America

European Town Graves Reveal Historical Clues

Two years following Christopher Columbus ‘s journey across the Atlantic in 1492, Columbus and colonists took off on a second trip. The result of their subsequent voyage was the foundation of the first established European town in the New World. It was given the name La Isabela.

La Isabela had a short four year existence. The demise of the town has always been believed by historians to have been the result of the diseases smallpox, influenza, and malaria.

However, recent findings from the town’s graves, from the bones that remained, also show that the colonist suffered as well from a condition known as scurvy. To be sure scurvy would have made the towns people vulnerable targets to the diseases that befell them.

Scurvy is a condition developed from low levels of Vitamin C. Before 1747 when James Lind was able to prove the connection between scurvy and vitamin c depletion, people did not know the importance of eating citric fruit and other fresh foods that contain Vitamin C. Therefore in the 15th century town of La Isabela scurvy was rampant and contributed to the vulnerability of the immune system to fight off disease.

Read more in National Geographic:

Severe Scurvy Struck Christopher Columbus’s Crew