The first nine years of the eleven years covered in these verses say only that they were preparing for battle. Mormon’s call to repentance came in the tenth year. The Nephites didn’t recognize the Lord’s hand in anything, let alone recognize “his hand in all things (D&C 59:21). The epistle from the king of the Lamamites in the 361 year seems unusual in our world today. Was this an act of fairness on the part of the Lamanites? It seems to be so, and perhaps illustrates that the Nephites were more wicked than the Lamanites at this time. The narrow passage from the land of Desolation that led to the land of Bountiful, or the land southward occupied by the Lamanites, was not the narrow strip of land further south between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi (see Alma 22:27).