According to John Sorenson, many Latter-day Saints have been fascinated over the years with "white Indians." They have interpreted sensationalistic reports of such rumored groups as referring to remnants of the Nephites. When we examine the Book of Mormon, we find no hint that any "white Nephites" were to be preserved. Mormon and Moroni repeatedly made clear before the Cumorah battle took place that there was no significant difference in the degree of unrighteousness of Nephites and Lamanites, unless it was that their own people's "wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites" (Moroni 9:20). [John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p. 351]
Note* In the book of Fourth Nephi, we find the following: "Therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true worshipers of Christ . . . were called Nephites . . . they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites" (4 Nephi 1:37-38)
The Nephites Wickedness Doth Exceed That of the Lamanites
According to John Sorenson, many Latter-day Saints have been fascinated over the years with "white Indians." They have interpreted sensationalistic reports of such rumored groups as referring to remnants of the Nephites. When we examine the Book of Mormon, we find no hint that any "white Nephites" were to be preserved. Mormon and Moroni repeatedly made clear before the Cumorah battle took place that there was no significant difference in the degree of unrighteousness of Nephites and Lamanites, unless it was that their own people's "wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites" (Moroni 9:20). [John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p. 351]
Note* In the book of Fourth Nephi, we find the following: "Therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true worshipers of Christ . . . were called Nephites . . . they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites" (4 Nephi 1:37-38)
“Their Wickedness Doth Exceed That of the Lamanites”
In reading statements such as, "their wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites" (Moroni 9:20) and "they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts" (v. 10) and "they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death" (v. 10), it is difficult to contemplate that the people of Lehi could have degenerated to such an extent. Such deplorable conditions however were seen in vision by Nephi from the very beginnings of Nephite civilization. He saw that these conditions would prevail until a Restoration would occur (1 Nephi 13).
In the Spanish Conquest of these same lands of the Americas, we see a reflection of the conditions that Mormon might have been trying to describe here. The following is extracted from the work of Bartolome' de Las Casas entitled A Brief Story of the Destruction of the Indies, written in 1540 and published in Seville in 1552. Las Casas accompanied his father on one of the expeditions of Columbus to the West Indies and there received holy orders, being the first priest ordained in America. He became convinced that the treatment of the Indians was wrong and tried to minister to their needs. He was referred to as the "Apostle of the Indies." In fifty years he visited most of the countries conquered by Spain. He first visited Guatemala in 1532 on his way to Peru. Returning in 1534, he remained for five years, travelling in different parts of the country and preaching to the Indians. His historical account thus becomes a very important document pertaining to the Conquest. He writes:
The Province and Kingdom of Guatemala
Let us again speak of the great tyrant captain (Pedro de Alvarado) who went to the kingdom of Guatemala, who, as has been said, surpassed all past and equaled all present tyrants. . . .
When he reached this kingdom he began with a great massacre. Nevertheless the principal lord, accompanied by many other lords of Utatlan, the chief town of all the kingdom, went forth with trumpets, tambourines and great festivity to receive him and litters; they served him with all they possessed, and especially by giving him ample food and everything else they could.
The Spaniards lodged outside the town that night because it seemed to them to be strong, and that they might run some risk inside it. The following day the captain called the principal lord and many others, and when they came like tame lambs, he seized them and demanded so many loads of gold. They replied that they had none, because that country does not produce it. Guiltless of no other fault and without trial or sentence, he immediately ordered them to be burned alive.
When the rulers throughout all those provinces saw that the Spaniards had burnt that one and all those chief lords, only because they gave them no gold, they all fled from their towns and hid in the mountains; they commanded all their people to go to the Spaniards and serve them as their lords, but that they should not, however, reveal to them their hiding place.
All the inhabitants came to offer themselves to his men and to serve them as their lords. This compassionate captain replied that he would not receive them; on the contrary, he would kill them all if they did not disclose the whereabouts of their chiefs. The Indians answered that they knew nothing about them but that the Spaniards should make use of them, of their wives and children whom they would find in their houses, where they could kill them or do with them what they wished. And this the Indians declared and offered many times.
Stupefying to relate, the Spaniards went to the houses where they found the poor people working in safety at their occupations with their wives and children, and where they wounded them with their lances and cut them to pieces. They also went to a quiet, large and important town, where the people were ignorant of what had happened to the others and were safe in their innocence; within barely two hours they destroyed it, putting women, children and the aged to the sword, and killing all who did not save themselves by flight. . . .
He advanced killing, ravaging, burning, robbing and destroying all the country wherever he came, under the above mentioned pretext, namely, that the Indians should subject themselves to such inhuman, unjust and cruel men, in the name of the unknown King of Spain, of whom they had never heard and whom they considered to be much more unjust and cruel than his representatives. He also gave them no time to deliberate but would fall upon them killing and burning almost at the same instant that his envoy arrived. . . .
[The Indians], seeing that with such humility, submission, patience and suffering they could not break nor soften hearts so inhuman and brutal, and that they were thus cut to pieces contrary to every show or shadow of right, and that they must inevitably perish, the[y] determined to summon all their people together and to die fighting, avenging themselves as best they could on such cruel and infernal enemies; they well knew, however, that being not only unarmed but also naked and on foot, they could not prevail against such fierce people, mounted and so well armed, but must in the end be destroyed.
They constructed some pits in the middle of the streets, covered over with broken boughs of trees and grass, completely concealing them; they were filled with sharp stakes hardened by fire, which would be driven into the horses bellies if they fell into the pits. Once or twice did some horses fall in, but not often, because the Spaniards knew how to avoid them. In revenge, the Spaniards made a law that all Indians of whatsoever age and rank whom they captured alive, they would throw into the pits. And so they threw in pregnant and confined women, children, old men, and as many as they could capture, who were left stuck on the stakes, until the pits were filled. It excited great compassion to see them, particularly the women with their children.
[Alvarado's men] killed all the others with lances and knives; they threw them to savage dogs that tore them to pieces and ate them; and when they came across some lord they accorded him the honor of burning in live flames. . . .
It was [Alvarado's] custom when he went to make war on some town or province, to take with him as many of the Indians as he could, to fight against the others; and as he led ten or twenty thousand and gave them nothing to eat, he allowed them to eat the Indians they captured. And so a solemn butchery of human flesh took place in his army, where, in his presence, children were killed and roasted; and they would kill a man only to eat his hands and feet, which were esteemed the best bits. And all the people of the other countries hearing of these villainies, were so terror stricken that they knew not where to hide themselves. . . .
Having thus killed all the lords and the men who could have made war, they put all the others into the aforesaid infernal slavery; they demanded slaves as tribute, so the Indians gave their sons and daughters as they have no other slaves, all of whom they loaded into ships and sent to be sold in Peru. . . .
They deprived the husbands of their wives and daughters, and gave them to the sailors and soldiers, to keep them contented, and bring them on board the ships. They crowded Indians into the ships where they all perished of hunger and thirst. And in truth, were I to recount his cruelties one by one I could make a big book that would astonish the world. . . .
They killed numberless people with the labour of building boats. From the South Sea to the North, a distance of 130 leagues [abt. 390 miles], they led the Indians loaded with anchors weighing seventy and eighty pounds each, some of which wore into their shoulders and loins. They also carried much artillery in this way on the shoulders of those poor naked creatures; and I saw many of them loaded with artillery, suffering along the roads. . . .
By other massacres and murders besides the above, they have destroyed and devastated a kingdom more than a hundred leagues [abt. 300 miles] square, one of the happiest in the way of fertility and population in the world. This same tyrant wrote that it was more populous than the kingdom of Mexico; and he told the truth.
He and his brothers, together with the others, have killed more than four or five million people in fifteen or sixteen years, from the year 1524 until 1540, and they continue to kill and destroy those who are still left; and so they will kill the remainder.
Of how many did he make orphans! Of how many did he take away the children! How many did he deprive of their wives! How many wives did he leave without husbands! Of what adulteries, rapes and violence was he the cause! How many did he deprive of liberty! What anguish and calamity were suffered by many people because of him!
(The Cortes Society, Documents and Narratives concerning the Discovery and Conquest of Latin America, New York, 1924, pp. 125-134)
[See the commentary on 1 Nephi 13:14]
Moroni 9:20 [The Nephites'] wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites ([Illustration]): A Portrait of Bartolome' de Las Casas in the Biblioteque Nationale, Paris. Hutton Webster, History of Latin America, New York: D. C. Heath and Company, 1924, p. 89)
Moroni 9:20 [The Nephites'] wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites ([Illustration]): Portrait of Pedro de Alvarado from the Painting in the Cabildo [Municipal Council Center] of Guatemala. Drawn by William Baake. (The Cortes Society, Documents and Narratives concerning the Discovery and Conquest of Latin America, New York, 1924, p. 4)