"Another outbreak in 1715 was devastating as it always is when a disease returns after a long absence with no one having been exposed to it so as to have acquired a natural immunity.13 Indians served as an intermediary in epidemics between Atlantic seaboard settlers and French Canadian settlers. They helped distribute the disease far and wide.14 Because destruction among the Indians was so great, the disease was a facilitator in furthering colonial expansion"

SMALLPOX IN THE 18th CENTURY
Susan Pryor, 1984
Research Report
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation - 0201