232 TIEPtRA DEL FUEGO. [chap. xi. 



Rt Cape Gregory with the famous so-called g-igantjc Patagonians, 

 who gave us a cordial reception. Their height appears greater 

 than it really is, from their large guanaco mantles, their long 

 flowing hair, and general figure : on an average their height is 

 about six feet, with some men taller and only a few shorter ; 

 and the women are also tall; altogether they are certainly the 

 tallest race which we anywlieresaw. In features they strikingly 

 resemble the more northern Indians whom I saw with Rosas, 

 but they have a wilder and more formidable appearance : their 

 faces were much painted with red and black, and one man was 

 ringed and dotted with white like a Fuegian. Capt. Fitz I\oy 

 offered to take any tliree of th^m on board, and all seemed de- 

 termined to be of the three. It was long before we could clear 

 the boat ; at last we got on board with our three giants, who 

 dined with tlie Captain, and behaved quite like gentlemen, lielp- 

 ing themselves with knives, forks, and spoons : nothing was so 

 much relished as sugar. Tliis tribe has liad so mucli commu- 

 nication with sealers and whalers, that most of the men can sneak 

 a little English and Spanish ; and they are half civilised, and 

 proportionally demoralised. 



The next morning a large party went on shore, to barter for 

 skins and ostrich-featliers ; fire-arms being refused, tobacco was 

 in greatest request, far more so than axes or tools. The MJiole 

 popidation of the toldos, men, women, and cliildren, were arranged 

 on a bank. It was an amusing scene, and it was impossible not to 

 like the so-called giants, they were so thoroughly good-humoured 

 Rud unsuspecting: they asked us to come again. They seem to 

 like to have Europeans to live with them ; and old Maria, an im- 

 portant woman in the tribe, once be^-c^ed Mr. Low to leave anv one 

 of his sailors with them. They spend the greater part of the year 

 here ; but in summer they hunt along the foot of the Cordillera : 

 sometimes thev travel as far as the Rio Ne^jro, 750 miles to the 

 north. They are well stocked with hoi'ses, each man having, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Low, six or seven, and all the women, and even 

 children, their one own hoiT>e. In the time of Saruiiento (1580), 

 these Indians had bows and arrows, now long since disused ; they 

 then also possessed some horses. This is a very curious fact, show- 

 mg the extraordinarily rapid multiplication of horses in South 

 America. The horse was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, 



