> More than a few of the men did end up needing treatment for syphilis, either for pre-existing problems or for ones picked up along the way from friendly Native American women.
This struck me as odd. "What? How did syphilis get to this part of the Americas already?"
Apparently syphilis was already in the Americas prior to European contact. Two schools of thought are that either Europeans already had syphilis but mistook the diverse symptoms for other diseases, or that Columbus and crew brought it back.