Mormon depicts an impressive and spontaneous conversion here—a good story but perhaps unlikely. For true conversion, these Lamanites would have had to have heard the gospel, decided against it, known that the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi had embraced that gospel, recognized that their nonresistance was caused by their new belief, and been so inspired by it that they spontaneously joined their erstwhile victims. This chain of suppositions is a long and complicated one, particularly given the confusion and heat of the attack. It seems more likely that Mormon, writing some four hundred years later and clearly drawing a moral from it, may have “improved” it by adding this spontaneous conversion. The detail that seems certain is that some Lamanites threw down their weapons and ceased to kill. What went on in their minds was probably not reported in the original source and is better explained as Mormon’s interpretation.