It was a Nephite custom to call their cities and even their villages after the name of him who founded them. [55] Thus the first city founded by the first Nephi, was called "Nephi," or "the City of Nephi;" the city founded by Melek was called "the City of Melek;" and so following. From this custom arose another, that of naming large districts of country after the chief city therein: thus the country in which the city of Nephi was located was called "the land of Nephi;" the country surrounding the city of Melek was called the land of Melek; see also "the land of Gideon;" "the land of Ammonihah," etc. Following this custom, when the migrating Nephites under Mosiah came into the valley of Sidon, and found the chief man of its principal city to be named Zarahemla, they straightway called the city "The City of Zarahemla;" and ever afterwards among them the surrounding country was called "the land of Zarahemla." Mulek's colony--the name is derived from that of the young prince it carried with it, not because he was really the leader of the colony, but doubtless out of a sense of loyalty and national pride on the part of those who would regard themselves as being entrusted by Providence with the fortunes of a prince of Israel--Mulek's colony, I repeat, in their hurried flight from Judea brought no records with them, no scriptures, no genealogies. The circumstances under which they made their escape from the Babylonians considered, it is not difficult to understand that records, scriptures, concerned them not at all. Flight, escape alone occupied their thoughts. In consequence of having no records, no written language of any kind, their language was much changed in the course of the centuries that had elapsed since their departure from Judea. So much so, in fact, that the Nephites could not understand them; neither could the people of Zarahemla understand the Nephites, until instructed by the latter in the Nephite tongue. Moreover, having been without both written scriptures and a living priesthood for centuries, Zarahemla's people not only no longer believed in God, but denied even the existence of a Creator. In a word, through ignorance and the demoralizing influence of contentions and internecine wars, they had deteriorated to semi-civilized and irreligious conditions. All this, however, in the course of time was changed. The people of Zarahemla soon learned the Nephite language, it being a language akin, of course, to their own. They were also taught in the Nephite faith; and instructed in the scriptures which Lehi's colony had brought with them from Jerusalem, and which Mosiah had brought with him in his northward journey. The happiest results followed this union of the two peoples. The people of Mosiah were so augmented in numbers by the addition of their new found friends that they could feel secure from aggressions of the Lamanites, who, in time, might follow them; and, on the other hand, to the people of Zarahemla,