From: jtem01@gmail.com   
      
    reader wrote:   
      
   > 1. we do not know ehen the villages were depopulated/abandoned.  Does this   
   > mean physical signs of habitation remained or the structures of   
   > the houses?   
      
   I want to say "Yes" because a word I heard applied here was "Abandoned."   
      
   This might mean that people fled on sight of disease, which would not be   
   out of character for human beings.   
      
   > 2. Small pox is transfered by physical contact which could take some time   
   > to affect enough people for 1. to happen, it would not be overnight.   
      
   About a week, though some cases took more than two weeks.   
      
   > One possible recent contact was an indian enslaved some years before, lived   
   > for some time in england, and was returned shortly before the mayflower;   
   > those europeans returning him could be disease sources.   
      
   There were a lot of fishing men, and a documentary I saw the other   
   day claimed whalers about 100 years from the Mayflower. There were   
   no colonies but plenty of visitors it seems.   
      
   What I'm wondering is if the infections were intentional, which the   
   time spans are not inconsistent with. In theory, the disease could   
   burn itself out before reaching the new world, and sailors would   
   definitely have to know it's onboard long before that.   
      
   It's also possible that it spread like wildfire up from central   
   America!   
      
      
      
      
      
      
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