Conversation so far:
why did Marcus Whitman make his way west?
To join a caravan of fur traders and travel west. The combined group arrived at the fur-traders' annual rendezvous on July 6.
were the caravan of fur traders travelling with whitman going west to be missionaries, too?
The group already consided of missionaries

Question: were they able to help people out west?
Self-contained rewrite: were the caravan of fur traders travelling with whitman able to help people out west?