[1163] Letter of Norris, in Hist. of S. Carolina, I. 142.
[1164] Saco, History of African Slavery in the New World (Spanish). Barcelona, 1879.
[1165] Oviedo, in Purchas, III. 996:—“Extract of Gonzalo Ferdinando de Oviedo:—‘I had acquaintance with divers which went in the first and second voyages of Columbus; of which was Peter Margarite, commendator in the second voyage, of most respect with the king and queen, who complained of those paines. [Syphilis was prevalent in Barcelona and Valencia previous to 1494. See Chapter VIII.] Soon after, in the year 1496, began the disease to arrest some courtiers; but in those beginnings it was only amongst baser persons of small authority; and it was thought that they got it by having to do with common women. But afterwards it extended to principal persons, and the physicians could not tell what to think of it, so that many died.’... But indeed it came from Hispaniola, where it is ordinary, and the remedy also [guaiacum]. Our author (l. c. civ.), and Ramusio in his preface to his third Tome, say that the souldiers of Pamfilo de Nuney, having the small pocks, infected the Indians which never before heard of that disease; in so much that of 1,600,000 soules in that island there are so few left, as by and by you shall hear.... The covetousnesse of the mine-workers, neglect of diet, change of gouvernours growing worse and worse, caused them to poison, kill and hang themselves, besides those which were consumed by infectious or pestilentiall pocks (those before mentioned out of Ramusio) and other diseases.”
[1166] Calendar of State Papers. Amer. & W. I., I. 57.
[1167] Ibid.
[1168] Cal. S. P. Amer. & W. I., under the respective dates.
[1169] The account that follows is taken from Father Dutertre’s Histoire generale des Antilles habitées par les François, 4 vols., Paris, 1667-1671, which superseded his earlier work of 1654.
[1170] Cal. S. P. Amer. & W. I., II. 529.
[1171] Ligon, Hist. of Barbadoes. London, 1657.
[1172] Winthrop’s Journal, II. 312.