Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-12-01
WORK OF A DEVOTED WOMAN.


/
Hotel Dieu in I641.
The following romantic story was told
by DIR. w. II. Kingston, of Montreal, in
addressing the international medical
congress-:
When Jacques Cartier returned to
France after his discovery of Canada the
news of his exploit travelled over France
as quickly as was then possible.
A French girl, young and beautiful,
became impressed with the thought that
the newly found country should be the
scene of her labors. She succeeded after
a time in fitting out small bark with
money furnished by Nine. Bullion,
and with twelve sailors crossed the At
lantic in the spring of 1641.
The sea voyage to Quebec occupied
three months. 1t can now be accom-
plished in one-fifteenth of that time.
The journey from Quebec to Montreal
by the st. Lawrence, which can now be
performed in night, then occupied
eight days. Miss Mance's bark came to
an anchor at a projecting point off the Is
land of Montreal, then called Hochelaga.
Hochelaga was at that time the chef
iiSu vi piO Ndl lihC Iuty lOOhGu
with amazement at the advent of pale
faced men and one palefaced woman
for she was alone of her sex. They soon
recovered from their surprise, however,
and it was necessary for the colonists to
throw up for their protection, as quickly
as possible, wooden palisades on the land
or rear approach; the big canoe as the
bark was styled, was sufficiently i'm
posing defense in front If colonist
ventured beyond the palisades to gather
fruit or berries, or to cut wood, he ran
the risk of being pierced with arrows.
Half of the first colonists persisted in
this manner, and Miss Nance was obliged
to return to France in 1919, bringing
back with her other recruits, and again
in 1858, leaving France with twenty
male and female recruits, half of whom
died on the voyage Of form of plague
In their attacks on this small force some
of the red men were wounded in return,
and when deserted by their comrades
they were brought within the palisades
to what they and their tribe considered
certain notwithstanding to their own
custom in warfare.
They soon found the hospital to be a
place of woman's tenderest solicitude.
When the red mans wounds were
healed repast of dogs meat was pre-
pared for him, and he was permitted to
rejoin his tribe to tell what the pale
faced maiden had done for him. 1t
need not surprise us to be told that, in
the presence of such devotion, the war
like Huron soon forgot his ferocity.
A few years later it was necessary for
the small colony to move few hundred
yards inland. Word went throughout
the Huron camp, and before the hour Of
departure the aborigines had strewn the
ground with leaves and the branches of
trees and with wild flowers, saying the
earth was not fit to receive the tread of
these women.
In this way our first hospital was es-
tablished, and in this way the light of
Christianity was brought to the Island
of Montreal. Here is how the hospital
has been sustained. Miss Nance had
obtained from the French king a deed
of gift in perpetuity of the small piece
of land where she landed, which at that
time was valueless. 1t became, how
ever, in the course of years the center
of the village of Montreal, and eventu-
ally the commercial city clustered
around it.
A century and third ago, when
Canada passed from the rule of France
to that of Great Britain, respect was
paid by the conqueror to the rights orig
inally conferred by the French king,
and the hospital, which at first had but
the aborigines for inmates, continued to
receive within its walls, as colonization
went on, persons of every succeeding
nationality. For upward of 150 years
after its foundation it alone afforded
asylum to the sick and wounded of Mon
treal and westward.
How many from these shores when
sick and disabled have there received
maternal care! How many of your
children, in that then faroff land, had
the pillow of death smoothed for them
there, and without fee or pecuniary re-
wardl And the same coistinues to this
day, for the property preserved to those
religious ladies by wise conqueror has,
without municipal aid or government
patronage, but with economy, suficed
for the wants of the nstitution.-British
Medical Journal.