SOUTHERN AFRICA. 409 
northern parts of this continent, and from thence dissemi- 
nated into every corner of the world, should neither be en- 
demic in the southern extremity of the same continent, nor 
its contagious effects, when carried thither, of permanent 
duration. 
I am aware that some modern authors have traced the 
origin of the small pox to Arabia, where it was common at 
the time of the flight from Mecca ; but I think Dr. Mead's 
opinion more probable, that, at a much earlier period, it pre- 
vailed, along with the plague, in Ethiopia and other inland 
countries of Northern Africa. For had a disease of so con- 
tagious a nature been endemic in Arabia, in the beginning 
of the seventh century, when the inhabitants of that country 
were the carriers of the eastern, and the conquerors of the 
western world, its baneful effects would sooner have been 
experienced in foreign nations. That the Saracens and 
Arabians were the means of dispersing it through the world, 
there can be little doubt. The Chinese, according to their 
own annals, had it from the latter in the tenth century ; and 
as Doctor Mead has observed, in the beginning of the twelfth 
century, it gained vast ground by means of the wars waged by 
a confederacy of the Christian powers against the Saracens 
for the recovery of the Holy I^and : " This being," says the 
Doctor, " the only visible recompence of their religious ex- 
" peditions, which they brought back to their respective coun- 
" tries." The Ethiopians being a race of people almost un- 
known, and shut out from all commerce with the rest of the 
world, will account for its long confinement to its native 
soil. 
VOL. I. 3 G 
