434 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



As to the provinces of Peru and Quito, Ulloa 

 fays ( y), that although in thofe countries the venereal 

 diflemper is common among the whites and other races 

 of men, it is very rare to fee an Indian infected. Ame- 

 rica, therefore, is not the parent of that difeafe, of that 

 evil, as has been vulgarly faid nor ought fuch a diflem- 

 per, as M. de Paw would infmuate, to be confidered as 

 a confequence of the corrupted blood, and vitiated con- 

 ' ftitution of the Americans. 



What then is the native country of the French evil ; 

 as it neither derives its origin from Europe nor America? 

 We do not know. But in the midft of uncertainty, if 

 we may be allowed to conjecture, we fufpect that con- 

 tagion to have comt from Guinea, or fome other equi- 

 noctial country of Africa. The very learned Englifh 

 phyfician Sydenham was of this opinion (%\ and it is 

 ftrengthened by what is affirmed by Battiita Fulgofio, an 

 eye-witnefs of the beginning of the French evil in Eu- 

 rope. He fays, in the work which we have already 

 cited (V), that the French evil was brought from Spain 

 into Italy, and from Ethiopia into Spain. Aftruc pre- 

 tends that Fulgofio means America, under the name of 



Ethiopia. 



(y) It appears, that this author has confounded the French evil with the 

 fcurvy ; for we know that Dr. Giulio Rondoli Pefarefe, a famous phyfician of 

 Sierra, affirmed to a perfon of credit, that amongft many who were thought 

 infected with the French evil, and whom he cured, he had not found any who 

 was really infected with that diftemper ; but that all were fcorbutic, and that 

 he had fucceeded in curing them, by ufing the remedies for the fcurvy. 



(z ) Sydenham affirms in one of his letters, that the French evil is as foreign 

 to America as to Europe, and that it was brought there by the Moors from 

 Guinea ; but it is not true, that the Moors brought it to America, for the dif- 

 temper was known before they were brought to Hifpaniola. 



(a) Quae peftis (ita enim vifa eft), primo ex Hifpania in Italiam allata ad 

 Hifpanos ex ^Ethiopia, brevi totam terrarum orbem comprehendit. Fulgo. 

 Diet. Pactorumque Meniorab. lib. i. cap. 4. 



