It is supposed that the first remove of the Nephites from their brethren covered no great distance; as only a few years passed before they were in contact with one another again, at least in warfare. Indeed Elder George Reynolds, in his _Dictionary of the Book of Mormon_, holds to the theory that there may have been several removals of the Nephites between their first separation from the Lamanites under the First Nephi, and the very noted hegira under Mosiah I, about the fourth century of the Nephite annals. [44] The author of the _Dictionary_ urges as the reasons for his theory that it would be inconsistent with the story of the record (Book of Mormon), and with good judgment, to believe that in their first journey the Nephites traveled as far north as they were found four hundred years later, [45] when the very noted remove was made under Mosiah I. I believe the reasons of Elder Reynolds are quite sufficient for his theory. The movements of the Nephites were most probably as follows: Whatever of conquest was made by the Lamanites upon Nephite possessions, during the first four centuries of their occupancy of the promised land, was made upon their southern borders. On the other hand the Nephite settlements were extended on that side of their possessions least likely to be assailed by their enemies, where there was least danger, that is, on the north. These two circumstances combined to give their colonization movement a northerly direction; until about the close of the fourth Nephite century they are supposed to have been in possession of that part of the continent of South America corresponding to the country now called Ecuador. [46] This country that the Nephites occupied at the close of the fourth century of their annals, as also that which they had slowly colonized, and from time to time abandoned to their enemies--the whole distance from the place selected by the First Nephi after separating from his brothers to the place they occupied at the close of the fourth century of their annals--this whole country--the Nephites called the Land of Nephi, or the Land of their father's first inheritance. [47] The story of the second great hegira of righteous Nephites from their less righteous brethren is a very brief one. It was undertaken in response to a warning and commandment of God to one Mosiah, who is celebrated in Nephite history as the first king of what I shall call the Nephite-Zarahemla nation--Mosiah I. How great the distance covered in this second great hegira of the Nephites may not be definitely determined; but later a colony under conditions somewhat similar, that is, encumbered with women and children, flocks, herds, and quantities of grain, etc., covered practically the same journey in about twenty-two days, in two separate stages; one of eight and the other of fourteen days. [48]