Re: A good illegal alien is a dead illegal alien

"Chas" <chasclements@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:EoqdncDtS6x7kLnYnZ2dnUVZ_v6dnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> "The Rifleman" <survivor@northland.co.uk> wrote
>>>Typhus, cholera, measles, mumps, rubella,
>
> And took home grievous diseases as well- the big one was from the
> deliberate infection of Columbus' sailors by the Taino people. It's
> usually called 'syphilis' (although maybe a misnomer), and killed some 16M
> people in Europe in the following 20 years or so.
> And the big killer-epidemic that wiped out a huge percentage of the
> amerindian population was in the mid-13th century.

Yo, Chas. Unfortunately the syphillis plague from the New World has been
disproven. They've found european bodies with syphyillis from before
Columbus' time. End of that one, although it was a good one, for many
years.

Mike

"Mike Sigman" <mikesigman@bresnan.net> wrote
>> And took home grievous diseases as well- the big one was from the
>> deliberate infection of Columbus' sailors by the Taino people. It's
>> usually called 'syphilis' (although maybe a misnomer), and killed some
>> 16M people in Europe in the following 20 years or so.
> Yo, Chas. Unfortunately the syphillis plague from the New World has been
> disproven. They've found european bodies with syphyillis from before
> Columbus' time. End of that one, although it was a good one, for many
> years.

That's why I said 'maybe a misnomer'.
There is no doubt that the Taino deliberately infected Columbus' men with a
venereal disease by confining their contact to a small compound populated by
diseased women exiled from the villages.
The disease may not have been 'syphilis', per se- although that name has
been used for it. At the time, they just called it 'pox'.
That disease infected a *lot* of people- whether it was known prior to that
or not. It may have been a stronger strain, or whatever- like the SEAsian
version of the clap.
It may well have been the same disease that swept NAmerica in the 13th cent.
and killed off close to 75% (some estimate) of the amerindian population
coast to coast.

Chas