Here the student may obtain a fuller insight into King Laman's character when he understands that in his newly acquired subjects, Laman saw the chance to better his people's conditions by increasing their opportunity to learn the things of the more-enlightened Nephites. He therefore appointed Amulon's brethren, who were formerly the priests of King Noah, to positions of trust as teachers throughout the land where his people dwelt.
The Lamanites were not slothful in availing for themselves the opportunity to improve their lives. No doubt, King Laman and his followers were a bloodthirsty people. No doubt that they envied the more prosperous Nephites, and sometimes, even by making war upon them, sought to gain the fruits of their labors by overpowering them.
Educated in the language of the Nephites, the priests began to instruct the Lamanites. They taught them nothing of the religion of the priests' fathers, or the Law of Moses, but they did instruct them how to keep their records, and to write one to another.
The Lamanites, among themselves, were friendly, but the hatred they had for the Nephites, and the false traditions handed down to them by their forefathers, precluded a belief by them in the Nephite God. They knew nothing of Him. The priests never explained to them the wonderful words-or the prophecies-of the Prophet Abinadi. How the Lord would come down from heaven and would dwell among men. How, through His ministrations, men would see that they were brothers, and would thereafter live in peace.
The bitter resentment that filled the hearts of the priests, together with their malignant dread of the truth, prevented much good they might have done, and prostituted what they did do to the meanest purposes of crime, idolatry, and unbelief. However, the coming of the priests of former King Noah among the Lamanites gave rise to a different, if not a more enlightened civilization. As a result, the Lamanites increased in wealth, and trade and commerce extended between them. In their dealings one with the other, they became cunning and wise. They waxed strong. In worldly goods they grew in power, yet they still were given to robbery, and to plundering their neighbors households and farms. However, it is said of them that they never molested a member of their own clan.