“And my father Lehi also found upon the plates of brass, a genealogy of his fathers; wherefore he knew that he was a descendant of Joseph, yea, even that Joseph who was the son of Jacob, who was sold into Egypt, and who was preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he might preserve his father, Jacob, and all his household from perishing with famine. And they were also led out of captivity and out of the land of Egypt, by that same God who had preserved them. And thus my Father, Lehi, did discover the genealogy of his fathers.”
While Father Lehi and those who were with him encamped on the borders of the Red Sea, by a command of the Lord the sons of Lehi returned to Jerusalem and succeeded in bringing Ishmael (a righteous Israelite of the “tribe of Ephraim”) with his five marriageable daughters, to join the colony. They finally emigrated to America, literally fulfilling the words of Jacob with regard to Joseph’s promised inheritance of the choice land that was to reach to the everlasting hills. By this new acquisition, the sons of Lehi were provided with wives, and that, too, of Ephraimitish blood, making the remnants of their line, who were discovered in the year 1492 by Christopher Columbus, of the lineage of Ephraim and Manassah, whose descendants are the American Indians. Thus are we provided with a history which every one should read and become acquainted with the origin of the natives of America, and find an explanation [p.18] of the ruins found in North, South and Central America. Their history, translated from the gold plates, is now called the Book of Mormon. This book also gives a brief account of a previous nation, which left the Tower of Babel 2,000 years B. C., landing near the Gulf of California. They were 344 days in crossing the ocean. In process of time, they emigrated northward and finally became a great nation and people.
Here follows a few words as recorded in their history on page 571, chapter first, thirty-third verse:
“Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great Tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth.”
In addition to these words we will add the seventh and eighth verses of the eleventh chapter of Genesis:
“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.”
I think America is a pretty large portion of the earth, and comes in for its share of people. According to the word of the Lord the people were scattered. Those who wish to follow this colony closely can read their history as found in the Book of Mormon until they had built up cities, etc., which have been and are being constantly discovered. In process of time they numbered about 15,000,000 people and became rich, wicked and ripe for destruction.
At one time a fierce battle was fought near where Buffalo, N. Y., now stands, wherein two million were lying strewn upon the earth, slain in battle and no one to bury them, till the stench drove them southward to the Hill Ramah, which was called Cumorah by the Nephite race. A contract was entered into between Kings Coriantumr and Shiz, giving Coriantumr four years to gather together all who were on the side of Coriantumr, and all for King Shiz were gathered together unto his camp. Ether has recorded in the Book of Mormon that:
“The army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah. And it was that same hill where my Father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred. * * * When they were all gathered together, every one to the army which he would, with their wives and their children, both men, women and children being armed with weapons of war, having shields, and breast-plates, and head-plates, and being clothed after the manner of war, they did march forth one against the other to battle; and they fought all that day, and conquered not, and when it was night they were weary, and retired to their camps; and after they had retired to their camps, they took up a howling and a lamentation for the loss of their people who were slain; their howling and lamentation did rend the air exceedingly.”
A continuation of this lamentable slaughter, with weeping and howling, was kept up for six successive days, till only thirty-two of the people of Shiz and twenty-seven of Coriantumr’s were left, and on the seventh day Coriantumr with his twenty-seven retreated, which gave the opposing King Shiz fresh courage. He said, “I will slay Coriantumr or perish by the sword,” and indeed his words were fulfilled after a severe battle, in which all were slain, excepting King Shiz, who had fallen faint and weak, and Coriantumr, who leaned upon his sword to rest, after which he smote off the head of Shiz and fell to the ground as if he was dead. Here the history leaves this, the only survivor of those two mighty armies, around this historic Hill Cumorah, thus bringing to pass the words of the prophet Ether, who prophecied to King [p.19] Coriantumr that unless he and his people should repent, every one of them should be slain except himself and he should live to see a strange people possess the land and be buried by them. Now, in order to verify the prophet’s words, I will refer you to the book of Omni, Book of Mormon, which says: