Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/101

Rh they gave the name of Irreantum, which word means many waters.  BOUNTIFUL, LAND OF. The most northerly Nephite division of the South American Continent. It extended in the north to the Isthmus of Panama, where it was bounded by the land Desolation. Its other boundaries are indefinite, and undoubtedly varied greatly at different eras of Nephite history, diminishing in extent as the wilderness was settled, cities were founded and the neighboring regions made tributary to them. Jershon appears to have been south and east of it. Its chief city bore the same name. And on its northwest corner Hagoth built his celebrated ship yards (B. C. 55).

Before the land Bountiful was settled by the Nephites, it was a wilderness filled with wild animals of every kind; some of which had come from the land northward for food (Alma, 22:31). But the Nephites, to prevent the Lamanites creeping up through the wilderness along the coast, east and west, and in this way gaining a foothold in the land northward, at as early a date as possible inhabited the land Bountiful, from the east to the west sea (Alma, 22:33), thus retaining possession of the whole of the northern continent.

In this land (B. C. 68), a severe battle took place between the Nephite army, commanded by Teancum, and the people of Morianton, in which the latter were defeated and their leader slain.

The next year (B. C. 67), the victorious Lamanites, under Amalickiah, reached the borders of Bountiful from the southeast, driving the Nephites before them, but their advance northward was checked by the forces of Teancum, by whom Amalickiah, their king, was slain.

In B. C. 66, Teancum, under instruction from Moroni, greatly strengthened the fortifications in the land Bountiful, giving special attention to making the Isthmus secure from capture. 