The location of Antionum is in that strategic buffer zone between the Ammonites in the land of Jershon and the Lamanites to the south (Alma 27:23). The loss of this buffer zone would be very dangerous to the people of Ammon to the north and Zarahemla to the west. Hence the Nephites greatly feared that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites (v. 4). In later chapters, we learn that their fears were well founded for those Zoramites who were not converted by the preaching of Alma joined with the Lamanites and became a formidable force (Alma 35:10-11).