able
women in the annals of Canada Madame de la Peltrie, the founder of the
first girls' school ever opened in the province, and Mother Marie
Guyard, the honored head of that school. In 1659 these two and five
other women, three calling themselves Hospitalieres, arrived at the
little settlement of Quebec, consisting of scarcely two hundred and
fifty souls. They came for the glory of God, to work His work among the
Indians; and they were received with all the honors the little colony
could compass. Madame de la Peltrie, the head of the peaceful
expedition, found the state of affairs worse than she had been told by
the missionaries who had urged her coming; but she faced the
difficulties and discouragements of the situation with a heart as
gallant as that of those of her sex who dared "battle, murder, and
sudden death" at the hands of the Indians in their search for a home,
and the Ursuline Convent at Quebec is an enduring monument to the memory
of the women who did so much for the uplifting of the Indians of Canada.

Her coadjutor, Mother Marie Guyard, left behind her a name no less
honored than that of Madame de la Peltrie a name unexcelled for the
virtues of piety, constancy, self-sacrifice, and devotion to the cause
of degraded humanity. Her work among the Indians bore noble fruit, even
if hardly to the extent of her wishes. She had many discouragements to
face and obstacles to overcome; among them, not a few at the hands of
those who should have been her allies. In 1661 the new governor, Baron
Dubois d'Avaugour, moved thereto by an ill-advised plea on the part of a
missionary for the commutation of the sentence passed upon a woman for
violating the law that no brandy should be sold to the Indians, gave
free license to the sale of spirituous liquors throughout the dominion.
The result was deplorable and almost nullified the work of a score of
weary years; and Mother Marie, sick at heart, wrote thus to her son:

"I have told you in another letter about a cross that is far harder to
bear than the incursions of the Iroquois. There are in this country
certain Frenchmen so despicable and so little touched by the fear of God
that they are ruining all our new Christians by giving them strong
drink, such as wine and brandy, to get their beaver-skins from them."

It was because of this and kindred causes that Mother Marie deemed her
life-work a failure at last; but the thought was erroneous. She left her
influence in the hea