die from them. However, the great plagues that beset the Old World and that brought entire societies in Asia, Africa, and Europe to their knees did not emerge on their own among the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere; among the diseases not found in the New World were smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and others. The ocean provided a natural barrier keeping these diseases in the Old World, Africa, and Asia until Columbus carried them with him and his men. The natives did not have any immunity to these diseases, so a disease like smallpox could wipe out huge numbers of people: "Such devastating contagion was simply unknown in the histories of the Cree or other indigenous peoples of the Americas" (53).
Historians still argue about the presence or absence of some diseases in the population of the New World, such as tuberculosis and syphilis. These may
...