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with great rapidity north and south, east and west, invading in turn 
the numerous tribes which occupied territory extending from the 
Atlantic in the east to the Great Lakes in the west, and from James 
bay in the north to the Atlantic seaboard in the south. By the year 
1700 smallpox had sju'ead over half the continent, leaving a trail 
of death and devastation. As we have seen, smallpox was present 
among the Indians of the Canadian west in 1738. Then, the Sioux. 
IMonsoni.^ Crees, Piegans, and Assiniboines were infected, so that 
46655 
"Tlie old liriiveyai'ds are small, Imt the new ones lar^e and overilowing.” A Huida 
graveyard in Ihl!). ]Marhle .slabs seniptnred by wliite men have rei)iaeed the old 
memorial colimni.s of wood. (Photo hij Ifarlnn I. Smith.) 
one hundred years after the introduction of smallpox into Canada 
all the tribes that roamed the Canadian plains from the eastern to 
the western limits of the country were infected. The disease kept 
jiace with, and at times outstripped, the progress of the white man. 
As to the number of deaths one can oidy hazard a guess. Suffice 
it to say that it played no mean part in the reduction to a mere 
handful of the once numerous tribes that roamed the plains. 
1 A subdivision of the Cree. 
- Heact*rt\', .J, J.: “ Four Of'iiltirit's of Aledical History' iii C’antidu,” \'ol. 1, ]>, 56 f (Toronto, 1928), 
