This removal turned the Cherokees back in the calendar of progress and civilization at least a quarter of a century. The hardships and exposures of the journey, coupled with the fevers and malaria of a radically different climate, cost the lives of perhaps 10 per cent of their total population. The animosities and turbulence born of the treaty of 1835 not only occasioned the loss of many lives, but rendered property insecure, and in consequence diminished the zeal and industry of the entire community in its accumulation. A brief period of comparative quiet, however, was again characterized by an advance toward a higher civilization. Five years after their removal we find from the report of their agent that they are again on the increase in population; that their houses, farms, and fixtures have greatly improved in the comforts of life; that in general they are living in double cabins and evincing an increasing disposition to provide for the future; that they have in operation eleven common schools, superintended by a native Cherokee, in which are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, grammar, geography, and history, which are entirely supported at the expense of their own national funds, and which are attended by upwards of five hundred scholars; that the churches are largely attended and liberally supported, the Methodists having 1,400 communicants, the Baptists 750, and other denominations a smaller number; that a national temperance society boasts of 1,752 members; that they maintain a printing press, from which publications are issued in both the English and Cherokee tongues; that some of them manifest a decided taste for general literature and a few have full and well selected libraries; that thousands of them can speak and write the English language with fluency and comparative accuracy; that hundreds can draw up contracts, deeds, and other instruments for the transfer of property, and that in the ordinary transactions of life, especially in making bargains, they are shrewd and intelligent, frequently evincing a remarkable degree of craft and combination; that their treatment of their women had undergone a radical change; that the countenance and encouragement given to her cultivation disclosed a more exalted estimate of female character, and that instead of being regarded as a slave and a beast of burden she was now recognized as a friend and companion. Thus, with the exception of occasional drawbacks--the result of civil feuds--the progress of the nation in education, industry, and civilization continued until the outbreak of the rebellion. At this period, from the best attainable information, the Cherokees numbered twenty-one thousand souls. The events of the war brought to them more of desolation and ruin than perhaps to any other community.