140 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



for Magellan hlmfelf was killed before they returned to Europe. 

 The Patagonians came frequently aboard their fliip ; and they had 

 fo much intercourfe with them, that they learned a good deal of 

 their language, and of their cuftoms and manners. As to their fize, 

 he fays, ' Their bulk and flature was fuch, as would eafily allow 

 * them the charader of giants. The head of one of our middle fi- 

 ' zed men reached but to their waifts ; and they were proportionably 

 ' big *.' And, in another place he fays, ' Thefe folks are very 

 ' ftrong: When we made the attempt to take fome of them prifoners, 

 ' one alone very near tired the utmoft force of nine of our men that 

 ' were employed to mafter him ; and, though they had him down, 

 ' and bound his hands tightly, yet he freed himfelf from his 

 ' bonds, and got loofe in fpite of all their attempts to hold him f.' 



Befides this authority from Magellan, Hawkefworth, in his Pre- 

 face to Captain Cook's Firft Voyage, has quoted many other rela- 

 tions from travellers before this century, which, joined with the 

 teftimonies I have already mentioned, make fuch a concurrence of 

 evidence, as appears to me irrefiftible ; Nor, indeed, do I con- 

 ceive how any fa(St of Natural Hiftory, in a remote country, can 

 be better proved, than by the concurring teftimony of fo many 

 men who have been in the country at different times, and were eye- 

 witnefles of what they relate : And, indeed, the teftimony of thofe 

 more antient travellers, fmgly, is to me fo fatisfadtory, that, upon 

 their evidence alone I fhould have believed in this race of tall men, 

 although no traveller had feen them, and that they were not now 

 to be found. The fons of Anak, and the family of Goliah, we be- 

 lieve, did once cxift, though their race has been long ago extindt. 



Setting 



* Ibid, p.' 7. This, the reader will obfcrve, ngrecs perfe<f\ly with the account of 

 their hzc 1 had from the failor above mentioned^ 



t Ibid. p. 8. 



