Mosiah 20; 21:1-21 (between 145 and 122 B.C.)

The sequestered priests of king Noah, under the leadership of Amulon, devised a plan to return to the land of Nephi to kidnap some of the Lamanite daughters and bring them to their settlement of Amulon, hidden within the narrow strip of wilderness (Mosiah 20:1-5).

The priests of Noah would have known the location of the land of Nephi to the south and the spot where the daughters of the Lamanites would gather to sing. Using an opportune time, they kidnapped the Lamanite daughters and “carried them into the wilderness; yea, twenty and four of the daughters of the Lamanites they carried into the wilderness” (Mosiah 20:5).

The priests of king Noah returned multiple times to the land of Nephi, to pillage food and supplies from the Nephites, living under the rule of king Limhi, but who were also in bondage to the Lamanites (Mosiah 21:20-21). Because the Lamanites were mainly located along the western side of the peninsula, this would suggest that the priests of Noah and the kidnapped Lamanite daughters were hidden in the more centrally located highlands of the narrow strip of wilderness.

The priests of king Noah would have had to hide their tracks and any evidence of where they were hidden, and yet multiple times “they had come into the land of Nephi by night, and carried off their grain and many of their precious things,” and the people in the land of Nephi, “laid wait for them” (Mosiah 21:21). Tracking the raiding priests of king Noah would not be a problem in a jungle-like environment. This would also suggest that they were within a several-days journey of the land of Nephi, probably in a more semi-arid desert setting with an open chaparral landscape, again providing evidence that the narrow strip of wilderness of the Book of Mormon people would match the suggested location in Baja California.