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The 'true purpose' of the Fellowship was to destroy the Ring. Gandalf knew that it was a hopeless task, but knew equally well that it was the best alternative - the others being to hide it somewhere and let it lie until it was found generations later and Sauron was able to regain it; to slip it on his finger and declare open war on Sauron; or to send it over the sea and hope against hope that it would be hidden there forever - or that the Valar would accept it. The only hope of the people of Middle-earth was in the destruction of the Ring - even if they had hidden it, Sauron would have been strong enough to defeat the Free Peoples of Middle-earth (they won the War of the Ring only because Sauron was destroyed), Likewise, the only hope in destroying the Ring was in taking it secretly to Mordor - an open assault on Sauron's realm with the purpose of winning a path to Mount Doom was pure folly. And, since it was already known to Gandalf that no one can destroy the Ring of his own free will, who better to take it than the one who bore it all the way from the Shire to Rivendell, and indeed for seventeen years before that? After the decision was made and the Fellowship was formed - a group of of keen thinkers, keen fighters and friends of the Ringbearer, representative of all the Free People - Gandalf had only, as The Saucepan Man said, to trust in providence.
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