An Aztec with Smallpox Smallpox followed the Spanish conquest, killing thousands of native peoples. In the sixteenth century, Bernardino de Sahagún, a missionary and educator, learned Nahuatl and wrote an illustrated history of New Spain with the aid of indigenous students. This illustration shows a woman with smallpox aided by a native healer. But the incurable disease ultimately led to death or disfigurement.

Granger, NYC