Why didn’t settlers die of disease?

Question

We often hear indigenous peoples died from disease introduced by European settlers in North and South America. If indigenous peoples there were susceptible to eradication by unfamiliar disease why is the same not true of disease and death to settlers? Or is it true but more easily overcome?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Some settlers died of scurvy when there were bad harvests. Indigenous people taught some of the settlers how to use e.g. sumac fruit (not poison sumac, obviously) or the tips of some evergreen tree branches to ward off scurvy. Nobody knew about vitamin C then, of course.