Leaving New York, March 19, and proceeding by the way of the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers to Napoleon, thence up the White river,
across to Little Rock, and through Arkansas to the Choctaw country,
I arrived at Stockbridge, April 11. Including the portions of the
days occupied in passing from one station to another, I devoted three
days to Stockbridge, three to Wheelock, six to Pine Ridge, three to
Good-water, and three to Spencer; the latter a station of the mission
of the General Assembly's Board. Five days, with a call of a night
and half a day at Lenox, were occupied in the journey to the Cherokee
country, in which I spent two days at Dwight, and three at Park Hill;
my departure from which was on the 11th of May, just one month from my
arrival at Stockbridge. My return to New York was on May 31, ten and a
half weeks from the time of leaving it.
I should do injustice to my own feelings, and to the members of the
two missions, not to state that my reception was everywhere one
of the utmost cordiality. The Choctaw mission, when my coming was
announced, agreed to observe a daily concert of prayer that it might
be blessed to them and the end for which they were informed it was
designed. They met me in the spirit of prayer; our intercourse was
much a fellowship in prayer; and, through the favor of Him who heareth
prayer, its issue was one of mutual congratulation and thanksgiving.
The visit, although a short one, afforded considerable opportunity
(which was diligently improved) for acquainting myself with the
views, feelings, plans and labors of the brethren of the missions.
Their attachment to their work, and to the Board with which they
are connected, is unwavering. With fidelity they prosecute the
great object of their high calling; and in view of the spiritual
and temporal transformation taking place around them, as the result
of the faithful proclamation of the gospel, we are compelled to
exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" It was pleasant to meet them, as
with frankness and fraternal affection they did me, in consultation
for the removal of difficulties, and the adoption of measures for
the advancement of the one end desired equally by them and by the
Prudential Committee.
Several topics became subjects of conference, on some of which action
was taken by the missions; and on others recommendations will be
made by the Deputation, that need not be embraced in this report. In
respect to them all, there was entire harmony between the Deputation
and the missions.
In their first resolution, the Committee requested me to repair to
the Choctaw Nation, with special reference to the embarrassments
and difficulties which have grown out of the action of the Choctaw
Council in the matter of the boarding schools. A condensed statement
of the action of the Council, and of the missionaries and Prudential
Committee, previous to the sending of the Deputation, seems to be here
called for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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