X24 OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE* 



found the footfteps of men of a large ftature, and met two canoes of favages, whom, 

 becaufe of their iftrength and ftature, they called giants; they came near the fhips^ 

 and feemed to threaten them j but thofe of the fhip endeavouring to follow them, 

 they could not come up with them, for they rowed fo fwiftly, they feemed to fly. 

 It is probable that thefe canoes were made of the ribs of whales, which are there in 

 abundance : and they found one before with the fides and fteerage of whale-bone. 



In another voyage, made by Thomas Candifh, an Englifh gentleman, th£y found 

 in a port, (in a very inacceflible place,) a company of Indians, very lufty men, who, 

 notwithftanding the prodigious cold of that country, lived in the woods like Satyrs^ 

 and fhewed fo much ftrength, that they would throw ftones of three or four pounds 

 weight a great way. We read like wife in the relation of the voyage of Magellan, 

 that as he wintered in the bay and river of St. John, there came to the fhip fix 

 Indians, fo tall, that the loweft of them was taller than the talleft Spaniard aboard j 

 that having made a great kettle of the fweepings of the bifcuit for them, enough 

 for twenty men, thofe fix eat it up entirely, without leaving a crumb of it, Magellan 

 gave them a fort of coats of red wool, with which they were much pleafed, never 

 having feen any before ; their ordinary wear being deer-fkins. I'hey learned from 

 them, that in the fummer they ufed to come down to the fea-fide to live, but in 

 the winter they withdrew more into the heart of the country. We know likewife 

 by thefe fame authors, that the number of the Indians that inhabit thofe coafts, is 

 confiderable, particularly in the port called the port of Shell-filh ; where as foon as 

 they landed, great numbers of Indians, with their wives and children, came to them, 

 and exchanged with them great quantities of pearl, ready wrought in points, like 

 diamonds, very artfully, for fciflars, knives, and other baubles ; as alfo for Spanifh 

 wine, which pleafed them extremely ; but they came no more, for they were frighted 

 with feeing the Spaniards Ihoot fome game. 



The fleet of George Spilberg found alfo great numbers of inhabitants in the land, 

 on the other fide of the ftraight ; and when the captains, called the Nodales, were, 

 by the king's order, to view the ftraight of St. Vincent, they found, upon a point 

 of land of that ftraight, great ftore of people. The fame is faid by the Saballas, and 

 others who went from Peru to fearch the Terra del Fuego ; and all thofe who have 

 pafl'ed the ftraights, have conftantly feen men and inhabitants on the fliore in feveral 

 places ; and at one place fome of Spilberg's men landing to purfue fome birds of a 

 very fine colour, which they faw on fliore, had fcarce begun to flioot them, but 

 they were environed with Indians, who attacked them fo furioufly with clubs, that 

 happy was he that could make his efcape to the fliip ; and many of them were knocked 

 on the head. 



The Nodales likewife faw in the bay of St. Gregory great numbers of inhabitants, 

 with whom the feamen drove a trade, by exchanging fome Spanifli trifles for gold. 

 By all which it is apparent how well peopled all that coaft and the iflands are ; yet we 

 do not know what fort of people inhabit the fourfcore iflands difcovered by Pedro Sar- 

 miento, for nobody landed out of that fleet ; but we know that the iflanders of Mocha 

 are a peaceable civil nation, feveral fliips having touched there, and at Sanda Maria. 

 As for the nation called the Chonos, they are a poor people, but good-natured, as has 

 been feen by the Chilenians, in whom the Spaniards have found great docility, and a 

 good understanding. 



In the iflands difcovered by Francis Drake, in about five and fifty degrees, of which 



we have already made mention, they met with canoes of men and women ftark naked, 



which is the more remarkable, becaufe of the excefllve cold of thofe parts, where 



1 1 there 



