Page 40 - Insights Into The Scriptures - The Jaredites

After we had been there for quite a while, past when our motorboat
should be going to the third island, we decided we should leave. Perhaps
the boat had come and gone, and we would be left behind.

We again boarded the reed boat and enjoyed the pleasant trip across
the lake. There was no smell of gasoline fumes from a motor, and a gentle
breeze blew across the lake. The sky was clear, and it was a beautiful day.

When we reached the third island, again our boat was not there.
Once more, the Peruvians greeted us like royalty, and we enjoyed our visit
with them. We bought a few things and waited for our boat to arrive.
As it grew late, an hour or more past the time we were supposed to
be heading back to the mainland, we became concerned that our tour guide,
and the men rowing our boat, might not have adequately communicated
which additional two islands our group was supposed to visit. We finally
started to see if we could find a way back to the mainland. (The men and
reed boat we had come on had already left for their homes.) Suddenly, we
heard a motorboat approaching. Sure enough, it was our boat.

When they arrived, we asked them where they had been. In disgust,
one of the group told us they had motor problems and had been stranded
much of the day out in the middle of the lake.
They sported bright red sunburns for their day due to the sun
reflecting off the lake. So much for modern technology.

Now, back to the Jaredites. It appears they built “barges” in a way
that they were familiar with because the Lord mentions that later when they
built the barges that are tight like a dish, they had to be taught. A barge, by
definition, is a flat-bottomed boat, perhaps like the one I rode on. The flat
bottom is probably why it felt more stable than the modern-day boat.

The critical point of the story diversion is that the little reed boat I
rode on made me very comfortable with how well-built such a craft could
be. That might be the kind of boat the Jaredites used, since it was one of
the two types Thor Heyerdahl felt people of that era built. I feel it is more
likely that they used, the other type, log rafts to cross the “sea in the
wilderness.”

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