31 



iiiards contagious disorders were unknown : the 

 small pox, which occasionally makes its appear- 

 ance in the northern provinces,, and is known bv 

 the name of the piaguCj was first introduced by 

 them.* At such times, the inhabitants of the 

 neighbouring- provinces oblige every person 

 coming from the infected district to perform a 

 rigorous quarantine, and by that means have 

 preserved themselves from the ravages of that 

 destructive malady, \yhenever the Indians sus- 

 pect any one to be attacked with itj which some- 

 times happens from their intercourse with the 

 Spaniards, they burn him in his own hut,f by 



mates, therefore, made by Dr. Robertson and the Abbe 

 Raynal, in tiieir histories, are, in this particular, incorrect, 

 being founded on accounts furnished during the last centurv. 



The small pox raged in Peru before the Spaniards entered it ; 

 just when Pizarro was first off the coast, and had landed his 

 t o men. The Inca died of it. Whence did this cojv.e ? 

 Perhaps it had spread from Mexico. E. Editor. 



Her r era, 5.3. 17- 



tin Abyssinia also, whenever a'liouse is supposed to be in- 

 fected with the small pox, the people set fire to it, and bum 

 it with all its inhabitants ! . E. 



The most striking picture of the ravages of this dreadful 

 malady among savage tribes, is given by Mackenzie. 



It spread around with a baneful rapidity which no flight 

 could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. 

 It destroyed with its pestilential breath whole families and 

 tribes, and the horrid scene presented to tlie beholders a com- 

 bJcation of the dead, the dying, and such as to avoid the hor- 



