Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/263

Rh Zarahemla be continued his march farther north, slaying great numbers of the Nephites as he advanced.

Coriantumr having thus thrown himself into the centre of the Nephite country, and failed to properly keep up the communications in his rear, was at the mercy of Moronihah, as soon as the latter could gather in his troops. Moronihah first sent Lehi, with an army, to intercept the Lamanites' progress northward, before they could reach the land Bountiful. In this Lehi was successful. He gave them battle and compelled them to retreat towards Zarahemla. Before they could reach there, Moronihah met them. A bloody battle ensued, in which Coriantumr was slain and his troops utterly defeated. But the Lamanites were unable to retreat, for they were surrounded on all sides by the Nephite armies; all they could do was to surrender. So Moronihah took possession of the city of Zarahemla again, and permitted the defeated Lamanites to return to their own country.

It was not until B. C. 35 that war was again declared. The Lamanites, being much the more numerous, carried everything before them. In vain the Nephites struggled for their homes and their liberties. They were forced back by the hordes of the Lamanites from city to city, from land to land. Manti, Gideon, Cumeni, Moroni, and even Zarahemla fell. Nor did the war end when the bloodthirsty Lamanites held high carnival in the midst of its towers and palaces. Onward swept the invading host, backward fled the defenders of the Commonwealth, backward they continued until every town and city, every tower and fort, from Melek to Moroni, from Manti to Bountiful, was filled with the savage, half-disciplined, dark-skinned warriors of Laman and their apostate allies. Not a place could be found in the whole southern continent where the soldiers of Moronihah successfully held their