HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



433 



ifland Haiti had been inhabited by the Spaniards. What 

 we fay of the filence of thefe authors refpe&ing the An- 

 tilles, we may alfo fay of that of the fir ft hiftorians of 

 the other countries of America. 2. If America had been 

 the real native country of the French evil, and if the 

 Americans had been the flrft who fufFered it, it would 

 have been more prevalent there than in any other country, 

 and the Americans would have been more fubjeft than 

 any other nation to that evil ; but this is not the cafe. 

 Of the Indians of the Antilles we can fay nothing ; for 

 it is now two centuries fince they have been totally ex- 

 tinct : but among the prefent inhabitants of thofe iflands, 

 that contagion is lefs frequent than among the people 

 in Europe, and feldom appears but where there is a great 

 concourfe of foldiers and feamen. In the capital of Mex- 

 ico, fome whites and Indians are infe&ed with the venereal 

 diforder, but very few in proportion to the number of 

 the inhabitants. In other great cities of that vaft king- 

 dom, the contagion is extremely rare, and in fome it is 

 hardly known ; but in thofe fettlements of Americans, 

 where there is no refort of feamen or foldiers, the difc 

 temper is never feen or heard of. With refpecl: to South 

 America, we have been informed by perfons of accuracy, 

 fincerity, and great acquaintance with thofe countries, 

 befides what we have known ourfelves, that in the pro- 

 vinces of Chili, and thofe of Paraguay, that diftemper 

 is extremely uncommon among the whites, and never 

 feen among the Americans. Some miflionaries who 

 have refided fome twenty, others thirty years, among 

 different nations of America, agree in affirming, that 

 they have never feen a perfon infe&ed with that dif- 

 eafe, nor ever known that any was. 



Vol. III. 3 K As 



