The first Europeans to explore the northern Mississippi,Jacques Marquette gave his account in Voyage et De'couverte de Quelques Pays et Nations de l'Amerique Septemtrionale (translated 1852, The Jesuit Relations, Volume LIX): "We came to ... the Folle Avoine (Menominee). I entered their river to go and visit these people to whom we preached the Gospel ... in consequence of which, there are several good Christians among them ... I told ... of my design to ... discover those remote nations, in order to teach them the mysteries of our holy religion ..."
Traitor Benedict Arnold's plot to betray West Point was thwarted. The Continental Congress proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1780:"In the late remarkable interposition of His watchful providence, in the rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the moment when treason was ripened for execution ... it is therefore recommended ... a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer ... to confess our unworthiness ... and to offer fervent supplications to the God of all grace ... to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."
Pilgrim Edward Winslow recorded in Mourt's Relation that in the Fall of 1621:"God be praised we had a good increase ... Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week."
