Don Pedro de Alvarado who arrived in Peru almost as one. No others were called “conquerors” of Peru. The second conquerors looked up to the first conquerors despite the fact that some of the first were of lower rank and less estate. They were, after all, faced with the blunt of the resistance the Inca provided.

As a side note, by the time of Cieza de Leon around 1540, who called himself "the first chronicler of the Indies, in his “four-part chronicle entitled "The Discovery and Conquest of Peru,” the common name Capac Aillu “august lineage of the royal blood,” was applied to all the Inca, and the word Inca, meaning a man of the royal blood,” was used indiscriminately to all males of this lineage, and all women were called Palla “woman of the royal blood.”