their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping, and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plunderings, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work." [5] I repeat, then, even in Jaredite and Nephite times voyages could have been made from America to the shores of Europe, and yet no mention of it be made in Nephite and Jaredite records now known. I know of but one utterance in the Book of Mormon that would in any respect be against the probability of intercourse between the old world and the new, in Nephite times; and that is found in the following passage: And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. [6] This was uttered in the first half of the sixth century B. C. It will be observed, however, that the covenant with Lehi was based upon the condition that those whom the Lord led to the land of America must keep his commandments; a condition which was complied with only in part, even during Nephite supremacy; and at the last it was wholly violated on the part of both Nephites and Lamanites, and therefore may be eliminated as a substantial objection to the idea of intercourse between the old and the new world even during Nephite times. Still, in a general way, this land was preserved unto the descendants of Lehi until the coming of the Spaniards in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. IV. _The Western World Since the Close of the Nephite Period--The Lamanite Civilization._