MORMON. The last great prophet-general of the Nephite race, but better known to us as the custodian and compiler of the records of his people, and the writer of the greater portion of the work named after him, and known as the Book of Mormon. The father of Mormon, who was a descendant of Nephi, bore the same name, and his illustrious son was born on the northern continent (A. C. 311), but when the latter was eleven years of age they both traveled south to Zarahemla. Before his departure south, Mormon formed the acquaintance of Ammaron, the keeper of the sacred records, which, because of the iniquity of the people, he had hidden in a hill in the land Antum. After he had hidden them up, he informed Mormon, then a child ten years old, of what he had done, and placed the buried treasures in his charge. He instructed Mormon to go, when he was about twenty-four years old, to the hill where they were hid, and take the plates of Nephi and record thereon what he had observed concerning the people. The remainder of the records, etc., he was to leave where they were.
It was in the year 322 A. C. that actual war broke out between the Nephites and Lamanites for the first time since the Redeemer's appearing. A number of battles were fought, in which the armies of the former were victorious. Four years later the savage contest was renewed. In the interim, iniquity had greatly increased. As foretold by the prophets, men's property became slippery, things movable were subject to unaccountable disappearances, and dread and distrust filled the hearts of the disobedient. When the war recommenced, the youthful Mormon, then fifteen years old, was chosen to lead the armies of his nation.
The next year saw disaster follow the Nephite cause. That people retreated before the Lamanites to the north countries. The year following
