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Show 460 DISSERT. lX. ' w ~ H I s T 0 It y ,0 F M E X I c 0. or many regiment•, as M. de Paw flys, fent by Spain,. to repel the invafion of king Charles, gave the French the infechon. But we. know from hiftory, that no regiment, either found or infetl:ed, nor any othc:r Spaniard were fent into Italy before .Charles went out .of Na ... pie's with hit army, then infeCted, to ret.urn mto France. With ref. petl: to the contagion of Barcelona, we know that when Columbus arrived, Oviedo was then at that pb.ce. But if that whic4 the Sevillian phyfician relates is. true, Oviedo, who was fearching every where for proofs to confirm his extravagant opinion, would mofl: unquefiionablY. have allcdged the havoc occa!ioned there, thofe prayers,. faftings, and charities, and not have made ufe of thofe miferable proofs . of guaiacum, and the complainings of Margarit. ·But bdides, the French . evil is ftill more ancient than that epoch in Europe,. as· we have al-ready explained. , .. It appear~, that the phyficians of Seville in thofe times were. the worft informed with refpeCl: to the origin of the French evil ; as Nicolas Monardes, a phy!ician alfo of that city,.and contemporary 'of Diaz, . gives 'fo fabulous a1i account of it, that we cannot read it without lof.. . , ing all patietace. He fays, " that in the year I 49 3, in the war of "' Naples, between the Catholic and the French kings, Columbus ar" rived after his fidt. difcovery of the ifl.and of Hifp,aniola, 'and brought " with him frorn that ifland a multitude of Indians, men and women, . u · whom he carried to Naples, where the Catholic king then·was, af" ter the war was 0ver. And a& there was peace between the. two . "' kings, and the armies communicated together, w.hen ColumBus "' cnme there w.ith his Indian men and women, the Spaniards began " to have commerce with the Indian women,. and the Indians· with the: e~. Spani!h women, and in that manner the· Indian men and women, . " infected the Spanifl1 army, the Italians, Germans, &c." Who could believe; that a literary. Spaniard would disfigure the public faCts of his ow;:. nation,. which occurred not more than eighty years before, fo I~usJYthat not o.ne of his propofitions is. correCt; but w~ien he ~eans. to d1'l)arage Amenca he lofes a1f regard' to truth. It 1S certam and: n~torious, that there was no war between Spain and France in 1493 ;. tflat the Catholic king was- not then in Naples, b.ut in Barcelona, . nor recovered of his wounds which h7 had: re eived fr.om a mad perfon; that :ft I' S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X r C o: tflat Columbus' l1idlnot bring with· him a multitude of Indian men and women,. but only ten men; that Colll!nbus did never come into Italy after his glorious expedition; that the Indians he brought. with him .never faw Italy. · Aftct ha'v.ing n1ade· the mofi ·diligent enq~iry,. . we difcover no grounds· for · believing the French evil came from. America .into En-· t<>pe; we 'ra.thcr find ourfelves induc(tdltO believe it as ·well as· tbe-fmallpox,, was br0ught from Europe to America. I. Becaufe, neither Cofumbus,. in his journal, not· his· fon, in• the life of his renowned fa~ ther, who faw th ofe· countries,. and . noted their Beculiarities, make. :inehtion of the Ftench evil,. althougli they relate minutely the hard-thips and fufferings of the fidl: voyages. Neither is there any men .... - tion made of it in the hiftories of thofe countries· writt~ n by Peter Martyr of Angliejra (x), an author contemporary with Columbus, and well-informed, , having. been prothonotary to the council of the Indies, ancl ~bbot of Jamqica. Oviedo, . the fidl: who attributed that. difl:emBer to America, did. not g.o there till twenty years after the ifland. Haiti had been inhabited by the Spaniards. What we fay of the filence of thefe authorS' refpetling .the Antilles, we ·may alfo fay of that of the fitft hifiorians of the other countries of America. 2. If America 11ad been . the real• native country of the French evil, and if the Americans had been. the firfi who -fuffered it,. it would have been more prevalent there than in · any other country, and the Ameri~ans woul~ have been more fubjeCl: than ·any other nation to that ev1~; but th1s is not the cafe~ Of the Indjans of the Antilles we can fay nothing; . for it, is now two ceQturies fince they have been totally extintl: : but among the prefent inhabitants of thofe iflands, that contagion is lefs freq~ent than · among the people in Europe, and fdd.om appears but. where there are a great concourfe of foldiers and {eamen. . In tl1e capital of Mexico, fome Whites· and Indians .are ~nfecred With the ~ene-. real diforder, , but very few in proportion to the number of the .mh~tiitants. . In other great cities of that vaft kingdom, t?e contagiOn li · extremely rare, . and in {orne it. is hardly known; but m thofe fettle- , (A") OF all things w.lu· ch werc.bl'ought from t 11 e W eHn. I nu~1· cs bI )l o I1 g,:. n. g ·to the· art of medi~ · 'tine! l'an i ;. cap. 9• I ment . ' 4_6' I I DISSERT •. lX, '--v---1- |