unlike Tench, thought it an open question whether the Aboriginal peoples were previously "strangers" to smallpox, while Lieutenant King in his journal was sure they were not; and this has remained a point of contention among historians. Most point to the lack of visible scarring at first contact; but some, including Robert Barnes and Alan Frost, feel that since three observers, King, Hunter and Collins "demonstrated that the Aboriginals had a name for it", the disease was more likely a pre-existing, if infrequent, visitor.

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