In the twenty years since the Gate was opened on the Other Side, there have been epidemics of measles, malaria and meningitis and regular new varieties of flu. The native population has been reduced by more than three quarters and by over ninety per cent on the West Coast. Tiny nomadic bands who flee from the New Virginians cannot be vaccinated.
Chinese textiles imported to Hawaii by the Collettas carry smallpox virus and some crewmen may have transmitted chicken pox. Prognosis:
from smallpox, fifty per cent deaths, probably more;
with the chicken pox, maybe ninety per cent.
This includes secondary deaths caused by:
lack of nursing because so many are sick;
unburied bodies causing other diseases;
disruption of food supplies;
etc.
Pretty much a clean sweep, plus Rolfe's suspicion that Colletta deliberately introduced smallpox to Hawaii.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I'll be rereading pages 151-57 of CONQUISTADOR, but I well remember how angry many members of the Central Committee were at Salvatore Colletta's disreputable (or genocidal?) acts in Other Side Hawaii. It was lack of hard evidence that Salvatore had indeed knowingly spread smallpox in Hawaii which forced John Rolfe VI and his supporters from moving decisively against the Collettas.
Sean
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