The Voyage of the Ursulines [pp. 18-24]

The Voyage of the Ursulines.
THE VOYAGE OF THE URSULINES.
IF San Francisco should today be afflicted
by the visit of some epidemic, with which her
citizens should find themselves unable to
cope except through aid from other sources
and from other people, an appeal to France
for trained nurses might bring from the
Congregation des Sayers de St. Vincent de Paul,
in Paris, or from some similarly organized
community, volunteers, who within less than
three weeks from the time that the call was
- made, might find themselves engaged in the
work to which they had been summoned.
The voyage across the ocean and the
transit across the continent would scarcely
cause the sensation of fatigue. The change
in the modes of life of the Sisters would
scarcely be greater, than if they had been
called from Paris to some sister city in France.
Their knowledge of the events occurring
daily in Paris would probably be fully equal
in San Francisco to what they would have
in the Provinces. Their journey would oc casion no alarm to themselves nor to their
friends. No fears of pirates nor of robbers
would intimidate them. No doubts about
the character of the place to which they were
going would harass them. They would leave
one field of Christian work for another, where
they would be gratefully received and kindly
treated; and beyond the perils incident to
their vocation, would know no cause for fear
in making such a journey.
How different the circumstances which
surrounded the little band of Ursulines, which,
but a little over a century and a half ago,
founded the convent at New Orleans. How
difficult it is to realize the changes which have
taken place in so brief a time. It is only
when we chance upon some bit of history,
like the Voyage of the Ursulines, that we are
able by juxtaposition to bring out the strong
lines of contrast between the conditions of
now and then.
The adoption by the Company of the In dies of New Orleans as their head-quarters,
in 1 722, gave that place its first vitality; and
very soon after this event the colonists in
the growing village felt the need of a hospital for their sick, and of a school for their
children. In September,'726, the Company
of the Indies entered into a contract with the
Ursulines of Rouen, whereby these nuns undertook to send out six sisters, who would
establish a school in the infant city, in which
they would act as teachers, and who would
also perform the duties of nurses in the hospital which the company was to build. In
October, the nuns and novices who were to
expatriate themselves in the performance of
this humane service assembled at Paris, at
the residence of the Ursulines of St. Jacques.
They were detained at Paris until the eighth
of December, when they started for Lorient,
where they were to embark for Louisiana.
Marie Madelaine Hachard, whose letters
to her father furnish the materials for this
sketch, was admitted to her novitiate the
day she left Rouen, and took the veil while
the little company waited at the convent
at Hennebon. Accompanying the first letter which she forwarded from New Orleans,
was a Relation of the voyage, to which she
signed her name as if she were the author. A
Relation closely resembling this has been attributed to the Lady Superior of the convent.
The suggestion has been made that "Hachard de Saint Stanislas," as she signs herself,
acted as the amanuensis of her Lady Superior, and therefore felt at liberty to enclose
the Relation to her parents.
The pages of the letters of this young girl
are full of earnest devotion for the religious
work to which she has consecrated her life.
Her regrets at the painful and permanent
separation from her friends find compensation in the thought of the glorious work in
store for her. She knew that she was to endure hardships and encounter dangers; that
her labor was to be among negroes and Indians; but it may well be doubted if in the
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