CHAFTER II.

1. And now it came to pass that in the sixteenth year from the coming of Christ, Lachoneus, the governor of the land, received an epistle from the leader and the govenor of this band of robbers; and these were the words which were written, saying, Lachoneus, most noble and Chief Governor of the land, behold I write this epistle unto you, and do give unto you exceeding great praise because of your firmness, and also the firmness of your people, in maintaining that which ye suppose to be your right and liberty; yea, ye do stand well, as if ye were supported by the hand of a God, in the defence of your liberty, and your property, and your country, or that which ye do call so. And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men, who are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their arms, and do await with great anxiety, for the word, go down upon the Nephites and destroy them. And I, knowing of their unconquerable spirit, having proved them in the field of battle, and knowing of their everlasting hatred towards you, because of the many wrongs which ye have done unto them, therefore if they should come down against you, they would visit you with utter destruction; therefore I have wrote this epistle, sealing it with mine own hand, feeling for your welfare, because of your firmness in that which ye believe to be right, and your noble spirit in the field of battle; therefore I write unto you desiring that ye would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should visit you with the sword, and that destruction should come upon you; or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us, and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren, that ye may be like unto us; not our slaves, but our brethren, and partners of all our substance. And behold, I swear unto you, if ye will do this, with an oath, ye shall not be destroyed; but if ye will not do this, I swear unto you, with an oath, that on the morrow month, I will command that my armies shall come down against you, and they shall not stay their hand, and shall spare not, but shall slay you, and shall let fall the sword upon you, even until ye shall become extinct. And behold, I am Giddianhi; and I am the governor of this the secret society of Gadianton; which society, and the works thereof, I know to be good: and they are of ancient date,

and they have been handed down unto us. And I write this epistle unto you, Lachoneus, and I hope that ye will deliver up your lands, and your possessions, without the shedding of blood, that this my people may recover their rights and government who have dissented away from you, because of your wickedness in retaining from them their rights of government, and except ye do this, I will avenge their wrongs. I am Giddianhi.

2. And now it came to pass when Lachoneus received this epistle, he was exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves, by dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers. Now behold, this Lachoneus the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatnings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them; yea, he sent a proclama tion among all the people, that they should gather together their women, and their children, their flocks and their herds, and all their substance, save it were their land, unto one place. And he caused that fortifications should be built round about them, and the strength thereof should be exceeding great. And he caused that there should be armies, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites or of all them who were numbered among the Nephites, should be placed as guards round about, to watch them, and to guard them from the robbers, day and night; yea he said unto them, as the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, that they would in no wise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers. And so great and marvellous were the words and prophecies of Lachoneus, that they did cause fear to come upon all the people, and they did exert themselves in their might, to do according to the words of Lachoneus,

3. And it came to pass that Lachoneus did appoint chief captains over all the armies of the Nephites, to command them at the time that the robbers should come down out of the wilderness against them. Now the chiefest among all the captains, and the great commander of all the armies of the Nephites, was appointed, and his name was Gidgiddoni. Now it was the custom among all the Nephites,to appoint for their chief captains, save it were in their times of wickedness,

some one that had the spirit of revelation, and also prophecy; therefore this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, and also was the Chief Judge. Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni, pray unto the Lord, and let us go up upon the mountains, and into the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands. But Gidgiddoni saith unto them, the Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them, the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the centre of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this, he will deliver them into our hands.

4. And it came to pass in the seventeenth year, in the latter end of the year, the proclamation of Lachoneus had gone forth throughout all the face of the land, and they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands, and by tens of thousands, until they had all gone forth to the place which had been appointed, that they should gather themselves together to defend themselves against their enemies. And the land which was appointed was the land of Zarahemla and the land Bountiful; yea, to the line which was between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation; and there were a great many thousand people, who were called Nephites, who did gather themselves together in this land. Now Lachoneus did cause that they should gather themselves together in the land southward, because of the great curse which was upon the land northward; and they did fortify themselves against their enemies; and they did dwell in one land, and in one body, and they did fear the words which had been spoken by Lachoneus, insomuch that they did repent of all their sins; and they did put up their prayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle. And they were exceeding sorrowful because of their enemy. And Gidgiddoni did cause that they should make weapons of war of every kind, and they should be strong with armour, and with shields, and with bucklers, after the manner of his instruction.

5. And it came to pass that in the latter end of the eighteenth year, those armies of robbers had prepared for battle, and began to come down and to sally forth from the hills, and out of the mountains, and the wilderness, and their strong. holds, and their secret places, and began to take possession

of the lands, both which was in the land south, and which was in the land north, and began to take possession of all the lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and the cities which had been left desolate. But behold there were no wild beasts nor game in those lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and there was no game for the robbers save it were in the wilderness; and the robbers could not exist, save it were in the wilderness, for the want of food; for the Nephites had left their lands desolate, and had gathered their flocks, and their herds, and all their substance, and they were in one body; therefore there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites; and the Nephites being in one body, and having so great a number, and having reserved for themselves provisions, and horses, and eattle, and flocks of every kind, that they might subsist for the space of seven years, in the which time they did hope to destroy the robbers from off the face of the land. And thus the eighteenth year did pass away.

6. And it came to pass that in the nineteenth year Giddianhi found that it was expedient that he should go up to battle against the Nephites, for there was no way that they could subsist, save it were to plunder, and rob, and murder. And they durst not spread themselves upon the face of the land, insomuch that they could raise grain, lest the Nephites should come upon them and slay them; therefore Giddianhi gave commandment unto his armies, that in this year they should go up to battle against the Nephites.

7. And it came to pass that they did come up to battle; and it was in the sixth month; and behold, great and terrible was the day that they did come up to battle; and they were girded about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn, and they had head-plates upon them and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armour, and because of their being dyed in blood. And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them, and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies. And it came to pass that when the armies of Giddianhi saw this, they began to shout with a loud voice, because of their joy, for they had supposed that the Nephites had fallen with fear, because of the terror of their armies; but in this thing

they were disappointed, for the Nephites did not fear them, but they did fear their God, and did supplicate him for protection; therefore when the armies of Giddianhi did rush upon them, they were prepared to meet them; yea, in the strength of the Lord they did receive them; and the battle commenced in this the sixth month; and great and terrible was the battle thereof, yea, great and terrible was the slaughter thereof, insomuch that there never was known so great a slaughter among all the people of Lehi since he left Jerusalem. And notwithstanding the threatenings and the oaths which Giddianhi had made, behold, the Nephites did beat them, insomuch that they did fall back from before them.

8. And it came to pass that Gidgiddoni commanded that his armies should pursue them as far as the borders of the wilderness, and that they should not spare any that should fall into their hands by the way; and thus they did pursue them, and did slay them, to the borders of the wilderness, even until they had fulfilled the commandment of Gidgiddoni. And it came to pass that Giddianhi, who had stood and fought with boldness, was pursued as he fled; and being weary because of his much fighting, he was overtaken and slain. And thus was the end of Giddianhi the robber.

9. And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites did return again to their place of security. And it came to pass that this nineteenth year did pass away, and the robbers did not come again to battle; neither did they come again in the twentieth year; and in the twenty and first year they did not come up to battle, but they came up on all sides to lay siege round about the people of Nephi; for they did suppose that if they should cut off the people of Nephi from their lands, and should hem them in on every side, and if they should cut them off from all their outward privileges, that they could cause them to yield themselves up according to their wishes. Now they had appointed unto themselves another leader, whose name was Zemnarihah; therefore it was Zemnarihah that did cause that this siege should take place. But behold, this was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store, because of the scantiness of provisions among the robbers; for behold, they had nothing save it were meat for their subsistence, which meat they did obtain in the wilderness. And it came to pass that the wild game became scarce in the wilderness, insomuch that the robbers were about to perish with hunger.