I watched a documentary video last week that set my imagination working.  The documentary concerned the possible route that Lehi and his family took to get to the Promised Land.  The record states that they left Jerusalem and went southeast along the border of the Red Sea.  They went as far as a place called Nahom where Ishmael died.  From that point on they traveled nearly eastward until they came to a place they named Bountiful because of its much honey and fruit.  There they were instructed by the Lord to build a ship.  The record states that they found ore with which to make tools so that they could work the timbers of the ship.  The trip from Jerusalem to Bountiful took them 8 years.

Those are the few facts that can be gleaned from the Book of Mormon about their possible land route.

The interesting items gleaned from the documentary are these:

1. Nahom was an unknown and unknowable place until just 10 or 20 years ago when archaeologists uncovered a stone in Saudi Arabia that identified it as an actual place.
2. If you draw a line eastward from Nahom, the line goes through some of the most desolate and forbidding deserts you can imagine.  The whole Arabian Peninsula looks desolate, except when you reach the seacoast nearly due east of Nahom.
3. On that eastern shore are two tropical green spots.  In satellite images, they are the only green areas on the whole Arabian Peninsula.  They’re caused by moisture-laden air that hits the shore from the Indian Ocean.  The air is prevented from going inland by the powerful, dry winds that blow off the desert and over the mountains that shelter the tropical area that was obviously Lehi’s “Bountiful.”  The air dumps all of its moisture in this green spot.  There are trees that could have supplied timbers for the ship that Nephi built.  There are honey bees in the cliffs.  There is abundant fruit.  There is a convenient mountain like the one where Nephi said he resorted whenever he needed more instruction on how to build his ship.
4. When the Lord told Nephi to build a ship, his response was, “…whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?”  (1 Nephi 17:9).  There in that green spot is the only iron ore deposit on the whole Arabian peninsula.  Its properties make it a perfect ore from which Nephi could easily have made tools.

The documentary then went into conjecture.  I’ve never before thought about the route Lehi and Nephi would have taken once they set sail, but this is what fascinates me.  I’ve always supposed that they simply set out, sailed across the Pacific Ocean, and after a long trip they probably arrived on the coast of Mesoamerica.  All we really know is that they were guided by the Liahona as they crossed the desert, and that the Liahona was still guiding them as they sailed aboard the ship.

Points made in the documentary:

1. Lehi and Nephi very likely hugged the coastline the whole way.  They would have done so for safety reasons, but also so that they could periodically stop for provisions and water.  Makes sense.
2. If you get a map and follow the coastline eastward from Saudi Arabia, you learn some very interesting things.  For one thing, it’s a long, long way.  They would have followed the coastline of the entire Indian subcontinent, then down past Burma and Thailand.  That would have fed them into the Malacca Strait that separates Malaysia and Indonesia.  They’d have sailed right past present-day Singapore.
3. On the other hand, if the Liahona (their compass) had them sail straight across the Indian Ocean (which I consider unlikely) then their route would have put them right below Indonesia rather than right above it.  Both routes lead to the same place.
4. At this point they would be in a maze of islands.  Both routes point them straight toward New Guinea.  Their choice would have been to hug either the northern or southern coastline of New Guinea.
5. Now here’s the fascinating part for me.  Whether they hugged the northern or the southern coastline of New Guinea, both routes would have pointed them right toward Espiritu Santo, of all places.  Lehi and Nephi could very well have stopped on my very island to replenish their water supplies, and to lay in a supply of bananas and papayas.
6. The documentary showed Lehi and Nephi going past Santo, past Fiji and Samoa, and then off across the Pacific to the Americas.

As you study the map, that almost certainly has to have been their route.  It never occurred to me before, but they would also most certainly have had to make numerous stops to replenish water.  They passed dozens, and perhaps hundreds of islands on their way to the Promised Land.  As each new land mass appeared, I can imagine them asking one another, “Is this it?  Is this the Promised Land?”

The Liahona would have answered, “Nope, keep sailing.”  The voyage would have taken forever.  It would also have taken them right through cyclone areas.  About all we know about the trip is that they got into at least one cyclone.

Now here is where my imagination and my conjectures kick in.  Nephi was a record keeper, yet he told us very little about their journey.  In his chronicle he tells us several times that he kept two records.  In the record that we got, (the smaller record), he made it a point to record only those things that he felt had spiritual significance.  His purpose wasn’t to write a travelogue.  I’m sure that if we had his larger record, we’d find lots of details about their journey.  He often says, “And if my people desire to know the more particular part of the history of my people they must search mine other plates.”  (2 Nephi 5:33).

Nephi’s prophet-successors had those other records.  Other people probably had access to them, too.  One of those was Hagoth, who is mentioned in Alma, chapter 63.  Hagoth was “an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship.”  (v. 5).  Why would he do that?  What was he so curious about?

In the first place, the Nephites had just endured a long and awful war with the Lamanites.  The Nephites won the war, but it was obvious that warfare with the Lamanites had always been, and would always be, the norm.  It occurred to Hagoth and others that if they could move far enough away from the Lamanites, maybe they wouldn’t have to worry about future wars.

In the second place, Hagoth had been studying Nephi’s journals.  Therein he found mention of many beautiful and inviting islands that sounded like paradise.  Nephi had also recorded the course that they’d taken to reach the Promised Land, and the length of time it took to get there.  Within Hagoth was born a desire to see and colonize those paradisiacal islands.  He told others of his dream to live in a paradise where war wouldn’t exist, built several ships, “And behold, there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein and did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children…”  (Alma 63:6)

My thinking is that Hagoth actually set out to retrace Nephi’s route back to the islands that Nephi probably mentioned in his larger record.  If that was the case, about the first place he’d come to was Tonga.  Tonga today is an LDS nation.  I think I read that 54% of the population is LDS.  That’s because they’re descendants of Lehi, and of the House of Israel.

Tongans are Polynesian.  They’re very obviously a distinct race from the Melanesians that I’m associating with in Vanuatu.  The Polynesians and Melanesians are different races from the Micronesians who inhabit the island nations to the north of Polynesia and Melanesia.

Our prophets have made some very interesting statements about the antecedents of the Polynesians that I’ll quote here:

David O. McKay in the dedicatory prayer at the New Zealand Temple, 20 April 1958:  “We express gratitude that to these fertile islands thou didst guide descendants of Father Lehi and hast enabled them to prosper.”

Spencer W. Kimball in a 1976 address to Samoan members:  He first read the account of Hagoth in Alma, chapter 63, and then said:  “And so it seems to me rather clear that your ancestors moved northward and crossed a part of the South Pacific.”  In that address he quoted President Joseph F. Smith who said, “I would like to say to you brethren and sisters of New Zealand, you are some of Hagoth’s people, and there is No Perhaps about it.”

Many people dismiss the Book of Mormon as a fabrication by Joseph Smith.  In doing so they give him a great compliment.  They’re inadvertently saying that he was the smartest man who ever lived.  I’m not willing to say such a thing.  Joseph was just an uneducated farm boy when he translated the Book of Mormon.  If the Book of Mormon is a fabrication, then Joseph correctly guessed that Nahom was a real place, and that a bountiful, green spot exists on the Arabian Peninsula.  The Book of Mormon speaks of two great civilizations that previously existed on the American continent.  Early detractors of the Book of Mormon made fun of it because no evidence existed of any previous civilizations.  It wasn’t until the 1890’s that such evidence began to surface.  What a remarkable thing it is that Joseph could have guessed these things.

How sad it is that people are willing to ignore the Book of Mormon and the wealth of knowledge that’s contained therein concerning history that the world knows very little about.  More importantly, how sad it is that people ignore this other testament of Jesus Christ that verifies the Bible and that gives us such profound knowledge about Him and about His dealings with God’s children in areas other than Jerusalem.  How shocked they’re going to be when yet more records come forth, as they surely will.  The Book of Mormon says, “For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them…”  (2 Nephi 29:11).

Our mission president made a very odd and interesting statement while speaking to the missionaries three months ago.  He said, “Someday someone is going to open a box on these islands, and find a book…”

I concur.  The Lord will have to direct that person to the book, but it’s here someplace, because the Lord Himself said that He commanded men “in the islands of the sea” to write His words.  The book might be on Tonga, or on New Zealand, or maybe even here in Vanuatu.  It will come forth when the Lord wants it to come forth, and it will confirm both the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

One of the people who got aboard one of Hagoth’s ships was Corianton, the son of Alma.  (Alma 63:10).  He was the son of a prophet, the brother of two prophets, and was himself a leader in the Church.  He was well acquainted with the scriptures.  His father and both brothers wrote in the record that was handed down from one prophet to another.  Surely Corianton was a record keeper, too.  If so, he would have continued the pattern of record keeping when he set out with Hagoth’s settlers.  Someday when the box is opened that contains the record of these islands, it may well be discovered that Corianton was one of those who wrote thereon.  Maybe he was the one to begin those plates.  Surely he carried with him all the scriptures that he could when he and his companions set out on their journey.  Very likely their journey was guided by the hand of the Lord, just like all of the other innumerable journeys that the Lord has initiated throughout history.

It’s fun to think about these things.  I’m grateful that I’ve been privileged to have The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and to have a testimony that every detail therein is true.  It’s fun to see these things being substantiated.  I wish everyone would read that book, and could be as excited about it as I am.