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Show • DISS •RT. IX. "--v--' B I S T 0 R Y 0 F M' E X I <l He ca·me into Italy, in September 1 ·494, therefore that evil was kno.wn ever fince 1492, or at the lateft in 1493, that .is, fome years before Columbus returned from his firll: vo1age. Juan Leone, orice a Mahumetan, a native ofGranadl in Spain, vulgarly called 'Leone Africano, 'in his defcription of Africa, written in Rome, .under the pontificate o£ ~co X. after he was converted, fitys, that the' Hebrew.s, when driven frotn Spain, in the times of Ferdinand the Cathelic, carried~ the French evil ii1to Barbary, and infetl:ed the 1\fricans'; on which ' account. it' was then called the Spanijh evil (t). The edif2 of 'the .Catholic kings refpetting the expulfion of the Hebrews, was publifhed in ,Marc!;). r1492, as Mariana f:'ly s, allowing rhem no more .than four months to fell all tncir effeCts, if they did not chufe to car'ry . th~m alohg with .t11em; and in· the following month, another editl: was pub~ifhed by T. To~qnemada, inquifitor-general, in which it was prohibited to Chrifi:ians, under the heaviefi: penalties, to treat with the Hebrews, or to furniili them with provifions after the term prefcribed by the .king; fa that all but· thofe< who became, or feigned to be Chrifi:ians, 'Yere compelled ~o quit Spain, before Columbus fet out to difcover' America, as 'he 'djd · .· rrot weigh anchor before the 3c\ of Auguil: I that year; the .French evrl; t~erefore, began in. Europe before America was di{covere_d. W c find befldeS', nm0ng the poetry of Pi\cific.us Max.imus, a poet of ACcoli, publi!lied in Florence; in 1479, fome verfcs, in which l~c deii ·ribcs the gonorrhcea vir;ufentti. and venereal ulcers which he fuffered, • o cnfioned·by his cxccffcs (u) :, Oviedo, not eon tent with ailinning, that the French evil carne from Hifpanioln, attempt ~· t0 prove it. Behold his fidl:. proof. J. :Jb'at /..orrid complav.'nt of thtl bile.r is cured by the guaiacurn better than auy c.t her medicine ;. and Dt'vine mercy where t't permits evt'l for our Jim, f'rovides then·, in compojjicn -to us, ,. a re1mody. If this argument, couid • (t} HL•jus •Mli ne nomen C']Uiu m iplis Africnnis notum crat antequam Hifpnninrum Rex F ~rJa~ a n~u s }\ld;ll~l omn~s cxJiilj>auia prollig:dfct .: qui uhi in patriam jam rcdiiflcnt, crepcruut malen lJliiJa•~ ac lccleratllliml. A!:rhiopco Cllm iHun1m· niulicribus habore con'1mcrch•m, . ~c lie t.lntlcm vclut1 per m:u.nu. peiliS hlllc per totnm fc fparfit rcgioncm, ita ut vix fit familia, qwx ah ~oc m.alo rdnan:cnt hbera. ld aut ut fibi firmiilime at<'}liC indubitute pcrfuafcrunt ex !Jif. .1aama :ttl 11\os tr .• famgrafi'c. Qy.tmobrcm & illi•murbo Maltml Hijpauhum ,nc nomine dc!l:itue• t('tllr) indidcrunt. Lib. 1. ' I ( ~t) lkcamlcgi i, lib. ~ii.. 1\d Prinp11m ct li' • viii. ad Mcntubm. We . do no~ copy tl1c verles 011 account of thtu· llldccc .. oy, hold. HISTORY OF MEXICO~ hold, we lh uld conclude, that Europe, rather than Hifpaniola, was tbe native country of the French evil : as many pcrfons know that the moft powerful remedy againO: that diforder is mercury, which is common in Europe, bi.1t has not been found in Hifpaniola, uor known by the ~ndians: it is cert~tin, that as foon ·as the FrcncJl difcafc appeared m Europe mercury was employed, and that Carpj, Torclla, Vigo, Hoock, and many other famou.; phyficians of that time, made ufe of it, although it was difcreditcd aftcrwa1 ds by the indifcretion of .fome empyrics, and grew for fome time into difufc' . Guaiacum was not fidl: made ufe of until 1517, twenty- five years after the difcovery of the French evil. Sarfaparilla began to be employed in r 535, and China root about the Cune time; and falfafras a littl(; aftt.:r. The other proof by Oviedo, for he only ,offers two, is, that among the Spaniards who returned with Columbus from his fecond voyage in 1496, was D.P. ·Margat'it, a Catalonian, " wh :>," he fays, "was fo ail " ing, and complained fo much, that I do believe he felt thofe pains " which perfons infetted with fuch difiemper5 feel, though I never faw " a pimple in his face. A few months after in the fame year, th.is ail." ment began to be felt amongfi: fomc profi:itutcs; for, at firfl:, the dif" temper was confined to low people. It hnpp~ ned afterwards, that the " great captain was fent with a large and fine army into Italy, ... and " among thofe S.paniards who went in this force were many infected with "this diil:emper; from whom, by means of women, &c." fnch are Ovi ·cdo's pr?ofs, whi h have not merited even this mention. M. de Paw thinks he has gained the argument, and dcmonO:rated the truth of the common opinion, from the tcfl:imony of Roderigo ·Diaz de· Ifla, a phyfician .of Seville, whom he calls a contemporary author, as he thinks his tefiimony dccifive.# but Diaz was neither a contemporary author, having written fix ty years aftor the difcovet-y of the French evil, nor docs his account merit at~y faith.. He fays, that the fil'Jl: Spaniards, ·when they returned with Columbus from ·Hifpaniola, in 149 3, carried the contagion to Barcelona where the court w. s then held; that this city ''as the firfl: infctted; that it made fuch havoc th ere, that prayers, fafl:in 0 , and almQ;iving were app ~ inteu to appcafe the anger of God ; that Charles of France, having gr,mc .the year after into I.taly., cer tain Sp:tniards who were infeCted th ere, N n n .2 or orssrm.T. IX. "--v--' |