The Great Dying

What struck me most as I was reading both sections of tonight's reading was the mass number of deaths of both the Native Americans and Aztecs due to the small pox disease.  In the reading, it mentioned how the population in Central Mexico dropped from 10-20 million people to 1 million people due to the small pox disease.  I found this shocking because that is an immense decrease in the population in a relatively small amount of time.  Also, another quote in the first section said by the Governor of Plymouth colony read, "such conditions represented the "good hand of God" at work, "sweeping away great multitudes of the natives...that he might make room for us."".  I found this quote horrifying because Governor Bradford of Plymouth colony is saying in this quote that God is helping the colonists because he is killing mass amounts of the natives and making room for the colonists to move on to the land and settle there.  I remember learning about the small pox disease in middle school and I learned about small pox blankets.  Small pox blankets were the blankets that were given to people with the small pox disease, and they were the only blankets they were allowed to use.  However, after they had been used by people with the disease, the blankets were given to Native Americans as a "gift" to help in killing off more of the Native American population to "make room" for the colonists, which is an absolutely terrible thing to do.