262 GIA 
Giants. seen a giant 12 feet high on the coast of Brazil, and of 
Patagoni- 
ans. 
“Many r 
Knivet who had seen a youth 13 spans in height, at- 
tracted no attention. In the year 1764, Commodore 
Byron visited the coast of Patagonia, and, in describing 
the inhabitants as of gigantic stature, concluded from 
his own size, that they could not be less than six, feet 
and a half, or seven feet high ; but he did not measure 
any of them. This omission, however, was supplied by 
Capt. Carteret of the Swallow sloop of war, which reach- 
ed Cape Virgin Mary near the eastern entrance of the 
Straits of Magellan in 1766. Whten he went ashore, 60 
or 70 of the natives had assembled, and the number 
continually increasing, had augmented next morning to 
several hundreds of men, women and children. _T. 
were a fine race of people, their features large, with to- 
lerably clear complexions and long black hair; and on 
measuring the size of many, Captain Carteret found it in 
general from six feet to six feet five inches high ; some 
were six feet seven inches, but none taller. This 
proves the hazard of conjecture, for Mr Charles Clarke, 
who had accompanied Commodore Byron, concludes, 
that of about 500 people, there was hardly a man less 
than eight feet high, most of them considerably more, 
and some who certainly attained the height of nine 
feet, if not above it. The women also, he infers, were 
from seven and a half to eight feet. Except with re- 
gard to the lieight, the accounts of Captain Carteret 
and Mr Clarke coincide; but Captain Wallis farther 
corroborates the words of the former. Jn the course of 
several interviews, he found by “ measuring rods,” that 
the tallest man among the Patagonians was6 feet 7inches 
high; that several were within an inch or two of that 
height, but the ordinary size was from 5 feet 10 inches to 
6 feet. Both sexes were clothed in skins, and so much 
alike, that at first sight it was noteasy to distinguishthem. 
Their manners were mild and courteous; they had a 
ready na ates and were extremely intelligent. 
e horses of the Spanish breed, fourteen or 
fifteen hands high ; and it appeared their residence was 
inland, not on the coast. Mr Clarke seems aware, that 
the credibility of his relation might be called in ques- 
tion: Captain Carteret’s was written very soon after 
the interview, and was accompanied with regrets, that 
the orders of his commanding officer were of such a de- 
scription, as to preclude a more familiar intercourse 
with the Patagonians. We call them Patagonians, in 
coincidence with the name bestowed on them by their 
earlier visitors ; but their proper appellation is Tehuels, 
or Tehuelhets,—as we learn from a missionary who re- 
sided many years in the country, and whose remarks 
will probably solve the difficulties which have been ex- 
cited by the accounts of transient navigators, The 
Tehuelhets occupy a mountainous tract of South Ame- 
rica, intersected by deep vallies, and wanting rivers of 
considerable size, bounded on the east by a vast desert, 
and on the north by a tribe called Chechehets. Their 
stature rarely exceeds seven feet in height, and often 
does not reach six feet. About forty or fifty years ago, 
they had a chief seven feet and some inches high, with 
whom the missionary Mr Falkner was well acquaint- 
ed ; but he affirms, that he never saw any Indian above 
‘an inch or two taller; that is, we conceive, seven feet 
and a half. The brother of this chief did not exceed 
six feet. They are a strong well made people, not so 
tawny as the other Indians, and some of their women 
as white as Spaniards: They are restless and nomadic, 
+ apr mounted on horseback, and always in motion. 
Another tribe, or, as some suppose, a different division of 
the same tribe, called Puelches, dwells on the western 
NTS. 
side of the continéstt, where Jerendoa by the stellt of 
Magellan on the south. y are very large, seve 
being nearly seven feet six inches high. One branch of “ 
the tribe Huilliches, in the same vicinity, is mi 
ted Great Huilliches, from their lar, rstature ; and the 
Chechehets are tall and stout, like neighbours the 
Tehuelhets, but speak a different dialect: and both ac« 
knowledge the Levuches, of whom we have no particu- 
lars, as their head, Most of those tribes are equestrian; 
but there is one called Yacanacunnees, or , foot-people, 
because they always travel on foot, and have no horses . 
in their country. Many concurring circumstances tend 
to prove, that the Patagonians of the older authors, and 
also of more recent regan are the various races of 
South Americans now described, though at this day 
greatly reduced from their former numbers. Larger 
stature, personal appearance, courteous disposition, a 
nomadic life, and a variety of peculiarities, are common 
to both. Thus it seems undoubted, that certain tribes 
of mankind exist on the South American continent, 
whose size considerably exceeds the common stature of 
mankind, that they might reasonably be esteemed i 
when compared with their Portuguese or Spanish visi« 
tors, who probably were of very ordinary b casaee hd 
but that the extreme height to which the tallest reach 
at present, does not exceed seven feet anda half. We 
read, that the ancient Germans, Gauls, and Caledo- 
nians, were men of great bulk and strength: magna 
corpora et tantum ad impetum valida,—as expressed by 
the historian of Agricola, Had these nations been pre: 
served pure, and without intermixture, perhaps 
stature might have been preserved. also: Yet. it is 
scarcely to be denied, that the stature, or at least the 
strength, of mankind, improves with civilization. The 
savages of no part of the New World, if we except the 
Patagonians, of whose powers we have never obtained 
a comparative view, are equally strong as the inhabi- 
tants of Europe; and it has been aseertained, that the 
natives of Great Britain are individually the strongest 
of all the human race hitherto known. The warmer 
climates, as well as those where extreme cold i 
are equally unfavourable to strength and stature; and 
each seems to have a decided influence on the mind: 
It is within the temperate regions of the earth, that na- 
ture has endowed mankind with the most distinguished 
mental and personal energies. 
From all that has hitherto been explained, the solita- 
ry instances of gigantic stature occurring in Europe, as 
well as uncommon diminution of the human size, ought “ 
to be assimilated to that species of monstrosity, where 
the aberrations of nature tend either to excess or defect. 
Symmetrical giants are seen, it is true, though very 
rarely, and also symmetrical dwarfs; but more genes 
rally there is some disordered organization in their 
sons, particularly in the head and extremities, These 
are small in giants in proportion to their other mem- 
bers ; but the head of dwarfs is almost invariably very 
large. Giants are seldom endowed with at bua power 
or mental energy: the period of life is, for the most 
part, abridged in dwarfs, Nature seems to languish in 
poet sca aie of both, but more conspicuously in re« 
gard to the former: They. want strength, and are defi- 
cient in courage ; nay, it is ‘said, that on some extraor- 
i oceasion, when several dwarfs and giants were 
assembled at Vienna, a quarrel ensued, and one of the ~ 
dwarfs fought a giant to considerable advantage. _ Did 
we not view these beings as mere’ tions, the scale 
of disparity in the human stature ‘would ‘not be so li- 
mited as is wont to be supposed. The difference be- 
