the reputation of Jackson's militiamen. Many of the heinous acts charged against him were undertaken in the spirit of retaliation; but so has the pioneer ever justified his course. It was the volunteer, and especially the volunteer from the Texas border, influenced by memories of the Alamo and Goliad, and by more recent border raids, who was all too ready to wreak vengeance upon his treacherous, but pitifully helpless opponent. On the other hand the American forces as a whole cleaned up and policed the Mexican cities, fed the starving population, repressed brigandage and guerrilla warfare, established a provisional government, and in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for future arbitration of differences between the two countries. Even if the millions paid then and later to the distressed foe only partially atone for Mexico's ravished possessions, it was the aggressive Polk who preserved her from complete absorption. In this way he and his successors saved an alien people from the elements of destruction within itself.

In this hurried but far too-lengthy comparison we have doubtless introduced much that seems purely fanciful, but may we for a brief moment trespass still farther upon your patience. The so-called fall of the Roman Empire was really a struggle between two groups of barbarians for supremacy. The members of one group had entered measurably into the fullness of the life they appeared to supplant and were its real defenders against · their less-cultured fellows. Have we as Anglo-Americans yet developed a corresponding group to protect and preserve what is best in the life, culture, and traditions of our Latin-American neighbors? On the other hand a recent essayist has declared that the Roman mind could never appreciate the spiritual side of life. In like manner did the Spaniards of the early nineteenth century calling themselves the Romans of the modern world

and their Mexican successors fail to appreciate the real virtues of the Anglo-American pioneer. In this failure to appreciate their antagonists, as well as to fear or despise them, both peoples have been equally remiss. But is this mutual misunderstanding to continue indefinitely? Quien sabe?

A NOTE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE OLDEST SCHOOL FOR GIRLS IN THE

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

BY CAROLINE FRANCIS RICHARDSON

We hear a great deal today about the preparation of teachers. Longer grow the years of apprenticeship and more rigid become the scholastic requirements. Competition waxes keen and sometimes only an ability to "produce" will assure success. The preparation of the first teachers of the oldest school for girls in the Mississippi Valley was not, perhaps, strictly in accord with twentiethcentury demands, but it was comprehensive, resourceful, and efficient to an unusual degree. The ten Ursuline Sisters who reached New Orleans on Aug. 7, 1727, were equipped with religious zeal, physical courage, mental alertness, executive ability, and a sense sense of humor. These are admirable foundation qualities on which to build an educational institution.

We know of the existence of these qualities, as we know of many historical facts, through the written records of the two Sisters who did "produce." Reverend Mother Tranchepain' and her secretary, Madeleine Hachard,2 wrote letters that give the details of the preparation and the leave-taking in France, of the long hazardous journey, of their first impression of the Louisiana colony, and of the beginnings of the school. Accessible information of the establishment of the Ursulines in New Orleans may be found in the treaty made by the Compagnie

1 Relation du Voyage des Premières Ursulines à la Nouvelle Orléans

2 Gabriel Gravier (ed.), Relation du voyage des dames Religieuses Ursulines de Rouen à la Nouvelle Orléans.

3

5

des Indes with the Ursulines, in the Brevet of Louis XV, in the letters and journals of those nearly contemporary travelers and historians, Charlevoix and Bossu," and, of course, in the work of later Louisiana historians;" but colorful, intimate knowledge is gained from the writings of the two women who "produced."

For the coming of the Ursulines Bienville may receive the major share of credit. Now Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was a gentleman, soldier, high adventurer, and practical executive. It was this last quality that made him realize after close association with the projected schemes and the romantic experiments in connection with the development of the lower Mississippi, that certain things were needful if New Orleans was to endure and to expand. Among these things were a hospital and a school for girls. The first was obligatory because of the fevers that were a concomitant of the amphibious nature of the city, and the wounds that were the result of legitimate warfare or personal dispute. The second was desirable because the daughters of respectable families must be educated, and orphans should be cared for. Competent and devoted service were necessary for both enterprises and such service was to be found in completeness among the women of religious orders. Bienville's first efforts were directed toward the Soeurs Grises of his native Canada. Unsuccessful, he applied, by the advice of Father Beaubois (the lately arrived Superior of the Jesuits) to the Ursulines of Rouen. There Bienville found ready sympathy and ardent enthusiasm.

3 Henry Renshaw, "The Louisiana Ursulines," in Louisiana Historical Society, Publications, II, pt. 4, 22-36; B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, III, 80.

4 Renshaw, op. cit., 61.

5 P. F. X. Charlevoix, Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France

6 N. Bossu, Nouveaux voyages aux Indes Occidentales, Ier partie, 28. 7 Ficklen, Fortier, Gayarré, King, Martin, etc. To any records in the

Ursuline Convent of New Orleans I have not had access.

The arrangements for the journey and for the subsequent work of the Sisters were prosaically practical. There was no romantic declaration of intentions, no picturesque vagueness about future obligations or recompense. Bienville laid his project before the Compagnie des Indes. That corporation was of variable efficiency and spectacular imagination. But its treaty with the Ursulines shows only a businesslike determination to get a good deal for its money, and by means of twenty-eight articles all duties and privileges are clearly defined. The privileges included passage money, an allowance of 600 livres annually for each nun and for each of the eight servants who were permitted to accompany the religious, a building to be constructed especially for the Ursulines, and the payment of a return-passage for any nun and her servant. The pension of such a one would cease with her departure from New Orleans; and all pensions would cease as soon as the convent should begin to enjoy a revenue from the work of the Sisters and from the plantation which would be given them. The duties of the Sisters concerned first of all the hospital. We today are accustomed to think of the educational work of those pioneer teachers as being the real reason for the assistance given them by the Compagnie des Indes. But a reading of the treaty offers another point of view. In the preamble to the articles there is a statement that in addition to the care of the pauvres malades, the Company desires at the same time to provide for the education of young girls, and in article six is the request that the Superior will appoint a religious to hold a school for girls, and in article twenty-four we read that when circumstances shall warrant it, the Sisters shall receive boarding pupils. But there is an insistent proviso that those in charge of the sick shall not be detached from their service in the hospital. Of the twenty-eight articles, then, only two deal directly with the education of girls.