Mosiah 22:15-16; 23:30 (about 121 B.C.)

When the Lamanites “found that the people of Limhi had departed out of the land by night, … they sent an army into the wilderness to pursue them” (Mosiah 22:15). It is important to note that after the army “had pursued them two days, they could no longer follow their tracks” (Mosiah 22:16), therefore, the army was “lost in the wilderness for many days” and decided to return to the land of Nephi without finding the escaping Nephites (Mosiah 23:30). The concept of a pursuing army getting lost is puzzling because one must assume the army could have easily retraced their tracks and returned home. It is also curious to contemplate how an army could have lost the trail of hundreds of people and animals during their pursuit. This unexpected situation suggests the search route must have been in an open, yet complicated, landscape such as chaparral in a semi-desert setting and not a heavily treed jungle-like region, or a grasslands setting that would have left obvious tracks from a sizable group of fleeing people. (See article by Hugh Nibley, “The Nature of Book of Mormon Society,” published in his work, An Approach to the Book of Mormon). Attempting to cope with unknown terrain could have also confused the Lamanite army, leading to their “lost” situation.

After the Lamanite army abandoned their search for king Limhi’s people, the army curiously selected a different route back, either because their outward route was much too difficult for quickly returning (this would be the case if they had traversed very steep canyons or ravines as they traveled through to the eastern side of the narrow strip of wilderness) or they felt there was possibly a less difficult and, therefore, quicker route through territory unknown to them. If the Lamanite army were “lost” on the eastern side, and they had come from the south—but determined not to return the same way—we believe they probably turned west and traversed through another east to west pass as they crossed the watershed divide of the narrow strip of wilderness within unknown territory. For either reason, the route they followed led to their being “lost” in the wilderness. All of this is possible within the rugged and unpredictable terrain of the narrow strip of wilderness in Baja California.