Nephi again becomes the Lord’s servant, and brings the ship to the promised land (vv. 21–23). Their travels of the last ten or eleven years may be charted from the Book of Mormon as follows. Lehi traveled from Jerusalem to the borders of the Red Sea, went three days into the wilderness into a valley they named Lemuel, with a river that emptied into the Red Sea (1 Nephi 2:4–8). From the valley of Lemuel, they traveled in a “south-southeast direction” many days following “the directions of the ball” to a place called Nahom (1 Nephi 16:13–17, 33–34). From Nahom, they “did travel nearly eastward from that time forth” until they “did come to the land which they called Bountiful” (1 Nephi 17:1, 5). From Bountiful they “were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:8, 22–23).
Another account of Lehi’s travels comes to us from Fredrick G. Williams, a counselor in the First Presidency to the Prophet Joseph Smith. At the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, in 1836, “President Fredrick G. Williams arose and testified that while President Rigdon (the other counselor in the First Presidency) was making his first prayer, an angel entered the window and took his seat between Father Smith and himself and remained there during the prayer.
President David Whitmer also saw angels in the house” (HC, 2:427).
Elder Heber C. Kimball also bore testimony that “an angel appeared and sat near Joseph Smith Sen., and Fredrick G. Williams,” and gave more detail which will not be given here. Following the quoting of the above references, the biography of Fredrick G. William’s life states:
Fredrick had in his pocket a piece of paper which he carried to take notes on. On this he wrote in pencil: “John the beloved”—then a space followed and a few lines written in another language. A large space followed and then at the bottom of the page he wrote the following revelation: “The course that Lehi traveled from the city of Jerusalem to the place that he and his family took ship: They traveled nearly south, southeast direction until they came to the nineteenth degree of north latitude. Then nearly east to the Sea of Arabia; then south, southeast direction and landed on the continent of South America in Chile, thirty degrees south latitude.”
Returning home he transcribed the revelation in ink on another sheet of paper. Rebecca kept these papers with his other notes until her death. Their son, Ezra, loaned them to the Church Historian’s Office in Salt Lake City in the 1860’s where they have lain these many years, known only to historians, to be brought to light and published for the first time.
In 1952 Hugh Nibley, a great Book of Mormon scholar, observed:
After traveling a vast distance in a south-southeast direction (16:14, 33), the party struck off almost due eastward through the worst desert of all, where they “did wade through much affliction,” to emerge in a state of almost complete exhaustion into a totally unexpected paradise by the sea. There is such a paradise in the Qara Mountains on the southern coast of Arabia. To reach it by moving “nearly eastward” (17:1) from the Red Sea coast, one would have to turn east on the nineteenth parallel. In the Improvement Era for September 1951 the present writer published a map in which his main concern was to make Lehi reach the sea in the forested sector of the Hadhramaut, and no other consideration dictated his sketching of the map. He foolishly overlooked the fact that Dr. John A. Widtsoe had published in the Era some months previously what purports to be, and probably is, a genuine “Revelation to Joseph the Seer,” in which it is stated that Lehi’s party “traveled nearly a south, south-east direction until they came to the nineteenth degree of north latitude; then nearly east to the sea of Arabia… .” By an interesting coincidence, the route shown in the author’s map turned east exactly at the nineteenth parallel. This correlation of data from two totally different sources is a strong indication that both are correct.
In 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith, after reading of John L. Stephens exploration to Central America, commented:
When we read in the Book of Mormon … that Lehi went down by the Red Sea to the great Southern Ocean, and crossed over to this land, and landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien, and improved the country according to the word of the Lord, as a branch of the house of Israel, and then read such a goodly traditionary account as the one below we cannot help but think the Lord has a hand in bringing to pass his strange act, and proving the Book of Mormon true in the eyes of all people. [TPJS, 267]
Some see a contradiction between Joseph Smith’s and Fredrick G. William’s statements on the landing places. However, the statements can be correlated. The term “a little south” should be considered in the general context of the entire statement of the Prophet’s statement. Fredrick G. William’s statement gives a more specific landing. “A little south” on a map may be a lot farther than a reference to “a little south” when giving directions from a street corner to an individual. On a map, Chile is a little south of the Isthmus of Darien. It is also a little south from Central America where the John L. Stephens’ expedition was and then being read about by the Prophet Joseph. While the place Lehi landed is not of extreme importance, the above information should not be treated lightly.