derived from the
discovery of the New World." As if a disease which every body might have
avoided, so soon as its existence, its inveterate nature, and the mode
of communicating it, were known, and which, after all that has been said
of its malignity and rapid progress, was both mitigated by various means
soon after its appearance, and ultimately at no great distance of time
effectually arrested in its terrifying career--as if this could be
considered competent to liquidate all the advantages and the greatly
augmented comforts which have resulted to Europe and to the world at
large by the discoveries of Columbus: And as if, granting all that has
been exaggeratingly related of its spreading over Europe with the
celerity and unqualified extension of an epidemic--such visitation on
multitudes of generations no way implicated in the guilt, could by any
rules of logic for the interpreting of Providence be construed into acts
of righteous retribution in avenging these Indians! But in reality, it
is highly disputable if the facts on which is exhibited such an
_uncommonly_ zealous display of justice on the part of the historian,
are adequate to warrant his opinion, that America inflicted this
calamity. This is rather unfortunate for his apparent warmth of piety,
and the more so, as, from the information to which he alludes in his
note on the text, he must have been diffident at least of the accuracy
of its application. In that note, he makes mention of a dissertation
published in 1765, by Dr Antonio Sanchez Ribeiro, in which it is
endeavoured to be proved that the venereal disease took its rise in
Europe, and was brought on by an epidemical and malignant disorder.
Though calling in question some of the facts on which this opinion is
built, the Principal allows that it "is supported with such plausible
arguments, as render it (what? deserving of considerable regard, or very
probable? No such thing--as render it) a subject of enquiry well
deserving the attention of learned physicians!" Mr Bryan Edwards is more
moderate in his judgment of the matter, and seemingly more industrious
in ascertaining the evidence of it. In his opinion, an attentive
enquirer will hesitate to subscribe to the conclusion that this
infection was the product of the West Indies. He refers to the work of
Sanchez above mentioned, and to several other works, for reasons to
substantiate the other view; and he terminates his note with the
following paragraph, wh