It was now four hundred years since the birth of the Savior, or the year 401 A.D., that the Lamanites became the complete and sole masters of the Western Hemisphere. They would not let what was left of the people of Nephi rest in the ignominy of defeat, but hunted them down wherever they might be, until all had been found and slain. The wonder of it was that their utter destruction had been brought about by their own iniquity, the Lord using the Lamanites to punish the Nephites for their wickedness.
The Lamanites, not content with the defeat of the Nephites, began a war among themselves. Their bloodthirstiness, and the love they had for killing, were not gratified in the slaying of their enemies, but that measure of their want was in a way gratified only with them taking the lives of their neighbors. Moroni tells us that "the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war." (v. 8)
Moroni closes his description of Lamanitish atrocities, because he could find no good to relate of them; noting in doing so that there are none but "the Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land."
When the days of that last fearful struggle were ended, all but twenty-four of the Nephite Race had been, by the hand of violence, swept into untimely graves, save a few, a very few, who had fled into the South Country. The powers, the glories, the beauties of this favored branch of Israel's chosen Tribe had sunk beneath a sea of blood; the Word of God, which they had so long disregarded, was vindicated; the warnings of His servants were fulfilled.
The Lamanites were now rulers of the Western World, their traditional enemies being utterly destroyed. But they did not cultivate peace; no sooner were the Nephites obliterated, than they commenced fighting among themselves. The lonely Moroni, the last of the Nephites, tells us, 400 A.D. that the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the face of the land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no man knoweth the end of the war. And again, he writes yet later: "Their wars are exceeding fierce among themselves."
Such was the sad condition of the Lamanite race in the early part of the fifth century after Christ. There the inspired Record closes; henceforth we have nothing but uncertain tradition. The various contending tribes, in their thirst for blood so long slaked, sank deeper and deeper into savage degradation; the arts of civilization were almost entirely lost to the great mass of the people. Decades and centuries passed away, and after a time, in some parts of this chosen land, a better state of things slowly arose. In Central America and Mexico, in Peru and other places, the foundations of new empires were laid, in which were built up gradually civilizations peculiarly their own, but in many ways bearing record to the idiosyncrasies of their ancient predecessors. Of this we have here little to do; many of their traditions (though disregarded by nearly all) bear testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and we have the unequivocal assurance that the words of their ancient prophets recorded therein have been fulfilled to the very letter in their humiliation; and as they have drunk to the dregs from the cup of bitterness of the wrath of God, so is the glorious day now dawning, when the light of the eternal Gospel shall illumine the hearts of their children; fill them with the love of God; renew their ancient faith and steadfastness, and make them the fitting instruments in His hands of accomplishing all His holy purposes with regard to them, in which also shall be fulfilled all the gracious, glorious promises made by Jehovah to this transplanted Branch of the Olive Tree of Israel.