Map of Baja and Sonoran Desert with Indigenous People

This is a map of the Baja Peninsula and the Sonoran Desert showing the historic distribution of the indigenous peoples of the area. Of special note is the group with the number 23 - Cochimi (Laymon).

Names of indigenous peoples

(with number code to the map)

1 Western Apache; 2 Yavapai; 3 River Pima; 4 Tohono O’odham; 5 Hiá ced O’odham; 6 Maricopa; 7 Kavelchadon; 8 Quechan; 9 Halchidhoma; 10 Mohave; 11 Kamia; 12 Cahuilla; 13 Cupeño; 14 Northern Diegueño; 15 Southern Diegueño  (Kumeyaay), Tipai; 16 Cocopa; 17 Paipai (Akwa’ala); 18 Kiliwa;  19 Ñakipa; 20 Cochimi (Borjeño); 21 Cochimi (Ignacieño); 22 Cochimi Cadegomeño); 23 Cochimi (Laymon); 24 Cochimi (Didiu); 25 Cochimi (Monquí); 26 Guaicura; 27 Callejue; 28 Periúe; 29 Aripe; 30 Huchiti; 31 Cora; 32 Pericú; 33 Isleño; 34 Seri; 35 Yaqui (and Mayo combined under the name Cáhita); 36 Pima Bajo; 37 Guarihio; 38 Eudeve; 39 Ópata; 40 Mountain Pima; 41 Tarahumara; 42 Mayo; 43 Tepehuan; 44 Jano;45 Chiricahua Apache; 46 Zuni; 47 Hopi; 48 Navajo; 49 Havasupai; 50 Hualapai; 51 Chemehuevi; 52 Shivwit; 53 Southern Paiute; 54 Timbisha Shoshone; 55 Panamint; 56 Kawaiisu

Modified from Goodwin 1942; Massey 1949; Shreve 1964; Ortiz 1983; Fowler 1995; Rea 1997.

The location where the Laymon tribe was located corresponds to the land of Amulon / Helman in "An Approach to the Book of Mormon Geography" (see the "Lands ot the Book of Mormon" map).

Possible Meaning of "goodly" in 1 Nephi 1:1

The idea that goodly parents in 1 Nephi 1:1 might also mean wealthyparents has been expressed by others (including Hugh Nibley – see An Approach to the Book of Mormon, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Volume 6, 3rd ed., Deseret/FARMS, Salt Lake City & Provo, 1988, P. 47). However, the work of Royal Skousen and his assertion that Middle English vocabulary is found in the Book of Mormon, places this idea in a new light (see The Archaic Vocabulary of the Book of Mormon, Royal Skousen, Provo, Utah, Maxwell Institute, 2005).

In the OED, the second listed meaning of goodly is “notable or considerable in respect of size, quantity, or number.” The OED cited references for this meaning place its usage in the Middle English time period (e.g. Chaucer, 1374) and thus this may be one more example of Archaic English in the Book of Mormon.

The Word "Traffic" in the Book of Mormon

1. The word traffic occurs 3 times in all of the LDS Scriptures. Twice in 4 Nephi 1:46 and once in Ether 10:22 (see below)
2. In all three instances it occurs with a description of what happens when the people focus on acquiring wealth (gold and silver) and forget the commandments of God.
3. In the OED meaning 2b for traffic we read “To have dealings of an illicit or secret character; to deal, intrigue, conspire.” This meaning is old and is a possible Archaic English example. It is also a possible meaning for the word traffic as used in both these verses.
4. The double occurrence in 4 Nephi 1:46 is also a classic example of a Hebraism called paired cognate. This structure pairs a noun and a verb from the same cognate (root word).

Scriptures

46 And it came to pass that the robbers of Gadianton did spread over all the face of the land; and there were none that were righteous save it were the disciples of Jesus. And gold and silver did they lay up in store in abundance, and did traffic in all manner of traffic.
(Book of Mormon | 4 Nephi 1:46)

22 And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain.

23 And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 10:22–23)

Locations in Baja We Need to Visit

In his book "The King's Highway in Baja California", Harry Crosby, mentions finding two very interesting road sections high in the mountains south-east of San Ignacio and south-west of Santa Rosalia (see arrow on the map below for the approximate location). I hope that someday we can locate and document these two locations.

Starting on page 88 we read:


"After a series of sharp and confusing rises and turns we arrived on San Venancio summit at an elevation of 3500 feel. There, quite unexpectedly. we had the most magnificent view of the trip thus far. Without our being aware of it we had ridden to the last eminence at the north end of the Sierra de Guadalupe. From our position on a ridge we had a 180 degree angle view to the north. Below us to the east was a trail winding down to EI Rincon. a rancho. As I understood from Howard Gulick's study of EI Camino Real, he took that trail to be the Cuesta de San Venancio. Beyond, in that direction we could sec the waters of the Gulf. Across our view to the north ran the jagged transverse Sierra de Santa Lucía. Pecking just over the top of that range, but much more distant. was the tip of Cerro de la Vírgen, the tallest of the Tres Vírgenes volcanoes at 6500 feet. Between us and the Santa Lucía range was the Arroyo de Santa Agueda which ran of to the east, ultimately to flow into the Gulf of California just south of Santa Rosalía.It was too much for us to take in all at once. We unloaded the animals which had worked hard to get us up there, then took out maps, old trail accounts and binoculars. I will never forget the thrill and satisfaction it was to be in that place. We had come over a hundred miles from our uncertain start at Loreto, our travel scheme was working at last and perhaps for the first time I really began to feel the scope of EI Camino Real as it once was, and to realize how utterly it differed in every way from any of the lowland routes then in common use.

Up to that point I had considered the whole expedition as an exciting job to be finished so that I might go on to others. I had been so beset with the necessity to make arrangements and to solve problems that I had not really kept things in perspective. Also, in a mere physical sense we had been ploughing across, a broken and confused landscape where we could seldom see any horizon. Somehow. standing on that historic summit and looking out on that wildly colorful volcanic landscape, the course of things was altered for me. I did not really think about such things at the time, but since then I have felt that something important begun there.While Paul and I were communing with our larger surroundings, Guillermo was off scouting. None of us liked the idea that the trail to EI Rincon was our route. It was uncharacteristically narrow and winding and most roundabout for a Jesuit road. Presently Guillermo returned and said he had found the actual old road at a point farther northwest. We followed the ridge some distance from our lookout point until our guide stopped and pointed. Below was a steep descent north-northwest down a draw between two rocky outcroppings. No sign of a trail could be seen. but Guillermo led on. Soon he pointed to unmistakable showings of the old road and we were soon on what proved to be the most beautifully built and preserved cuesta on all of EI Camino Real. Down at least nine hundred feet of elevation, we zigzagged back and forth on that precipitous bajada. No one had passed that way for so long that the path was entirely blocked by growth, and the thorny natives had to be hacked out of our way at every step.

We were led along and beguiled as we went by the old construction on which we trod. It had been cut about three feet wide into the stern stuff of the hillside. Where necessary, walls had been built to retain sections of trail. The turns at the ends of the switchback were shored up by rock construction and all of it was so well done that it had continued to do its appointed job for two hundred years. We marveled at it all the way down. Under the bushes of that slope could be seen a minor but fascinating piece of history. It should be recognized and preserved as long as people care to celebrate the spirit of its builders.


. . .

A Curious Encounter

At the foot of the cuesta we struck off to the northwest down a ridge. Out in the valley in front of us we could see a clearly marked road or trail bearing more northerly than our route. We speculated about it but decided it was headed too far north. That proved to be a mistake as we learned later. Soon the ground became fairly level at 1500 feel below San Venancio summit, where we intersected a well -maintained auto road. According It, Howard Gulick's notes, that should have led to Rancho Candelaria. His version of' El Camino Real continued over a ridge from there to a place called Santa Cruz, where Father Serra had arrived at midday from Guadalupe. We followed the road and soon passed a left turnoff to a rancho called Las Higueras. On the slope of the sierra above the ranch we could see the reason for the name, There was an obvious source of water and a number of large trees, including several of the giant zalates.…

Once we were under way again we faced a formidable obstacle, Cuesta de Candelaria. It was the twin of the Cuesta de los Angeles for steepness and difficulty and required an hour and a half to negotiate its thousand fed. As we made the harrowing ascent I realized how much I had learned and how much I had come to trust mule's agility and good sense.
One thing puzzled us. Since leaving the foot of San Venancio we had not seen any good showings of the old road. We had assumed that the auto road overlaid part of it, but now that we had left it behind there was still no sign. Not once on the cuesta nor indeed at the top did we see a sign that we could interpret as El Camino Real. The only explanation we could find was that the road we had seen going farther north was the correct trail.

At the top we paused a few minutes to rest the beasts and enjoyed a wonderful view to the east. Then we started down the far gentler slope on the other side. In a few minutes we came to one of the great surprises of our trip. Out on that high and deserted valley leading apparently from nothing to nowhere was a wide and massive road hand-made of rocks carefully laid in a pattern of almost Roman sophistication. It appeared from behind a mountain below us. carved deeply into its flank, and charged up the slope on which we stood. Above us it curved over a ridge and disappeared from view. It appeared old but was in marvelous condition, far better than any piece of Jesuit road that we had seen. Paul and I stopped our mounts and gaped at the bewildering sight. Guillermo joined us, and even though he had never been there before, he recognized the work well enough to suggest what proved to be the correct explanation. He said it must be the work of La Compania, properly called EI Boleo."

Scholarship and the Book of Mormon

Because I was raised by active LDS parents, I was exposed to the Book of Mormon at a very early age. The strange language structures of the book just seemed natural to me – that was just the way scripture was. It wasn’t until I was a college student that I learned enough to appreciate just how different the language of the Book of Mormon was.

About 30 years ago I first read an article about Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon (see“Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon: A Preliminary Survey”, BYU Studies, 1970, Vol11:1 – available online). I finally understood why the English of the book was so different. The knowledge I gained from reading this and similar scholarship changed my ability to study and understand the Book of Mormon.

The next major influence that helped me better understand the Book of Mormon came in about 2003 when I attended a seminar in the BYU College of Humanities given by Dr. Royal Skousen. He proposed that the revealed Book of Mormon translation given to Joseph Smith by the “gift and power of God” included many words, whose meaning as used in the Book of Mormon, came from Middle English (15^ththrough 17^th centuries - I refer to this as Archaic English). I became a frequent user of the online Oxford English Dictionary because of its priceless historical data on the English Language (see Appendix: Oxford English Dictionary, below). Every time I see a word that seems unusual, I consult the OED online and dozens of times I have found that old meanings of words fit the Book of Mormon context much better than contemporary or 19^th century meanings.
In November of 2008, I was invited to a special presentation by my brother, Dr. Lynn A. Rosenvall (PhD in Geography) and his son David L. Rosenvall (MBA, BS in Engineering, David has considerable experience with internet systems) concerning their work on the Geography of the Book of Mormon. As Lynn said at the time: “the story had to take place somewhere.”Their proposal that Baja California was the site where the Book of Mormon record keepers lived was both stunning and startling to me personally. For years I had believed the story might have occurred in Mesoamerica; however, I knew there were serious challenges matching that location to the story contained within the Book of Mormon. Just two of many challenges were climate mismatches and scale mismatches.

Most satisfying to me personally was the match of their Baja proposal to the Archaic English meanings of Book of Mormon words as proposed by Royal Skousen. Time after time Lynn and David found that geographical terms as used in the Book of Mormon match with the old meanings of words (e.g. OED: isle or island: “a piece of land completely surrounded by water but formerly used less definitely, including a peninsula… see Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 10:20, “we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea.”)

Because of all of this, I will post articles to this blog dealing with all three subjects: Language (including insights about Hebrew), Archaic English in the Book of Mormon, and research related to Baja and its geography.

Appendix: Oxford English Dictionary

In the Book of Mormon Ether 6:10 we read (emphasis added) “And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.” With the usual meaning of damage, destroy or blemish, this verse make little sense. However, notice the OED entry for mar. An old meaning of the word is “hamper or hinder”, and it appears that this meaning is being used in the Book of Mormon.

Fevers and seasons in Baja and the Book of Mormon

1.       Fevers occur in many places around the world, especially in warmer climates, and not just in Mesoamerica.

2.       Malaria is not the only fever that can cause drastic consequences such as death.

3.       Malaria is not the only fever that can be controlled or ameliorated by "plants and roots."

4.       Dengue fever appears to be more widespread than Malaria, and occurs in tropical and semi-tropical climates.  It is endemic in 110 countries. Dengue, like Malaria, is borne by mosquitoes.  See this web link:  Dengue fever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

5.       Baja California has long had a problem with Dengue fever—in the past as well as today.  See these web links: Dengue Fever in Baja – The Facts  and Hemorrhagic dengue alert in Baja California Sur, Mexico | NowPublic News Coverage  and Viva La Baja! Blog  for a few web pages on the topic. There are other web sites.  Just search for "dengue fever baja."

6.       The bottom line is that the occurrence of fevers in Baja California fully matches the account in the Book of Mormon (Alma 46:40):

“40 And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate...”

7.       The account in Alma 46:40 more fully matches the climate situation in Baja California than it does Mesoamerica.  The wording says "fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land…" As we know, the Mediterranean type of climate in Baja California has two seasons (wet and dry) which affect the time of year when fevers would occur, whereas most of Mesoamerica has only one unvarying season throughout the entire year.  Clearly the Book of Mormon account mentions seasons and changing climatic conditions for the development of fevers.

Map of the Distribution of Uto-Aztecan Languages

The map is from a hand-out of Brian Stubbs given out at a seminar at Brigham Young University in 2010.

The Abbreviations of the Uto-Aztecan Languages (used in the above map)
Western Numic (WNum) Mn (Mono) NP (Northern Piute	Hp and Tb are each a branch Hp (Hopi) Tb (Tubatulabal)	Corachol (CrC) Cr (Cora) Wc (Huichol)
Central Numic (CNum) TSh (Tümpisha Shoshone) Sh (Shoshoni) Cm (Comanche)	Takic (Tak) Sr (Serrano – Takic) Ls (Luiseño – Takic) Cp (Cupeño – Takic) Ca (Cahuilla – Takic) Ktn (Kitanemuk – Takic)	Tara Cahitan (TrC) Tbr (Tubar) Yq (Yaqui) AYq (Arizona Yaqui) My (Mayo) Wr (Guarijio) Tr (Tarahumara( WTr (Westrn Tarahumara) Eu (Eudeve) Op (Opata)
Southern Numic (SNum) Kw (Kawaiisu) Ch (Chemehuevi) SP (Southern Paiute) WMU (White Mesa Ute) CU (Colorado Ute) NU (Northern Ute)	Tepiman (Tep) PYp (Yepáchic Pima) TO (Tohono O’odham) PB (Pima Bajo) NT (Northern Tepehuan) ST (Southern Tepehuan)	Aztecan (Azt) CN (Classical Nahuatl) Pl (Pipil)