HlSTOkY OF MEXICO. 



419 



was proper and natural to that ifle, and as common as 

 the quotidian fever. Thuanus has affirmed the fame 

 thing (/> 



J. Bonzius, phyfician to the Dutch in the Eaft-IndieSj 

 teftifies, that (k) that diftemper was endemic in Amboy- 

 na and the Moluccas, and that it was not neceffary to 

 have any previous carnal commerce to catch the infec- 

 tion. This was confirmed in part by the account of the 

 companions of Magellan, the firft who made the tour of 

 the world in the famous vefifel, Viflory^ who attefted, as 

 Herrera fays (7), that they found in Timor, an ifland of 

 the Moluccan Archipelago, a great number of the iflan- 

 ders infected with the French evil ; which was certainly 

 neither carried there by the Americans nor Europeans, 

 previoufly difeafed. 



Forneau, a French Jefuit, learned, accurate, and ex- 

 perienced in the affairs of China, having been afked by 

 Mr. Aftruc (m), if the phyficians of China thought the ve- 

 nereal diftemper originated in their country, or brought 

 there from other places ; anfwered, chat the Chinefe 

 phyficians whom he had confulted were of opinion, that 

 that diftemper was fuffered there fince the earlieft anti- 

 quity ; and that the Chinefe books written in Chinefe 

 characters, which were efteemed by them to be an- 

 cient, faid nothing of the origin of that difeafe, but make 

 mention of it as a diftemper very ancient even at that 

 time, in which thefe books weie written; that alfo it 

 was neither known, nor probable, that the diftemper 

 was carried there from other countries. 



Laftly, 



(i) Hift. Sui Temporis, cap. fk. 



(k' In Methodo medendi quo in Indiis Orientalibus oportet uti in cura mor- 

 borum illic vulgo ac populariter graffantium. 

 (/ Dec. III. lib. iv. cap. I. 



(m) Differt. de Origine Morborum Venereorum inter Sinias. Ad Calc. 

 torn. i. 



