Lehi's Landing & Journey in the Promised Land

Lehi's possible landing place and the route they
took to reach their Land of First Inheritance.

Most Book of Mormon scholars who study Mesoamerica agree that Lehi's Land of First Inheritance is near Izapa, Mexico - and they also believe that is where Lehi's party landed. 

However, the Book of Mormon is clear that after disembarking, they spent at least one season planting and harvesting. But then they continued their journey through the wilderness.

1 Nephi 18:23-25 
And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land .

And it came to pass that we did begin to till the earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance. 

And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of men. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.

The question is, "Where did they land?"

John L. Lund offers one possibility in his book, Joseph Smith and the Geography of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith is quoted as saying that Lehi landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien (Panama). 

That is not too far-fetched because the Equatorial Counter Current in the Pacific makes a bee-line from Indonesia to Panama. And they would have sailed through the Indonesian islands after leaving the Arabian peninsula.

Once they began their land journey northward through Central America, they could make the trip to the Land of First Inheritance in 8 months or so. The distance is roughly the same as the Mormon trail from Nauvoo to Salt Lake. But Lehi and his family didn't have to stop for winter.

It makes you wonder if their ship barely made it to Panama or they could have sailed up the coast. That is essentially what the Mulekites did some years later.

Alma 22:30 And it bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of their first landing.

The Book of Mormon's use of the term "first landing" implies that there was at least one more landing. Just like Lehi, they didn't settle where they first landed but continued on, but in their case, still in boats, much closer to their final destination. Maybe they sailed a little bit up the River Sidon before their final landing. They eventually ended up in the heart of the land Southward and established the City of Zarahemla.

A couple more things.

Ponder these verses and you should realize that Lehi's family did not journey through uninhabited territory. They made contact with the natives. The Jaredites had been in the promised land for thousands of years and had spread out to fill the land from Alaska to Chile. And most of those people didn't participate in the final battle between Coriantumr and Shiz in the Veracruz region. 

The text in 1 Nephi 18:25 is a key to that possibility. How else would they see all those domesticated animals: cows, oxen, asses, goats and horses? In fact, the specific mention of wild goats precludes that the other goats and animals were domesticated and owned by people. Especially consider the  mention of oxen. Oxen were defined as castrated bulls during Joseph Smith's time. They don't live and breed in the wild if they escape from captivity. This would put to bed the argument that these are the animals left over after the Jaredites killed each other off to the last man. Besides, it is highly unlikely that every single person from Alask to Chile gathered together in the Veracruz region of Mexico to slaughter each other. What we see in the book of Ether is a very localized war of extermination.

A world map of gold deposits. Silver and copper looks similar to this.

You also don't find gold, silver and copper laying around on the ground. They must have seen those animals and items of jewelry when they encountered the native inhabitants. Note that Central America is rich in gold, silver and copper whereas the American Heartland is practically void of precious metals, much to the disappointment of the later marauding conquistadors.

A similar experience occurred when the Mulekites arrived. They didn't settle in the area of their first landing. They continued to travel in search of an available place to settle. The meeting between the Mulekites and Coriantumr, the surviving Jaredite king, didn't take place until the reign of Zarahemla - a Mulekite descendent - hundreds of years later. In the meantime, their coexistence with the natives contributed to the changing of their language and continual self-defense.

Omni 1:17 And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they [the Mulekites] had become exceedingly numerous. Nevertheless, they had had many wars and serious contentions, and had fallen by the sword from time to time; and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them.

Sources:

Lehi's Landing Place; Joseph A. Allen
Ancient Histories and the Mulekite Landing; Alan C. Miner and Kirk Magleby