This verse bears superficial similarities to 2 Nephi 5:7, 11, in which Nephi describes the foundation of his city. Alma’s record is similarly sparse. His people pitch their tents (as they did in 2 Ne. 5:7) and begin to till the ground (as in 2 Ne. 5:11).
These people assume that they will stay in this location. Even though we know that they will eventually reach Zarahemla, they are now attempting to create their own city. When they have met their most immediate needs (shelter and food), they take up the task of constructing buildings, or laying out a permanent village. The first building Nephi’s people worked on was their temple (2 Ne. 5:16). We might speculate that Alma’s people similarly began construction of a religious building, given the religious orientation of this new colony.
Text: Both the printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon begin this text with “And it come to pass that they pitched.… ” This phrase disappeared from all editions, beginning in 1837. Another more interesting deletion also occurs in this text. The phrase: “began to build buildings &c.” was removed in the 1920 edition. The removal of the “&c” does not change the essential meaning of the text, but it is curious that it was there at all, communicating as it does an additional, but nonspecific, construction. Any guess about what this common English abbreviation of the Latin “et cetera” may have represented on the plates is absolutely conjectural, but it is unusual for Mormon to generalize in this way. Perhaps the word being translated had a meaning of “build buildings and other evidences of civilization.” Such a hypothetical word might exist, and might be reasonably translated as “build buildings &c.”
The other possibility for “&c” is that Joseph or Oliver tired of writing something out, and simply abbreviated. The use of “&c” is typically for things that should be understood and therefore do not need saying. But this second hypothesis seems less likely. If they had not wearied of writing out so much of Isaiah, whose text is identical to the KJV, why would they have then reached for an abbreviation about building a city? Barring a third hypothesis I have not thought of, the first possibility seems likelier. Conceivably Mormon might have thought that the essentials of city establishment could warrant the “&c” even if we might wish for more elaboration.