The Vancouver expedition encountered likely evidence of the havoc wrought by the epidemic. On August 18, 1792, while near the Queen Charlotte Islands, Peter Puget gave a summary description of the Indians of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia: “he Small pox most have had, and most terribly pitted they are indeed many have lost their Eyes, & no Doubt it has raged with uncommon Inacteracy among them.” (Boyd, 30) He stated that “Two of the three in the Canoe had lost the Right Eye & were much pitted with the Small Pox, which Disorder in all probability is the Cause of that Defect…” (Peter Puget, PNW Quarterly, 198). While Lieutenant Puget explored the southern reaches of the sound soon to receive his name, he met some Indians in a canoe. On May 21, 1792, Peter Puget discovered further signs of this disease on the Puget Sound residents. Commander George Vancouver (1757-1798) stated that two days earlier members of his expedition exploring Hoods Canal spotted “one man, who had suffered very much from the small pox.” He went on to say, “This deplorable disease is not only common, but it is greatly to be apprehended is very fatal amongst them, as its indelible marks were seen on many and several had lost the sight of one eye, which was remarked to be generally the left, owing most likely to the virulent effects of this baneful disorder” (Vancouver, Vol. On May 12, 1792, expedition member Archibald Menzies noted “Several Indians pock mark’d – a number of them had lost an eye” (Menzies, 29). In 1792, members of the Vancouver Expedition were the first Europeans to witness the effects of the smallpox epidemic along Puget Sound. Witness to Devastation: The Vancouver Expedition Since then the Native American population has been slowly increasing. The Indian population continued to decline, although at a slower rate, until the beginning of the twentieth century when it reached its low point. During the 80-year period from the 1770s to 1850, smallpox, measles, influenza, and other diseases had killed an estimated 28,000 Native Americans in Western Washington, leaving about 9,000 survivors. In his seminal work, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence, historian Robert Boyd estimates that the 1770s smallpox epidemic killed more than 11,000 Western Washington Indians, reducing the population from about 37,000 to 26,000.īy the 1850s, when the first EuroAmerican settlers arrived at Alki Point and along the Duwamish River, diseases had already taken a devastating toll on native peoples and their cultures. This apparent first smallpox epidemic on the northwest coast coincides with the first direct European contact, and is the most virulent of the deadly European diseases that will sweep over the region during the next 80 to 100 years. During the 1770s, smallpox ( variola major) eradicates at least 30 percent of the native population on the Northwest coast of North America, including numerous members of Puget Sound tribes.
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