This "remnant," is the "seed of thy father;" that is, the descendants of Lehi, both Nephites and Lamanites.
Smitten by the Gentiles. From the very first advent of the European conquerors, the Indians have been the victims of cruelty. Las Casas, who came to America with Columbus in his third voyage, and who from the year 1530 traveled as a missionary in various parts of Central America, reports what he saw in Hispaniola. Indians were distributed in lots of 50 or 100 or 500, with the understanding that they were to be taught "the things of our holy faith." They became slaves and were simply worked and flogged to death. Sometimes they attempted mutiny with disastrous consequences to themselves. They were slaughtered, impaled on stakes, burned at the stake. Indians were hung up in rows and slowly tortured to death with sword points. Some were broiled over a slow fire and children were drowned without compunction. Mr. John Fiske says, "This tyranny went on until the effect was like that of a pestilence. The native population rapidly diminished until labour grew scarce, and it was found necessary in Hispaniola to send and kidnap Indians from other islands, and to import from Seville, negroes that had been caught in Portuguese Africa." (John Fiske, The Discovery of America, vol. 2, p. 445)
The remnant was indeed "smitten." The Indians were "visited in judgment," but their day of judgment in this probation is passed, and the day of salvation has come, with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon (v. 36), and the proclamation of the gospel from the mountains (v. 37).