ABSTRACT
The present paper attempts to deal briefly with one of the lacunae the Handbook of South American Indians revealed in scientific understanding of historic population trends in South America. The thesis of the present paper is simply stated: great losses of Indian population did in fact occur in the Andean region prior to 1720 because of epidemic disease. Smallpox was carried from Europe to the Caribbean Island native populations early in the sixteenth century. The Panamanian episode of the measles epidemic evidently began fairly early during 1531, indicating an early beginning in New Spain, if that was in fact the point of origin of continental infection. While the chapter outlines is far from being an exhaustive study of Andean epidemic history, it seems sufficient to show that the area was in fact subjected to severe epidemic depopulation prior to 1720.
