英国“第一舰队”将天花带到澳大利亚

British ‘First Fleet’ brought smallpox to Australia Colonists likely introduced the disease to a more populous continent than many imagined ANDREW CURRY O n a hot summer day in January 1788, 11 ships filled with British convicts and sailors landed in Australia’s Sydney Harbor. There, naval Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack and claimed the continent for the British crown. The arrival of this so-called First Fleet preceded a catastrophe that befell the continent’s Indigenous people. More than a year after the first landing, “there are a significant number of Aboriginal people perish- ing in horrible, ghastly circumstances from what sounds like smallpox,” says Lynette Russell, a historian at Monash University. “By 1789, a hor- rendous depopulation has occurred.” …