ijS ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



officer aboard Mr Byron's fhip, to Dr Maty, fecretary to the Socie- 

 ty, of date November 3. 1766, very foon after Mr Byron's arrival 

 in England, wherein he affirms that fome of them were certainly 

 nine feet, if not more, and hardly a man of them lefs than eight 

 feet, and the women above feven. He was one of the party that 

 landed with Mr Byron ; and, as they were with him near two 

 hours at noon-day, he could not be miftaken in the account he gives 

 of them, and, particularly, in refped to their ftature ; for, though a 

 man, who ftands clofe to another, will guefs very nearly as to his fize 

 by comparing it with his own, the matter, in this cafe, was not left to 

 that conjedure ; for he tells us, ' That Mr Byron, who is very near 

 ' fix feet, could but juft reach to the top of one of their heads, which 



* he attempted on tiptoes ; and there were feveral taller men than 



* him, on whom the experiment was tried.' And he adds, ' They 



* are prodigious ftout, and as well and proportionally made as ever I 

 ^ faw people in my life *.' 



To thefe authorities I may add, what tlie failor above mentioned 

 told me. When I afked him what the fize of thefe Patagonians were, 

 he anfwered very ingenuoufly, that he could not certainly tell, for he 

 did not meafure them : * But,' fays he, ' when I laid myfelf along 

 ' fide of one of them, I looked like a child.* 



There is another teftimony with which a French author furnifhes 

 me, and which makes the ftature of thefe Patagonians, at leaft fome 

 of them, greater than Mr Byron, his officers and failors, made it : It 

 is the teftimony of M. de Guyot, Captain of a French fhip trading 

 to the South Sea, and who, for any thing I know, may be yet alive. 

 He brought from the coaft of Patagonia a fkeleton of one of thefe 



great 



• Vol. 57. P78. 



