MDDM Ch. 31 "Hospital Blankets"

[jbor]

"At the time of Bushy Run," confides LeSpark, "-- and I have seen the very
Document,-- General Bouquet and General Gage both sign'd off on expenditures
to replace Hospital Blankets us'd 'to convey Small-pox to the Indians,' as
they perhaps too clearly stipulated. To my knowledge," marvels Ives, "this
had never been attempted, on the part of any modern Army, till then."
                                                               (307.24)


Germ Warfare (1763)

Pontiac's allies are sick. Smallpox rages among the Odawa, Mingo, Lenape,
and Shawnee. By spring, the great alliance falters, and Pontiac's rebellion
grinds to an end. The British can congratulate themselves, for they will go
down in infamy as the first "civilized" nation to use germ warfare.

* 

"Could it be contrived to send the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes
of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to
reduce them."
                    - Sir Geoffrey Amherst, Commander of British Forces

"I will try to inoculate the [Indians] with some blankets that may fall in
their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself. As it is a pity to
expose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spanish
method, to hunt them with English dogs, supported by rangers and some light
horse, who would, I think, effectively extirpate or remove the vermin."
                    - Colonel Henry Bouquet, British Army

"You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as
well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable
race. I should be very glad your scheme for hunting them down by dogs could
take effect, but England is at too great a distance to think of that at
present."
                    - Sir Geoffrey Amherst, Commander of British Forces

"While I view my situation, I consider myself as an object of compassion....
When I look upward, I see the sky serene and happy; and when I look on the
earth, I see all my children wandering in the utmost misery and distress."
                    - Mashipinashiwish, Ojibway

"The Ottawas were greatly reduced in numbers on account of the small-pox....
This small-pox was sold to them shut up in a tin box, with the strict
injunction not to open their box on their way homeward, but only when they
should reach their country; and that this box contained something that would
do them great good, and their people!... Accordingly, after they reached
home they opened the box, but behold there was another tin box inside,
smaller ... and when they opened the last one they found nothing but mouldy
particles in this last little box!... But alas, alas! pretty soon burst out
a terrible sickness among them.... Lodge after lodge was totally vacated -
nothing but the dead bodies lying here and there in their lodges - entire
families being swept off with the ravages of this terrible disease. The
whole coast of Arbor Croche, or Waw-gaw-naw-ke-zee, where their principal
village was situated,... is said to have been a continuous village some
fifteen or sixteen miles long ... was entirely depopulated and laid waste
... this wholesale murder of the Ottawas by this terrible disease sent by
the British people, was actuated through hatred, and expressly to kill of
the Ottawas and Chippewas.... "
                    - Andrew Blackbird, Odawa

            _From the Heart: Voices of the American Indian_. (1997) Edited
            and with Narrative by Lee Miller. London: Pimlico, pp. 95-96.

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