The capital of the kingdom was doubtless the city of Moron, in a province or "land" of the same name, the location of which is unknown except that it was near the land called by the Nephites "Desolation." "Now," says Moroni, "the land of Moron, where the king dwelt, was near the land which is called 'Desolation' by the Nephites;"[[6]] and later he informs us that this "land of Moron" was the land of the "first inheritance" of the Jaredites.[[7]] This locates the land of Moron near the land called by the Nephites "Desolation," and the land Desolation, according to the Nephite records, bordered on the north of the land Bountiful, at that point where it was but a day and a half's journey for a Nephite from the sea east to the sea west.[[8]] This would bring the southern borders of the land Desolation well down towards the continent of South America, perhaps to some point on that narrow neck of land known to us as the Isthmus of Panama. The northern limits of what the Nephites called the land Desolation may not be so easily ascertained. Whether it extended north and westward beyond the peninsula of Yucatan or ended south and east of that peninsula may not be definitely determined; but from the general tenor of the references to it in the Book of Mormon, it was, when compared with the whole country, occupied by the Nephites, a small division of the country, a local province, and bounded on the north by what the Jaredites called the land of Moron, the land of the Jaredites' first inheritance.[[9]]
According to the late Elder Orson Pratt the place of the Jaredites' "first inheritance," or landing, was "on the western coast, and probably south of the Gulf of California,"[[10]] though he gives no reason for his statement. Elder George Reynolds, speaking of the land of Moron, "where the Jaredites made their first settlement," says: "It was north of the land called Desolation by the Nephites, and consequently in some part of the region which we know as Central America."[[11]] This conclusion, of course, is based upon the idea that the land Desolation was comparatively but a small Nephite province, an idea that, as already remarked, is forced upon the mind from the general tenor of the Book of Mormon references to it.
This land Desolation, so named by the Nephites because of the evidence of ruin and destruction that everywhere abounded in it, when first discovered by them, not because its lands were not fertile, was evidently a great centre of population in Jaredite times. About 123 B. C. a company of Nephites—forty-three in number—sent out by one Limhi, came into the land afterwards called Desolation and described it as "a land which was covered with dry bones, yea, a land which had been peopled, and which had been destroyed."[[12]] Another description of the land found by Limhi's expedition is that they "discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with the ruins of buildings of every kind; * * * a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel."[[13]] "And for a testimony that the things they said were true, they brought from the land twenty-four plates which were filled with engravings, and the plates were of pure gold. And behold, also, they brought breast plates, which were large, and they were of brass and of copper, and perfectly sound. And again, they brought swords, the hilts of which had perished, and the blades were cankered with rust; but no one in the land could interpret the language or the engravings that were on the plates."[[14]]
It is evident that the land of Moron, north of Desolation, was the chief centre of Jaredite civilization, and the principal seat of government from the time of their first landing in America—some twenty-two centuries B. C.—to the last civil war which ended in the destruction of the nation, in the sixth century B. C. The evidence of the foregoing statement is seen in the fact that Moron is the land of their first inheritance; and also that nearly all their great civil wars throughout their national existence, down to and including the last, raged in and about the land of Moron[[15]]—except the last great battles of the last war which were fought about the Hill Ramah, the Hill Cumorah of the Nephites. This fixes the center of Jaredite civilization for a period of some sixteen centuries in Central America. True, there is evidence that the Jaredites occupied at one time very much of the north continent;[[16]] but the land Moron, in Central America, was the seat of government and the center of civilization of the great empire. In the reign of the fourth king of the Jaredites, Omer, a conspiracy overthrew his authority; and would doubtless have ended in his assassination; but, warned of God in a dream, he departed out of the land with his family, and "traveled many days," and "came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed"—that is, by the Hill Cumorah, south of Lake Ontario, in the state of New York—"and from thence eastward, and came to a place that was called Ablom, by the sea shore, and there he pitched his tent."[[17]] Here he was joined later by others who fled from the tyranny of those who had usurped the kingdom.[[18]] This land of "Ablom", the late Elder Orson Pratt suggested, was "probably on the shore of the New England states."[[19]] So far as known this marks the northern limits of Jaredite occupancy of the north continent.
In the reign of the sixteenth king—in whose days "the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants,"[[20]] a "great city was founded at the narrow neck of land," that is, at some point on the Isthmus of Panama. That city marked the southern limits of the Jaredite empire. They never entered South America for the purpose of colonization, but preserved it "for a wilderness," in which "to get game."[[21]]
The width of the empire east and west, north of the Gulf of Mexico, may not be determined. Whether it extended from ocean to ocean, or was confined to the Missouri-Mississippi valleys, and thence eastward south of the great lakes to the Atlantic, may not be positively asserted; but personally I incline to the latter opinion, notwithstanding the statement of the Book of Mormon to the effect that "the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants." This I believe to be merely a general expression meant to convey the idea of a very extensive occupancy of the north continent by the Jaredites; but as it does not compel us to believe that the writer had in mind Labrador, the regions of Hudson's Bay and Alaska, so I do not think it requires us to believe that the Jaredites occupied the Rocky mountains, and regions westward of them. My principal reason for thinking that the Jaredite empire was limited northward to the great lakes, eastward from the Rocky mountain slopes—northward of the Gulf of Mexico—to the Atlantic, and southward to the Isthmus of Panama, is because—as will appear later—to that territory, magnificent in its extent, are more strictly confined what I regard as the evidences of Jaredite occupancy.
Extent and Nature of Civilization.
The extent of Jaredite civilization would be coextensive with the territory they occupied, the limits of which have already been considered. Of its nature one may judge somewhat when it is remembered that they were colonists from the Euphrates valley, shortly after the flood; and very likely the nature of their buildings, especially of their public buildings, temples and other places of worship, would take on the general features of the buildings in ancient Babel modified in time, of course, by their own advancement in architecture.
That they were a prosperous and civilized race in their new home in the western hemisphere is quite clear. In the reign of the fifth monarch, Emer, the people had become strong and prosperous, "insomuch that they became exceeding rich, having all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things; and also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. They also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man; * * * and thus the Lord did pour out his blessings upon this land [North America], which was choice above all other lands."[[22]]
In the reigns of Riplakish and Morianton, their tenth and eleventh monarch respectively—there were twenty-eight legitimate kings in all, besides a number of usurpers who held authority for a season in the Jaredite nation—many spacious buildings were erected and many cities were built; and the people "became exceeding rich" under those reigns; while in the reign of the sixteenth monarch, Lib, they seemed to have reached a very high state of civilization, which extended over the "whole face of the land northward:—"