THE LAST LONG SERIES OF WARS--MORMON--THE FINAL CONFLICT AT
CUMORAH--THE LAST OF THE NEPHITES.
(MORMON.)
It was in the year 322 A. C. that actual war broke out between the
Nephites and Lamanites, for the first time since the Redeemer's
appearing. It commenced in the land of Zarahemla near the waters
of Sidon. A number of battles were fought, in which the armies of
the former were victorious. Four years later the savage contest was
renewed. In the interim iniquity had greatly increased. As foretold
by the prophets, men's property became slippery, things movable were
subject to unaccountable disappearances, and dread and distrust filled
the hearts of the disobedient. When the war recommenced, the youthful
Mormon was chosen to lead the armies of his nation.
The next year saw disaster follow the Nephite cause. The people
retreated before the Lamanites to the north countries. The year
following they met with still further reverses, and in A. C. 329
rapine, revolution and carnage prevailed throughout all the land.
In 330 the Lamanite king, Aaron, with an army of forty-four thousand
men, was defeated by Mormon, who had forty-two thousand warriors under
his command.
Five years later the Lamanites drove the degenerate Nephites to the
land of Jashon, and thence yet further northward to the land of Shem.
But in the year following the tide of victory changed, and Mormon, with
thirty thousand troops, defeated fifty thousand of the enemy in the
land of Shem; then he followed up with such energetic measures that by
the year 349 the Nephites had again taken possession of the lands of
their inheritance.
These successes resulted in a treaty between the Nephites as one party
and the Lamanites and Gadianton robbers as the other. By its provisions
the Nephites possessed the country north of the Isthmus, while the
Lamanites held the regions south. A peace of ten years followed this
treaty.
In the year 360, the king of the Lamanites again declared war. To
repel the expected invasion, the people of Nephi gathered at the land
of Desolation. There the Lamanites attacked them, were defeated, and
returned home. Not content with this repulse, the succeeding year they
made another inroad into the northern country, and were again repulsed.
The Nephites then took the initiative and invaded the southern
continent, but being unsuccessful, were driven back to the frontier at
Desolation (A. C. 363). The same season, the city of Desolation was
captured by the Lamanitish warriors, but was wrested from them the year
following.
This state of things continued another twenty years; war, contention,
rapine, pillage, and all the horrors incident to the letting loose of
men's most depraved and brutal passions, filled the land. Sometimes
one army conquered, sometimes the other. Now it was the Nephites who
were pouring their forces into the south; then the Lamanites who
were overflowing the north. Whichever side triumphed, that triumph
was of short duration; but to all it meant sacrifice, cruelty,
blood-guiltiness and woe. At last, when every nerve had been strained
for conquest, every man collected who could be found, the two vast
hosts, with unquenchable hatred and unrelenting obstinacy, met at
the hill Cumorah to decide the destiny of half the world. It was the
final struggle, which was to end in the extermination of one or both
of the races that had conjointly ruled America for nearly a thousand
years (A. C. 385). When the days of that last fearful struggle were
ended, all but twenty-four of the Nephite race had been, by the hand of
violence, swept into untimely graves, save a few, a very few, who had
fled into the south country. The powers, the glories, the beauties of
this favored branch of Israel's chosen race had sunk beneath a sea of
blood; the word of their God, whom they had so long disregarded, was
vindicated; the warnings of his servants were fulfilled.
The Lamanites were now rulers of the western world, their traditional
enemies being utterly destroyed. But they did not cultivate peace; no
sooner were the Nephites obliterated, than they commenced fighting
among themselves. The lonely Moroni, the last of the Nephites, tells
us, A. C. 400, that the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the
face of the land is one continued round of murder and bloodshed; and no
man knoweth the end of the war. And again, yet later, he writes: Their
wars are exceeding fierce among themselves.
Such was the sad condition of the Lamanite race in the early part of
the fifth century after Christ. There the inspired record closes;
henceforth we have nothing but uncertain tradition. The various
contending tribes, in their thirst for blood so long gratified, sunk
deeper and deeper into savage degradation; the arts of civilization
were almost entirely lost to the great mass of the people. Decades
and centuries rolled by, and after a time, in some parts, a better
state of things slowly uprose. In Central America, Mexico, Peru, and
other places, the foundations of new kingdoms were laid, in which were
gradually built up civilizations peculiarly their own, but in many ways
bearing record to the idiosyncrasies of their ancient predecessors.
With this we have here little to do; many of their traditions (though
disregarded by mankind) bear unequivocal testimony to the truth of the
Book of Mormon, and we have the joyous assurance that as the words of
their ancient prophets recorded therein have been fulfilled to the
letter in their humiliation; and as they have drunk to the dregs from
the cup of bitterness of the wrath of God, so is the glorious day now
dawning, when the light of the eternal gospel shall illumine the hearts
of their descendants; fill them with the love of God; renew their
ancient steadfastness and faith, and make them the fitting instruments
in his hands of accomplishing all his holy purposes with regard to
them, in which also shall be fulfilled all the gracious, glorious
promises made by Jehovah to this transplanted branch of the olive tree
of Israel.