It has been computed that in the middle of the eighteenth century the Amerindian population of the vast territories now known as the Dominion of Canada numbered about 300,000.  It now stands at an approximate 110,000.  The chief diminution has taken place in Newfoundland, Lower and Upper Canada, New Brunswick, Assiniboia, and British Columbia.  There may even have been an increase in the north and north-west.  The first great blow to the Amerindians of these regions was the smallpox epidemic of 1780.  The next was the effect of the strong drink[14] introduced by the agents of the Hudson’s Bay and, still more, the two North-west Companies.  Phthisis or pulmonary consumption also seems to have been introduced from Europe (though Hearne thought that the Northern Indians had it before the white man came).  In fact, before the European invaded America neither Eskimo nor Amerindian seem to have had many diseases.  They suffered from ulcers, scurvy, digestive troubles, rheumatism, headache, bronchitis, and heart complaints, but from few, if any, “germ” diseases.

[Footnote 14:  Before the white man came to North America the natives had no form of intoxicating drink.]

Some of the agents of the North-west Company apologize in their writings for the amount of rum that was circulated among the Amerindians at the orders of that company to stimulate trade, by saying that it was seven parts water.  Nevertheless it excited them to madness, as the following extracts show.  These are mostly taken from the journals of Alexander Henry the Younger, but they are typical of what was recorded by many other writers who describe the far interior of British North America between 1775 and 1835.

“To see a house full of drunken Indians, consisting of men, women, and children, is a most unpleasant sight; for, in that condition, they often wrangle, pull each other by the hair, and fight.  At times, ten or twelve of both sexes may be seen fighting each other promiscuously, until at last they all fall on the floor, one upon another, some spilling rum out of a small kettle or dish which they hold in their hands, while others are throwing up what they have just drunk.  To add to this uproar, a number of children, some on their mothers’ shoulders, and others running about and taking hold of their clothes, are constantly bawling, the elder ones, through fear that their parents may be stabbed, or that some other misfortune may befal them in the fray.  These shrieks of the children form a very unpleasant chorus to the brutal noise kept up by their drunken parents.”

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