Some twelve or fifteen years after Lehi's colony arrived in the new world, Nephi with that part of the colony which he could influence--the more righteous part, by the way--separated from the elder sons of Lehi and their following, and established a separate community. Such was the esteem in which Nephi was held by his following that his people besought him to be their king. Nephi appears not to have favored the establishment of this kind of government, but yielded to the desire of his people. Perhaps he had inherited the prejudices of the Hebrew prophets against the kingly form of government, [1] and would gladly have seen his people live under an administration of government by judges, as in ancient Israel. This, however, is but an inference drawn from the fact of Nephi's expressed desire that his people would have no king. Succession to the kingly dignity was made hereditary in Nephi's family, [2] and the kings on their accession to the kingly power took the title of Nephi I, Nephi II, Nephi III, Nephi IV, etc. [3] What the nature of this kingly government was, what secondary officers existed in it, and what means were employed for the administration of its laws cannot be learned from the Nephite record. For some time the community over which the established government held sway was but a small one, hence the kingly office had no such dignity as attaches to it in more extensive governments; but was most likely akin to the petty kingdoms which existed in Judea [4] at various times and with which Nephi and some few of those who had accompanied him from Jerusalem were acquainted. The Nephites had the scriptures containing the law of Moses, and were taught to some extent in some of the customs of the Jews, but not in all of them. [5] And these customs, and the law of Moses administered with no very great amount of machinery, I apprehend, constituted the character of the Nephite government. Under it the Nephites lived for a period of more than four hundred and fifty years.