It was from these narratives, so carefully and skilfully edited for purposes of edification, that the impulse proceeded which moved pious souls to contribute, in some cases their labours, in others their wealth, to the advancement of the cause of religion in the wilds of Canada. The fathers told of their difficulties and discouragements; but they told also of the many signs vouchsafed that Heaven was interested in their self-sacrificing efforts. Sometimes they made direct appeals for assistance. A Jesuit school for boys had been established, as already mentioned, as early as 1635. A few years later Father Le Jeune writes in the _Relations_: "Is there no charitable and virtuous lady who will come to this country to gather up the blood of Christ by teaching His word to the little Indian girls?" The call was answered in the establishment of the Ursuline Convent. It is not easy, in these days of swift, safe, and luxurious travel, to imagine what it was in the earlier part of the seventeenth century for women of delicate nurture to leave friends and home and civilized surroundings, and, braving the Atlantic storms in small, ill-equipped and comfortless vessels, to set their faces towards a continent lost in the distant west, amid whose forests a handful of pioneers were doubtfully holding their ground against the scowling hordes of savagery. The historian, Parkman, devotes two chapters of his _Jesuits in North America_ to an account of these enterprises, and of the holy women whose names are inseparably connected with them. In Madame Guyard, Mere de l'Incarnation, who became Superior of the convent, he recognizes a very true woman, full of tender feeling, yet endowed with practical abilities of the first order. Of Margaret Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation de Notre Dame at Montreal, he speaks with equal enthusiasm. "Her portrait," he says, "has come down to us; and her face is a mirror of frankness, loyalty, and womanly tenderness. Her qualities were those of good sense, conscientiousness, and a warm heart. Her religion was of the affections, and was manifested in an absorbing devotion to duty." He recognizes "in the martial figure of Maisonneuve, and the fair form of this gentle nun, the true heroes of Montreal."[4]