Mormon notes that “king Limhi had sent, previous to the coming of Ammon1, a small number of men [43 men -- Mosiah 8:7] to search for the land of Zarahemla” (Mosiah 21:25). This Limhi Expedition probably had some standard of distance and direction because at one point in their travels they found “a land which was covered with dry bones; yea, a land which had been peopled and which had been destroyed; and they … supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla” (Mosiah 21:26). According to John Sorenson, the maximum believable limit they could have traveled seems to be three times the distance from Lehi-Nephi to the land of Zarahemla because the party was “diligent” (Mosiah 8:8). If they had gone overly far, they would not have supposed that they had reached the land of Zarahemla but would have possibly realized that they had been off course. [John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book, F.A.R.M.S., p. 222] If we combine an approximate distance with the approximate time traveled, we could estimate how long Limhi’s expedition was gone and thus be able to ascertain about when it was that king Limhi sent the 43 men. In Mosiah 7:5 it says that in search of Zarahemla, Ammon “wandered” between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi and still covered the distance in “forty days” (Mosiah 7:5). Alma, with “flocks and herds” took a little more than 21 days to cover the distance (Mosiah 18:1-5, 23:3, 24:20, 24:25). Using these times for a minimum and a maximum we get the following:
Minimum time for going and returning
21+ days = the number of days going
21+ days = the number of days returning
42+ days = an estimated minimum time for the duration of travel for the Limhi Expedition
Maximum time for going and returning
3 x 40 days = 120 days going
3 x 40 days = 120 days returning
240 days (about 8 months) = an estimated maximum time for the journey of the Limhi Expedition
The Limhi Expedition might have wandered in the trip going out, but coming back, it probably would have traveled much faster if they were returning over known terrain. According to the chronology in Appendix A, the Limhi Expedition was probably sent out about 7-8 months before Ammon arrived, took about 4-6 months to complete their search, and returned just a few months before the arrival of Ammon and his brethren. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“I Caused That Forty and Three of My People Should Take a Journey to Find the Land of Zarahemla”
Previous to the arrival of Ammon, King Limhi had sent an expedition of men to find the land of Zarahemla, but they “were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days” (Mosiah 8:8). How could they get lost?
King Limhi’s people were descendants of a Nephite group that had returned with Zeniff to the land of Lehi-Nephi only about 60 years previous. If Limhi’s grandfather was Zeniff, who originally came from Zarahemla, Limhi’s people must have known something of the way back because Zeniff had made the trip at least three to five times or more, depending on the frequency and scope of his spy activities (Mosiah 9:1-6). Perhaps the Limhi expedition knew the general direction and approximate time of travel to the land of Zarahemla but did not know the exact route. The Limhi expedition probably had some standard measurement for distance and direction in order to arrive at their destination because at one point, they “supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla” (Mosiah 21:26). According to John Sorenson, the maximum believable limit for their travels seems to be three times the distance from the local land of Lehi-Nephi to the land of Zarahemla. The party was “diligent” (Mosiah 8:8), so if they had gone beyond this limit, they probably would have realized that they were lost. Had the expedition traveled to the west of Zarahemla, they might have gone through wilderness, Lamanite country (Alma 22:28). If they had traveled just east of Zarahemla they would have been in “the east wilderness,” which also might have been Lamanite country (Alma 50:9,11). The text simply says that in their search, the Limhi party traveled in “a land among many waters” (Mosiah 8:8). To reach any candidate for a land of “many waters,” the expedition would have had to pass by both the land of Zarahemla and the narrow neck of land (which was located somewhere between the land of Zarahemla and the final battlegrounds of the Jaredites) without realizing they had done so.
Upon wandering into the Jaredite battlegrounds, the search party found, among other artifacts, Jaredite records. Where did the expedition find them? Were they deposited in Ether’s cave? Were they located in the hill that Ammaron and Mormon later used to deposit their records (the hill Shim -- Mormon 1:3)? Or were they someplace else?
Finally, if the search party found their way back to the land of Lehi-Nephi and still hadn’t stumbled onto the real land of Zarahemla, did they use the same landmarks to mark their course for the return trip as they had used on their initial search? And if so, what sort of geographical landmarks had they used to navigate? Perhaps in searching for Zarahemla, the Limhi expedition might have located the head of the wrong river. By following a large river from its head in the tops of the mountain wilderness which separated Zarahemla from Lehi-Nephi to where it emptied into the sea, a group of explorers eventually would end up in a lowland basin with water, swamps, and lagoons everywhere.
Assuming a Mesoamerican setting, an area that qualifies itself in distance, location, movement, and size is the area where river systems drain from the Chiapas Mountains into the Gulf of Mexico. The average rainfall in the area is among the highest in the world. The sea-level area accompanied with the high rainfall, causes lagoons of water, creating a swampland setting and making travel through the area very difficult. It extends from the Tabasco region on one side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (the proposed narrow neck of land) to the Veracruz region (proposed Jaredite lands) on the other. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See also Mosiah 21:25-27, which gives details of this same expedition]