LEHI AND 'THE CHILD'

El Nino, meaning 'the child', as it normally appears during the months of December to January around Christmas time, occurs periodically every (2-7) or (3-5) years in the Pacific Ocean along the equator causing trade current, surface winds, weather, climate, and oceanic changes of a significant nature. The 1982-1983 El Nino even recorded the total reversing of the trade winds. Normally the predominate westwardly trade winds and currents stack the pacific waters up to a half meter higher in the eastern pacific than in the west. This causes a stirring effect of the Ocean which is beneficial to sea life as it stirs the needed nutrients for life up from the depths of the ocean. Occasionally water temperature changes and a relaxing of the westwardly trades winds allow an eastwardly current flow of this stacked up water back toward the Americas.

In short, in normal years with westwardly winds and currents stacking up the water in the east in the equatorial pacific, it would be quite impossible for a sailing ship from the east to enter eastwardly into the pacific along the equator, little alone sail directly along the equator and land a little south of the Isthmus of Darien as Lehi did according to the teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In fact this idea, prior to the recognition of the existence of the El Nino pattern, would mean that such a stated landing position would have received great criticism as being impossible. It will be recalled that others have attributed the landing site of Lehi more appropriately to conform with the possible trades and sea currents to the 35° latitude along the Chilean coast.

As a note of interest, the Isthmus of Darien landing site gives Lehi's colony 1) access to the Jaredite domestic animals from north of the narrow/small neck of land, which either where driven there by poisonous serpents or had migrated there from the want of food during the Jaredite wars of self extermination; and 2) immediate entrance into the forested wilderness. Where as, the Chilean site places Lehi's company with a 1000 mile long desert trip south of Peru. The Chilean site does not conform to the Book of Mormon's description of the land Lehi landed in, as he grew bounteous or bountiful crops at their initial landing site, he found domestic animals and wild animals of every sort, and they journeyed in forested wilderness full of wild beasts to their eventual civilization development lands in Peru. There in Peru is where they found various ores and a climate more like that which they had come from, than the jungle forests full of beasts.

The following is a suggested possible sea route for the party of Lehi to have traveled using the 'equatorial countercurrent' during a time of its enhancement in an El Nino year. The related El Nino ocean storm common to the El Nino could very well have been that storm which finally humbled Laman and Lemuel and lead to the release of Nephi.