580 APPENDIX. 



In 1802 or 3, the smallpox made its appearance among the In- 

 dians residing at the Sault Ste. Marie, but did not extend to the 

 bands west from that place. The disease was introduced by a voy- 

 ager, in the employ of the Northwest Fur Company, who had just 

 returned from Montreal; and although all communication Avith 

 him was prohibited, an Indian imprudently having made him a 

 visit, was infected with and transmitted the disease to others of 

 the band. When once communicated, it raged with great vio- 

 lence, and of a large band scarcely one of those then at the village 

 survived, and the unburied bones still remain, marking the situa- 

 tion they occupied. From this band the infection was communi- 

 cated to a band residing upon St. Joseph's Island, and many died 

 of it ; but the surgeon of the military post then there, succeeded, 

 by judicious and early measures, in checking it before the infec- 

 tion became general. 



In 1824, the smallpox again made its appearance among the 

 Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie. It was communicated by a voy- 

 ager to the Indians npon Drummond's Island, Lake Huron; and 

 throuo;h them several families at Sault Ste. Marie became infected. 

 Of those belonging to the latter place, more than twenty in num- 

 ber, only two escaped. The disease is represented to have been 

 extremely fatal to the Indians at Drummond's Island. 



Since 1824, the smallpox is not known to have appeared 

 among the Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie, nor among the Chip- 

 pewas north or west from that place. But the Indians of these 

 bands still tremble at the bare name of a disease which (next to 

 the compounds of alcohol) has been one of the greatest scourges 

 that has ever overtaken them since their first communication 

 with the whites. The disease, w^hen once communicated to a 

 band of Indians, rages with a violence wholly unknown to the 

 civilized man. The Indian, guided by present feeling, adopts a 

 course of treatment (if indeed it deserves that appellation) which 

 not unfrequently arms the disease with new power. An attack 

 is but a warning to the poor and helpless patient to prepare for 

 death, which will almost assuredly soon follow. His situation 

 under these circumstances is truly deplorable ; for while in a 

 state that even, with proper advice, he would of himself recover, 

 he adds fresh fuel to the flame which is already consuming him, 

 Tinder the delusive hope of gaining relief. The intoxicating 



