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 with Indians when the European settlements were first planted. Of this thin population it is estimated that six millions perished of smallpox in a century.

One of the first cares of Ralph Morton was to exclude the scourge from his colony. His agents were continually warned against shipping persons suffering from, or suspected of being infected with, smallpox. When the disease became epidemic in any port of Europe Morton's vessels ceased to visit that port until the epidemic subsided. Vessels arriving at Mortonia with the pest on board were rigidly quarantined and all infected articles destroyed. The cleaner and more comfortable mode of living in Aristopia than that of the common people in Europe, where poverty among the masses was the mother of filth and squalor, was favorable to exemption from the scourge.

But still, smallpox was the terror of the world, and no hope of exemption appeared.

The second wife of Ralph Morton was the daughter of a Gloucestershire farmer and dairyman. From the time of her marriage she had observed her husband's anxiety about the smallpox and his unceasing efforts to exclude the