While the missionary journey is the Melek, the emphasis is not on the city of Melek (if indeed their was one), but rather the attached lands. The people who come to Alma are not those of a city, but rather those of the countryside, and probably the more distant countryside, as the notation is specifically to the “borders of the land which was by the wilderness side.” It is also possible that Alma is dealing with hamlets and villages rather than a center that might be properly called a city.