142 A NT I EN T METAPHYSICS. Book H. 



the globe, at leaft that the nations there are not near i'o old, and, 

 confequently, civility and arts not fo far advanced among them), thefe 

 Patagonians fhould be the only men of great fize there found : And I 

 fhould tliink it was indeed extraordinary if that were the fad ; hut I 

 beheve it is not. Chriftopher D'Acugna, a Spaniih Jefuit,in his voy- 

 age down the River Amazons, fpeaks of men of the height of twelve 

 feet in that part of South America, and alfo of men no bigger than 

 children ; and likewife Father Hennlpen, in his travels in North 

 America, fays that there are men of extraordinary fize and ftrength a- 

 bout the heads of the Miflifippi: At the fame time, he tells us, that 

 there are likewife Pigmies there to be found, which ftill farther con- 

 firms what 1 have faid above, of the great variety of fize in our 

 fpecies even in the fame climate and country. As to men of extraordi- 

 nary fize in that country, M. IVlaiIlet,in his Telliamede *, tells a ftory 

 of a nation of men ten or twelve feet high, lately diibovered in North 

 America by fome Savages who travelled very far to the weft, and 

 were ten months upon their journey. One of thefe Giants they 

 killed ; and, by way of trophy, brought home his head. The ftory is 

 related by M. Maillet, v.-ith many particulars, which he faid were 

 attefted to him by a French officer, one M. Pachot, who faw the 

 head, which was at leaft as large as three ordinary heads. I know 

 this author's credit is lufpeded by many, but for no reafon that 

 I know, except that he relates many things that are not to be feen 

 in Europe, and fuch as muft appear extraordinary to a man who 

 has not enlarged notions of the variety of Nature. His account of 

 Egypt is believed by every body to be. true; and, indeed, I think 

 it is the beft account that we have of the ftatc of that country in 

 modern times. And, if he did not lie with refped to Egypt, I know 

 no reafon why we fnould fufped him of lying in what he relates 

 of other parts of the world. He may have been mifinformed ; but 



* Page 457. 



