VPP1 MDIX. 



had drunk ; but the pain increasing, they were induced to drink 

 deeper ot the poisonous drug, and in this inebriated state several 

 of the party died, before the real eanae was suspected. Othei 

 like eaaea occurred : and it was not long before one of the war-party 



which had visited Montreal in 1750, and who had narrowly 



tped with his life, recognised the disease as the same which 



had attacked tin lr party at that lime. It proved to he so; and 

 of Ihose Indians then at Fond du Lac, ahout three hundred m 

 number, nearly the whole wen swept oil" by it. .Nor did it stop 

 here, for numbers oi' those ;it Ponddu J, ac, at the time the disease 

 made its appearance, took refuge among the neighbouring bands, 

 and although it did not extend easterly on Lake Superior, it is 



believed that not a single band of Chippewa* north or weal from 

 Fond du Lee SSMSpeil i I. Of a large band then resi- 



dent a: Cass Lake, near the source of the Mississippi River, only 

 one person, a child, escaped. The others having been attacked 

 by the disease, died before any opportunity for dispersing was 

 oiU red. The Indians at this day are firmly oi' the opinion that 

 the small- a! this time, communicated through the articles 



presented to their brethren, by the agent of the Fur Company at 

 Mackinac; and .that it was done for the purpose of punishing 

 them mor< for their offences. 



The mo- 1 bands of Chippewas relate a singular alle- 



of the introduction of the small-pox into their country by a 

 war-party, returning from the plains of the Missouri, as nearly as 

 information will enable me to judge, in the year 1784. It does 

 not appear that, at this time, the disease extended to the bands 

 east of Fond du Lac ; but it i Qted to have been extremely 



fatal to those bands north and west from there. 



In 1802 or 8, the small-pox made its appearance among the 

 Indians residing at the Sauk Ste. Marie, but did not extend to the 

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

 vovauer, in the employ of the North West Fur ( 'ompany, who had 

 just returned from M " • ! : and although all communication 

 with him was prohibited, an Indian imprudently having made him 

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

 the band. When once communicated, it raged with great violence, 

 and of a large band scarcely one of those then at the village sur- 



