husbandmen. It appears to have been near some great waters, the Pacific Ocean or an inland sea, for Jacob, Nephi's brother, in speaking of the potency of the faith of his people, says, "We truly can command in the name of Jesus, and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea." In this happy country the Nephites dwelt, prospered and increased until they again moved northward. Perhaps not once, nor twice, they migrated, but several times; for we hold it to be inconsistent with the story of the record and with good judgment to believe that in their first journey they traveled as far north as they were found four hundred years afterwards, when they again took up their line of march, and finally settled in the land of Zarahemla. In the first place, there was no necessity for Nephi and his people taking such a lengthy, tedious and hazardous journey; in the second place, in their weak condition, it was nigh unto an impossibility; again, in a few years the Lamanites had followed and overtaken them. It is altogether inconsistent to think that that people, with its racial characteristics, could in so short a time have accomplished so marvelous a triumph as to follow, hunt up and attack their late brethren, if the latter had placed all the distance from Chili to Ecuador between themselves and their pursuers. When we consider the difficulties of travel through the trackless wilderness, the obstacles interposed by nature, the lack of all roads or other guides to indicate where the Nephites had gone, it seems out of the question to imagine that in twenty years or so, the shiftless, unenterprising Lamanites had accomplished such a feat. To the contrary, we believe that Nephi and those with him traveled until they considered themselves safe, then settled down in a spot which they deemed desirable. By and by the Lamanites came upon them; the Nephites defended themselves as long as they could, and when they could do so no
