CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 65 



alone is imputed, by some writers, the origin of that 

 dreadful disease, with the infliction of wfiich they have 

 almost revenged the calamities brought upon them 

 by the avarice of Europe : If indeed the venereal 

 contagion was first introduced into Spain from these 

 islands ; a conclusion to which, notwithstanding all that 

 has been written in support of it, an attentive inqui- 

 rer will still hesitate to subscribe. || 



* "The venereal disease" (says Oviedo) "was certainly introduced 

 " into Europe from these islands, where the best medicine for the cure of 

 c it, the Guaiacum, is also found^j the Almighty so remembering mercy 

 ' in judgment, that, when our sins provoke punishment, he sends like- 

 " wise a remedy. I was acquainted with many persons who accompanied 

 " Columbus in his first and second voyages, and suffered of this disease: 

 " one of whom was Pedro Margarite, a man much respected of the King 

 " and Queen. In the year 1496 it began to spread in Europe, and the 

 " physicians were wholly at a loss in what manner to treat it. When, 

 " after this, Gonzales Fernandes de Cordova was sent with an army by 

 " his Catholic Majesty on behalf of Ferdinand the second, king of Naples, 

 " some infected persons accompanied that army, and by intercourse with 

 ft the women, spread the disease among the Italians and the French ; both 

 " which nations had successively the honour uf giving it a name; bat in 

 ' truth it came originally from Hispaniola, where it was very common, 

 *' as was likewise the remedy." 



This account is sufficiently particular j nevertheless, there is reason to 

 believe, that the venereal infection was known in Europe many centuries 

 before the discovery of America j although it is possible it might have 

 broke out with renewed violence about the time of Columbus's return 

 from his first expedition. This was the era of wonder, and probably the 

 infrequency of the contagion before that period, gave colour to a report, 

 perhaps at first maliciously propagated by some who envied the success of 

 Columbus, that this disease <was one of the fruits of his celebrated eater- 

 prize. It is impossible, in the space of a marginal note, to enter deep* 



Vol. I i 



