112 • Marc A. Kelley 



Table l. European voyages to New England prior to 

 A.D. 1620 



Sources: Howe 1942, McManis 1972, Purchas 1625, 

 Winship 1968. 



ground without burial!. For in a place where many inhab- 

 ited, there hast been but one left a live, to tell what became 

 of the rest, the llvingc being (as it seemes) not able the 

 bury the dead . . . and the bones and skulls upon the sever- 

 all places of their habitations, made such a spectacle after 

 my comming into those partes, that as I travailed in that 

 forrest, nere the Mas.sachussets, it seemed to mee a new 

 found Golgatha. 



In terms of geographic range, the coastal natives from 

 Caf)e Cod to the Penobscot River (Maine) were the principal 

 targets of this epidemic. That the Narragansetts were spared 

 its effects is a point agreed on by all early authors (Winthrop 

 1908; Gookin 1792; Williams 164.3). Possible explanations 

 for the spared Narragansetts include the Narragansett Bay, 

 which served as a natural barrier (Cook 1976), and weak 

 social and trade relations between northern and southern 

 New England tribes. 



The exact agent or agents responsible for this pestilence 

 remains obscure, but the following observations can be 

 made: disease was not stayed by frost; English apparently 

 were not susceptible; survivors exhibited sores upon their 

 bodies; some Indians' bodies were exceedingly yellow; dis- 

 ease affected Indians only 20-30 miles inland; up to 90% 

 mortality observed in some places; Indians well acquainted 

 with smallpox claim this to be a different disease. 



The extremely high mortality rate resulting from the 1616 

 pestilence is inconsistent with most epidemiological models, 

 and 1 propose that this pestilence actually represented an 

 unfortunate convergence of two or more diseases over a 3- 

 6-year period. Probable pathogens include a form of the 

 plague, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis (see Spiess and 

 Spiess 1987 for the argument supporting infectious hepatitis) 

 exacerbated by inadequate health care delivery systems, so- 

 cial disruption, and famine. Indeed, evidence in support of a 

 series of sweeping epidemics may be gleaned from John 

 Smith's "Advertisements for the Unexperienced ..." in 

 which he states: "Three plagues in three years successively 

 neere 200 miles along the Seacoast that in some places there 

 scarce remained 5 of a hundred" ( 163 1 :9). 



The next major epidemic in New England was smallpox 

 from 1633 to 1634. Bradford's graphic account deserves 

 some mention: 



They fall into a lamentable condition as they lie on their 

 hard mats, the pox breaking and mattering and running one 

 into another, their skin cleaving by reason thereof to the 

 mats . . . they fell down so generally of this disease as they 

 were in the end not able to help one another, no not to 

 make a fire nor to fetch a little water to drink, nor any to 

 bury the dead. (1970:270-271) 



Some 950 Massachu.sett Indians (Bradford 1970:270- 

 27 1 ) and 700 Narragansett Indians (Winthrop 1908: 1 1 8) died 

 as a result of this epidemic. Indian groups further inland were 

 extensively affected as well. 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



