In 1554 John Lok was captain of three ships, the Trinity of 140 tons, the Bartholomew of 90 tons, and the John Evangelist of 140 tons which set sail on a trading voyage to Guinea on 11 October. Although unfavourable winds kept them from leaving England's shores until 1 November, they were near Madeira by 17 November, and becalmed two days later at the Canary Islands under the Peak of Tenerife. They touched the coast of Africa at Cape Barbas, and after reaching the mouth of the Sestos River, traded down the coast, 'touching every place of consequence without any memorable incident occurring' until 13 February, when they turned back toward England. Although the voyage out had taken seven weeks, the return voyage took twenty. In all, twenty-four seamen were lost in the course of the voyage. The cargo brought back included more than 400 pounds' weight of gold, 36 butts of Guinea pepper, and 250 elephants’ tusks, as well as an elephant's skull of such size and weight that a man could scarcely lift it.^{[17][18][19][20]} Lok's ships also brought home five Africans from present-day Ghana to learn English and act as interpreters on future trading voyages to Guinea. 
There is talk that this is when the slave trade first occurred.

There is talk that this pandemic is not so serious that we should close down schools and businesses. I did a little research, and it seems to me we are not taking it serious enough. It seems as though we, in the U.S. don't consider things serious unless it involves us. Well, so far there has been 3,329,786 positive cases in the U S., and 136,671 deaths in the U.S
 How does this jive with past epidemics or pandemics? I'm going to show just how this is as serious or MORE than what has occurred in the past in the U.S.
In 1634-1640, among the Wyandot people and in Canada, there was an outbreak of smallpox that killed 15-25,000 people.
In New England, New York, and New Jersey, 1735- 1739,Diptheria killed about 20,000 people.
In North Carolina, during 1738-39, smallpox killed between 7,700- 11,700 people.
In the Pacific Northwest, 1775- 1782, smallpox wiped out over 11,000 people.
Malaria killed in the Pacific Northwest in 1829-1833 150,000 people.
In The Great Plains 1837- 38, over 17,000 died of smallpox.
In The Hawaiian Kingdom, 10,000 people died of measles, Whooping Cough, dysentery, and influenza between 1848-49.
In The U.S., about 80,000 died of Typhoid fever in 1861-1865.
Mississippi 1878 yellow fever killed 13,000.
Worldwide, in 1889-90, 1 million people died of influenza.
Encephalitis lethargica killed 1.5 million people worldwide between 1915 and 1926.
Influenza H1N1 killed worldwide between 1918 and 1920 17-100 MILLION people!
H2N2 Worldwide between 1957-58 killed 1-4 million people.
H3N2, between 1968-1970 worldwide killed 1-4 million people.
H.I.V.-A.I.D.S  1981-present Worldwide has killed from 32-43.8 million people.
Swine flu (H1N1) killed 151,700-575,400 2009-10.
IN The U.S., the seasonal influenza killed 46,000- 95,000 2017-18.
 So far, since January 2020 until now July 2020, 556,128 people have died worldwide of CoVid19/ Sars-CoV2.
That's SEVEN MONTHS!!! 136,136 in the U.S. since March!!
Now, do you think this is a hoax?! Not to be taken seriously?!