HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



421 



profy and fmall-pox ? Befides, among the many Euro- 

 peans, who, from the twelfth century forward, under- 

 took to travel into the fouthern countries of Afia, name* 

 ly B. di Tudela, carpini, Marco Polo, and Mandeville \ 

 amongft whom fome, as M. de Paw fays, advanced as 

 far as China, might not one bring with him on his 

 return to Europe, the infection from thofe Afiatic 

 countries ? Here we do not treat of what actually did 

 happen, but only of that which might have happened. 



The French evil might not only pafs from Afia, but 

 alfo from Africa into Europe, before the difcovcry of 

 America ; as the Portuguefe, thirty years before the 

 glorious expedition of Columbus, had difcovered a great 

 part of the equinoctial countries of Africa, and carried 

 on commerce there. Might not fome Portuguefe, there- 

 fore, infected thence with the French evil, communicate 

 it to his country people, and in courfe to other nations 

 of Europe, as poffibly did happen from what we (hall fay 

 prefenlly ? Dr. Aftruc may thus obferve, by how many 

 channels the French evil might be communicated to 

 Europe without the intervention of America, although 

 the ancients conceived the torrid zone inaccceflible. 



SECT. III. 



The French Evil might arife in Europe without Contagion. 



BEFORE we handle this argument, it is neceflary 

 to fay a little on the nature and phyfical caufe of this 

 diftemper. The French diitemper is, according to phy- 

 ficians, a fpecies of cachexia, in which the lymph, and 

 particularly the wheyifli part of it, aflumes a fingular 

 thicknefs and acrimony. The venereal poifon, fays 



Aftruc 



