ABSTRACT
In 1907, there were close to 2,400 left, many of them of mixed ethnic derivation. The loss in approximately 300 years, therefore, amounted to 93.5% of the initial value. With the exception of minor and local outbreaks of already established contagions, two pestilences of wide, severe, epidemic proportions struck the New England natives in the early years of settlement by the English. Apart from the ravages of the conspicuous, destructive plague and small pox, the natives of New England were subjected to uninterrupted attrition from infections of many other types. The introduction of new, lethal diseases could affect the native population by reducing the birth rate or increasing the death rate, or both. In addition to the devastation wrought by sudden, catastrophic epidemics, the natives suffered even more severely from endemic disease such as tuberculosis or dysentery, together with sporadic, local flare-ups of small pox.
