"The morning gun (or the beat of the drum at dawn in the garrison) awakens us every morning. We see the sentinels put on post; the guard house is always well manned; each squad has its days of duty. It is a pleasure to see our soldiers at military exercises in the sweet time of peace ... in a word, our fortress of Quebec is guarded in peace so as to be a place of importance, in the heat of war."
With the assistance of M. Chateaufort, reinstated as commandant of the growing fort at Three Rivers, the palisaded stockade there was reinforced with two main buildings, a storehouse and a platform for the cannons. These external signs of power were necessary to impress the natives, both their allies, the Hurons and Algonquins, should they prove treacherous, as well as the fierce Iroquois, the deadly enemies of both. The little garrisons had need to be well prepared for eventualities.
At this time several foundations in the colony were established, by private charity, to Christianize the natives and to encourage them to live a sedentary life and to till the ground. A mission village was built for them by the Jesuits in 1638 at Sillery, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, at a distance of four miles from Quebec, the funds being supplied by the charity of a member of the Hundred Associates, a distinguished commander of Malta, Noël Brulart de Sillery, a former Minister of State. At Three Rivers in 1641 similar action was taken. A third was desired by the missionaries at the Rivière des Prairies at the north of the Island of Montreal, as a central position for missionary effort among the up-country tribes.
Tadoussac was visited by the missionaries from time to time, but was too desolate a spot to attract the natives to dwell there permanently. The Jesuits had thought of establishing themselves at Ile Jésus, for there is an act of August 16, 1638, giving it to them at Three Rivers and signed by Montmagny.
We have seen the establishment of a school for the Indian boys by the Jesuits. We are now to record a similar one for girls, but who should undertake inch a work for them? Two noble ladies of France were to answer this question. The year 1639 saw the arrival at Quebec, on August 1st, of a party of brave ladies whom we may know as the pioneers of all those numerous philanthropic organizations and good works controlled by the devoted women of Canada of today. These were the ladies sent from France by Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, and by Madame de la Peltrie, to assist the struggling colony there.
