Women of America: Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 10 (of 10)Larus, John Ruse
History
Women of America: Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 10 (of 10)
Larus, John Ruse
Women -- America -- History; Women -- United States -- History
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 hearts of many of her Indian pupils, and she gave to
Canada by her efforts the school which is one of the noblest monuments
of the past of Quebec.
The Hospitalières, who had come over in the same ship with the founders
of the girls' school, founded the hospital that is now known as Quebec's
Hotel-Dieu; at first, their philanthropic efforts on behalf of the
Indians found nothing but failure as reward, for an unfortunate epidemic
that broke out soon after the establishment of the hospital in an old
storeroom, and the death of most of the patients there treated,
persuaded the red men that the hospital was a scheme devised for their
extinction rather than for their good. But here, too, perseverance in
good works overcame stupendous difficulties, though here again, as well,
the result did not take the form which was at first intended. Yet none
the lighter is the praise to be awarded to the noble women who undertook
the work and who carried it on in the face of danger and failure, and
the names of such women as Marie Irwin, Catherine Chevalier, and Madame
d'Ailleboust, the wife of the third governor of Quebec, are still
deservedly held in honor by the dwellers in New France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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