Evening star., 1934-03-15
EARLY COL0N|STS
BROUGHT MEASLES
Disease Decimated Indians,
"JuStifying" Settlers in
Taking Land.
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

The present outbreak of measles in
Washington prompts recollection of
earlier and much more serious occa-
sions when the same disease wrought
havoc in this country.
A European infection, it was
brought to America by the first white
colonists and with 1t came smallpox,
tuberculosis and other ills which
previously had been unknown on the
Western shores of the Atlantic Will
liam Christie Macleod, in his Amer
ican Indian Frontier" says: Measles
among Europeans rarely attacks adults
and, though often leaving bad enough
complications is not fatal even to
children Europeans have had 1t for
SO many thousands or tens Of thou
sands OF years that they are virtually
immune to it. But measles, intro
duced to the Indians by the whites,
was as terrible and devastating a dis
ease among the Indians as was small
pox among the whites. 1t attacked
adults, and was often fatal, some
times wiping out whole villages"
Disease Fatalities Heavy.
According to statistics derived from
historians and travellers, the popula-
ton Of North America must have
been about 100000 when Columbus
made his epochal voyage from Palos
to Watling's Island in 1892. But the
arrival of Spanish. French and Eng
lish explorer and settlers spelled dis
aster to the natives. Relatively few
of the Indians fell in battle. A tar
greater number were slain by i'm
ported diseases or died OF the effects
of the fire water" which the whites
brought with them from their Old
World homes.
The ailments OF the CaucasianS
were dangers against which the In
dams had no natural immunity. Their
mode Of life was such that they fead-
lily caught" whatever contaglon was
availab BILE. and the plague spread like
Wildhre Macleod writes: The In
dams life OF overexposure and bad
housing, and his alcoholism with
drunken sleep under exposed condi-
tions made for the lung conditions
favorable to attack by tuberculosis,
and many observers note that the
children and young people especially
were the victims OF smallpox and
measles No system Of treatment with
which the Indian medicine men were
acquainted was effective. and the idea
of quarantine appears never to have
occurred TO them. Long after the
successive plaques had passed. white
explorers found whole settlements OF
houses inhabited solely by skeletons.
mute witnesses TO the speed with
which disease had done its devaStat-
ing work.
Spread Was Fast.
A curious circumstance was that
Indians died OF white mems diseases
who never had seen white man.
The epidemics moved faster than
European occupation of the country.
From one tribe 10 another smallpox,
measles and other synonyms OF death
were carried by the Indians them
selves For example. before the Pill
grim Fathers arrived. Macleod says.
"a plague had ravaged aboriginal New
England. This plague. it seems, was
smallpox, introduced perhaps from
the French settlements TO the north
or from the numerous fishing and
lumber carrying ships Of the English
and others. who, since about 1902 had
haunted the New England coast in
increasing numbers.
The plague began in 1916. and had
Just spent itself four years later when
the Pilgrims arrived. 1t ragged among
all the tribes from Maine TO Rhode
Island inclusive.
Delighted by News.
The Pilgrims did not know Of the
plague until their arrival at PatuXet,
or Plymouth. where they were met by
the lone survivor and told of it. The
news OF it In those days and later de-
lighted them In the charter even
tually granted them by King James,
and in various documents OF their
own writing. the fact that disease had
exterminated the native population on
the coast was cited as a moral just
fcation for pre-emption of the former
inhabitants lands without purchase.
Puritan divines believed and taught
that: BY this means, Christ whose
great and glorious works throughout
the earth are all for the benefit of his
churches and chosen. not only made
room for his people to plant. but also
tanned the hearts Of these barbarouS
Indians"
Chronicles of the period are not al
ways clear as to the nature of the
epidemic. and there was confusion be-
tween smallpox and measles. At
jamestown. Va, for instance, the con-
tagiOn which afflicted Capt. John
Smiths settlement may have been
either. or, as some writer's argue, it
may have been malaria. The people
stricken did not themselves invariably
diagnose their complaints correctly.
1t was only about half a century
ago that medical knowledge OF measles
became generally current. and even
today cases sometimes come to light
where a patient suffering with the
disease has been subjected to amateur