The discovery of the Americas was not an accident. The event had been foreordained in the eternal councils. The prophets of old had it in view. Jacob foresaw it when he blessed his son Joseph, calling him “a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall … unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.”

Moses too made promises to the tribe of Joseph, whose land, America, was to be precious for the things of heaven and of earth, and who would “push the people together to the ends of the earth.” These are just some of the biblical prophecies, and we have the Book of Mormon record which tells of the Jaredites who were the first to come to America. They came at the time of the confusion of languages during the building of the tower of Babel.