Sac and Fox Mission Trip, Part IV

Previous posts in this series:
Part I //Part II //Part III

How did the expedition to the Sac and Fox Indians end?

The four Stockbridge Mohicans that had traveled with Rev. Cutting Marsh decicided that they wanted to meet with a "pagan" Sac and Fox chief who was known as "The Stabber" to speakers of English (pictured right). Meanwhile, Marsh took the opportunity to meet with another minister and eventually took a steamboat up the Mississippi, trailing his parishoners by a few days.

Either the men weren't able to get an interpreter, or the one they had proved inadequate, but Marsh reported that his parishoners communicated little in roughly five days with The Stabber. In his annual report to the Society in Scotland for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), Marsh admitted that the trip didn't succeed in advancing the spread of Christianity. On the other hand, he noted that the "deportment of the whole Stockbridge delegation during the whole tour was such as to do honor to themselves and the cause of missions." Stopping at the white mining town of Galena (now part of Illinois) on his way back, Marsh was told by the townspeople that his parishoners had been there too and had "sang hymns all Sabbath day." Marsh remarked that it seemed "not only new but strange to those who make no distinction betwixt one day or another when traveling."

Source:
Marsh's 1834 Report to the SSPCK printed in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. XV, p. 113 and 115.