HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



431 



as M. de Paw fays, fent by Spain, to repel the invafion 

 of king Charles, gave the French the infection. But we 

 know from hiftory, that no regiment, either found or in- 

 fected, nor any other Spaniard were fent into Italy before 

 Charles went out of Naples with his army, then infected, 

 to return into France. With refpect to the contagion of 

 Barcelona, we know that when Columbus arrived, Ovi- 

 edo was then at that place. But if that which the Se- 

 villian phyfician relates is true, Oviedo, who was fearch- 

 ing every where for proofs to confirm his extravagant 

 opinion, would moil unqueflionably have alleged the 

 havoc occalioned there, thofe prayers, fallings and chari- 

 ties, and not have made ufe of thofe miferable proofs of 

 guaiacuni) and the complainings of Margarit. But be- 

 fides the French evil is ftill more ancient than that 

 epoch in Europe, as we have already explained. 



In appears, that the phyficians of Seville in thofe times 

 were the worn 1 informed with refpeft to the origin of the 

 French evil ; as Nicolas Monardes, a phyfician alfo of 

 that city, and contemporary of Diaz, gives fo fabulous 

 an account of it, that we cannot read it without lofmg 

 all patience. He fays, " that in the year 1493, m tne 

 " war of Naples, between the Catholic and the French 

 " kings, Columbus arrived after his firft difcovery of the 

 cc ifland of Hifpaniola, and brought with him from that 

 " ifland a multitude of Indians, men and women, whom 

 " he carried to Naples, where the' Catholic king then 

 f* was, after the war was over. And as there was peace 

 " between the two kings, and the armies communicated 

 " together, when Columbus came there with his Indian 

 " men and women, the Spaniards began to have com- 

 " merce with the Indian women, and the Indians with 

 M the Spanilh women, and in that manner the Indian 



" men 



