Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/272

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262
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

village spread the contagion to Rainy Lake, which village also it almost depopulated. From thence by the route of Pigeon River it reached Lake Superior at Grand Portage, and proceeded up the lake to Fond du Lac, where its ravages were also severely felt, and where the Pillager party on their return from Mackinaw caught the infection, and taking it to Sandy Lake, but a few of their number lived to reach their homes at Leech Lake, where it is said to have stopped, after having somewhat lessened the number of the Pillagers. The large village of Sandy Lake suffered severely, and it is said that its inhabitants became reduced to but seven wigwams.

The loss of lives occasioned by this disease in the tribes of the allied Kenistenos and Assineboines, amounted to several thousands. And the loss among the Ojibways, as near as can be computed from their accounts at the present day, amounted to not less than fifteen hundred, or two thousand. It did not, luckily, spread generally, over the country occupied by the tribe, and its ravages were felt almost exclusively in the section and villages which have been designated.