Amaleki ends with a brief note about some who left Zarahemla to return to the land of Nephi. This story will be told from the perspective of the large plates, beginning in Mosiah 7, and more elaborately in Mosiah 9. At this point, we get only the briefest mention of those who left Zarahemla. A group of men wanted to recover the land of Nephi from which they had been driven in king Benjamin’s father’s time. During that event there was some contentious division among the party, and they turned on each other. Only fifty returned to Zarahemla. However, the desire to return continued, and many left to live in the land rather than conquer it, one of whom was Amaleki’s brother. That his brother was one of them is the likely reason that he made sure to add this note, even though he had begun to end his account. This information was an addition to his intention, which was probably to end with verse 26.
It is interesting that Omni 1:27 refers to the purpose of the second expedition, but verse 28 refers to the bloody conclusion to the first one. This suggests that Amaleki had the unofficial story from oral sources, and inadvertently conflated what were two different excursions. It also suggests that Amaleki’s brother had gone on the second expedition, but not the first. Had he survived the first, Amaleki would certainly have heard it and it would have been sufficiently impressive that Amaleki would not have conflated the two expeditions into one.
Importantly, Amaleki notes that the plates are full. This suggests that Nephi had created a set of plates that contained a number of blank sheets that later scribes used to write on. This further suggests that the large plates followed that same format. The difference between the two was that the large plates followed the kings or chief judges, who had the resources to create new plates. That ability was apparently not available to Jacob’s descendants. They were unable to create new plates, hence the small plates ended, while the large plates continued.