Note 84 — Chapter V · [1]

This epidemic began in 1829, and wrought great mortality among the natives. By 1832 it was particularly severe around Fort Vancouver. One village visited contained but two infants living—the remainder of the inhabitants having died of the plague. Various causes have been given, some regarding the disease as scarlet fever, others as some form of malaria due to putrid food, others thinking it attributable to immoral habits, etc. By its ravages nearly three-fourths of the native population was swept from the lower Columbia before the advent of American immigrants.—Ed.