THE BOOK OF SHIONI AKEK

1And we did begin again, even as our father Hagoth began again, except that the land was filled with Nem and we were not a lonely people. And our city did grow and we called it Elak Kowa, in commemoration of the place from which we had come.

2And Mentina, which means “Place of Salt” was emptied almost entirely of people. Yea, seldom did many people ever live again in the valley during all the days of my life and my stewardship. But the Nem kept a small settlement there near unto the Archives to guard them and to keep them. And my brother made an attempt to reestablish Elak Kowa, but he did not succeed in his desire. Yea, he did return ere long to Elak Kowa and we did welcome him in again.

3But, in my day, the valley of Meninta was an empty and lonesome place. Yea, the meadows and fields returned unto expanses of willows and breaks, and they were filled with wild animals.

4And the water filled up the cisterns and overflowed. And the tanks were broken and the catchments thrown down. Yea, all the water rushed headlong down the streams and into the lake. And none of it watered the fields. Wherefore, the vineyards and the orchards did dry up.

5And the houses made of wood did wither and crack, for there was no one there to oil them. And the thatch of the roofs did blow in the wind, for there was no one there to mend them. And the shutters did fly from off the windows, for there was no one there to see to them in the storm.

6And the streets, which had been well beaten and sealed with fish meal and oil, dried and cracked. Yea, the wind did blow upon the streets and the sun did beat upon them and they became dust and melted away. And the trees that lined them and the gardens that adorned them withered and died.

7And the High Place stood out on the hill, alone of all, the only thing cared for in any way in the city. And, I am told, it also begins to fade away because of disuse and the lack of attention.

8Yea, only the sun and the wind frequent the High Place in Mentina. And it is a lonesome place. Its tree lined streets are no more, for the trees have all died. Its beautiful gardens are withered and gone. There are only dusty ruins of foundations on the hill and the lake, being filled up with the floods, has claimed all the houses below.

9Yea, and because it is the custom of the people to build with wood almost entirely, the sun and the wind have dried them up and they are speedily taken with fire in the season of thunder. And the lake has swallowed up and consumed all others. Yea, though the tall buildings are still visible above the waters, how can they stand when their foundations and first walls are flooded?

10For the water that sustained Mentina was carefully managed. Yea, it flowed down out of the mountains every year and the people did catch this water carefully and use it, wisely directing its flow so that all the land could be watered as a garden. But, when the people are all gone the system did not function, in but one season it was destroyed and the water found its own way again. And the garden withered and blew away. Yea, Mentina is become a waste place.

11And the orchards and vineyards have all dried up and give no more fruit because there is no water brought unto them. And the garden place that was Meninta is returned to a state fit only to be an outpost of the Nem.

12But the Nem do continue to prosper in the North Country and over toward the West Sea. And also in the plains the Nem do continue to gain and prosper. And in the land of Corianton, away to the North in the Lake Country, the Nem still have all things in common, for they are of one heart and one spirit. Notwithstanding, they do continue to recede into the forests, for there are Gadianton Robbers again in the land.

13But they do continue to send delegates up to Elak Kowa to the Great Councils when they are deemed necessary, and we do continue in trade and in communion with them from time to time.

14And we do also receive from time to time emissaries from the Nem of the Islands. Yea, they do also send us ambassadors, for they desire not that we should become a sundered people. They know of our doing and we are kept appraised of theirs, insofar that we do feel as thought there were no great ocean between us. They are our kin and kindred and we do keep our association with them.

15And we do receive, though less frequently than in times past, envoys from the countries that lie far to the west across the sea, even toward Jerusalem of old. But, it is as I say, their visits are much fewer now than in times past and the news which they bring to us is not at all good.

16For, it seems that many people do follow strange traditions that do not edify. And yet others seek only to enslave their fellow men. This news does fill us with sorrow for the people of the world. We do pray for all people and hope for them that they may also live as we do, but it does appear to be a difficult thing to do. But we, the Nem, do it. I may be arrogant in my assumption, for I certainly have not traveled in all the world. But, from the reports that come to us from other lands, the Nem do live a different law and we think a better law than the world chooses to live.

17And this way that we live is so important to us that we will not suffer ourselves to remain in the company of they who seek to take away our peace. It was for this cause that we left our homes in the Land Southward when our forefathers saw in visions the coming ruin of the Nephites. And it was also for this reason that I did take my own people out of the place of our home and brought them up into the land of Nespelem and of Potal. For we would not that our children might come into the wickedness of Tucantor.

18For, what does it profit us to remain in the midst of neighbors who will enslave their own people? Shall we always be strong enough to overcome them? Or might we some day have been enslaved by them also? But this is the thing that I would not conscience for my children. And I did make my plans to remove myself from out of Meninta. And behold, when I had made my own plans, all the people were of like mind and they did follow me into the mountainous north country.

19For the Tucantorites were not so much unlike the Gadianton Robbers to us. And we knew that we could not reason with them. But, could we take up the sword and slay them as our forefathers did? I say unto you, Nay. For the Lord our God did not command it as He did with them.

20Therefore, since we could not teach them, and the Lord had set Himself against slaying them, we did decide that it was better to leave the land and get ourselves out of Meninta completely.

21And it is a good thing that we did. For when wickedness is taken up in the hearts of men, it is hardly cleansed out of them when there are many who have taken it up and made it a standard unto themselves. Yea, when it has taken over the governance of a city, it can hardly be cleansed except that the Lord does make such a cleansing. But what men might do it? Surely not we, who love peace.

22For it is much better that we go to a place of peace, where our hearts may be at peace, than to remain in a place of conflict. Yea, for fear will have attracted to us they who are filled with fear. And anger will have attracted to us they who are filled with wrath. And could we have escaped the necessity of war had we remained in Meninta? That I cannot say. I hope that we might have. But the memory of the awful wickedness and the persecution wrought upon our relations, who had for a time been enslaved by the Tucantorites, did harrow us up in the remembrance of all that my father did teach us about the Great War between the Nephites and the Lamanites.

23And there was none among the Nephites who were not harrowed up in the souls with wrath and fear. And they were ruled by wrath, for they went from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood. And behold, every man and every woman did sleep upon their swords. And they did lay themselves down upon the ground at night and await the coming of the dawn in anticipation of the next day’s atrocities. And behold, were not the Nephites brothers to the Lamanites even as the Tucantorites were our brothers?

24And I do deem that it was better that we did make our departure out of the land, rather than remain and eventually become overrun in all our settlements and cities with Tucantorites and the doctrine of Tucantor.

25For to stay would have brought war. Yea, to stay would have brought war between brothers. For they would not be taught and they were determined to rule over the people. Wherefore, there must have been great war ere long if we had stayed in the valley. For, they did covet the product of the valley and the fruits of the labors of all men. And we did deem it better to take it all away into another place.

26But this is not all. We did also depart out of our homeland because it was clear to us that the people of Mentina would surely have enslaved us even as they had enslaved their own brethren and neighbors. And, valuing our freedoms, we did take our journey and came up out of Meninta, leaving the Tucantorites to support themselves as best they might without the production of their neighbors, and without any trade.

27And before much time had passed, the Tucantorites were forced to leave the valley of Meninta as well. They did also depart out of the valley and leave it a wasteland.

28And thereafter, the city of Mentina was never again known as a great city of the Nem, but the libraries were maintained and the people still travel there to study in peace. It has become a solitary place, a place of stillness. Yea, I may say that there is still a good purpose in Mentina, but it is not the same as it once had been. It is a memorial and a reminder of what shall become of all the Nem if they sin against those precious things which God does give us because of our determination to serve Him and our neighbor.

29For there is little conflict there now. The Tucantorites have all left it and gone into the East and into the South countries. Yea, the struggle is gone out of the land and it is a solitary place.

30And we live in peace and tranquility in the mountains because that we did choose a better way. We did choose to depart out of the conflict and out of the threat of war. For, we could have remained and fought for our way of life, but none of us desired to engage in the needless work of death that war with the Tucantorites would have become. And the cities and settlements of Meninta were so connected that any breach would have eventuated much hardship on all. Wherefore, a breach must surely have come, and war hard on its straps.

31And the Nem are a peaceable people and we teach the peaceable things of the kingdom. Wherefore, we did choose to take the course of Nephi of old and remove ourselves from out of the conflict. Yea, even as Nephi did gather his people and remove out of the land into another place, so too did we remove ourselves from the conflict even before it could grow into war.

32This is the resolution that we chose, and by the Common Consent of the people we did chose it. Yea, with one heart and one voice we did pack up all that we had and we did remove ourselves from out of the land. And we deemed this the best course to take. For, though each of us was harrowed up in our hearts, yea, our souls were kindled with thoughts of anger and fear because of that which the Tucantorites had done unto their own relations, yet we did not wish to build our foundation upon war. We did not wish our lives and our nation to become founded on the shedding of blood and the rendering of evil unto every evil.

33For we had often heard my father speak, and also we did hear the words of those who also escaped the utter destruction of the Nephites, concerning the awful state of mind which did overcome the participants in that Great War which snuffed out an entire nation. Yea, there was not one person who did not sleep upon the sword and awful were the end of those days. And even the youths did learn the work of death and to live by the oaths of their mouths.

34And in leaving our homeland we do chose a path that is better for us. For we are a peaceable people, a people of healing, and there was none of us who wished to become a people of war. Surely, had we stayed and had we made an attempt to bend the Tucantorites to our law and to our way, we shall have corrupted even the good of it with fear and with anger. Shall our way have escaped some change in its character because of such proximity to the object of that fear and that anger? Or are we so different from all other people that we might believe ourselves immune to that which the thoughts of our own minds and the feelings of our own hearts must have surely brought upon us?

35Yea, of a surety had we taken up the fear and the anger and given place for them in our hearts, shall we not have become defined by that fear and that anger? Is it possible that we, who are built upon a foundation of healing, could have escaped the change in our hearts that must result when a doctrine of fear is taken up? Nay, we would have become that which we most feared. We would have set a standard wholly unlike that which our forefathers gave us and the Nem would have been no more. Yea, just as surely as the Nephites did destroy themselves as a nation, so shall the Nem of the Mountains have been destroyed, and just as completely.

36And the Lord did not guide us but to depart out of the land. For He knows the end from the beginning and the result of our staying was plain before Him. Wherefore, we could have been confident in remaining in the Meninta had He commanded it. But behold, I say unto you, He made no such revelation to us, neither singly or as a body. Wherefore, since it was not His will that we stay and rid the land of the Tucantorites, we deemed it wise to depart out of it.

37Yea, in order that we might always act and live in accordance with the word and will of God, I did determine to remove my family and all who would follow me out of the land and go up into the north country to dwell with our relations there. And behold, all the people, save the Tucantorites, did choose to go with me also. And I felt as my father and my grandfather must have felt leading a great body of people. Yea, the people made me their captain and I did lead them out of bondage and out of slavery.