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1838 - December 30 - Evan Jones to The American Baptist Missionary Board
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Evan Jones to The American Baptist Missionary
Board, Little Prairie, Missouri, December 30, 1838
We have now been on our road to Arkansas seventy-five days, and have
traveled five hundred and twenty-nine miles. We are still
nearly three hundred miles short of our destination. We have
been greatly favored by the kind providence of our heavenly Father.
We have as yet met with no serious accident, and have been detained
only two days by bad weather. It has, however, been
exceedingly cold for some time past, which renders the condition of
those who are but thinly clad, very uncomfortable. In order,
however, to counteract the effects of the severity of the weather in
some degree, we have, since the cold set in so severely, sent on a
company every morning, to make fires along the road at short
intervals. This we have found a great alleviation to the
sufferings of the people.
At the Mississippi river, we were stopped from crossing, by the ice
running so that boats could not pass, for several days. Here
br. Bushyhead’s detachment came up with us, and we had the
pleasure of having our tents in the same encampment; and before our
detachment was all over, Rev. Stephen Foreman’s detachment came
up, and encamped along side of us. I am sorry to say, however,
that both their detachments have not been able to cross.
The members of the church, generally, maintain consistency of
conduct, and many of them are very useful. Our native
preachers are assiduous in their labors, seizing all favorable
opportunities to cherish a devotional spirit among the brethren.
Their influence is very salutary.
I am afraid that, with all the care that can be exercised with the
various detachments, there will be an immense amount of suffering,
and loss of life attending the removal. Great numbers of the
old, the young, and the infirm, will inevitably be sacrificed.
And the fact that the removal is effected by coercion, makes it the
more galling to the feelings of the survivors.
Source: Baptist Missionary
Magazine, 19 (April 1839), 89
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