86 BYZANTE—MARIA. May 1827. 
ligible, Spanish, and stated herself to be sister of Bysante, the 
cacique of a tribe near the Santa Cruz River, who is an impor- 
tant personage, on account of his size (which Maria described 
to be immense), and his riches. In speaking of him, she said 
he was very rich; he had many mantles, and also many hides 
(‘‘ muy rico, tiene muchas mantas y tambien muchos cueros”). 
One of Maria’s companions, a brother of Bysante, was the 
tallest and largest man of this tribe; and though he only 
measured six feet in height, his body was large enough for a 
much taller man. He was in great affliction: his daughter 
had died only two days before our arrival; but, notwithstand- 
ing his sad story, which soon found him friends, it was not 
long before he became quite intoxicated, and began to sing 
and roar on the subject of his misfortunes, with a sound more 
like the bellowing of a bull than the voice of a human being. 
Upon applying to Maria, who was not quite so tipsy as her 
brother, to prevent him from making such hideous noises, she 
laughed and said, “Oh, never mind, he’s drunk; poor fellow, 
his daughter is dead” (Es boracho, povrecito, murid su hija) ; 
and then, assuming a serious tone, she looked towards the sky, 
and muttered in her own language a sort of prayer or invoca- 
tion to their chief demon, or ruling spirit, whom Pigafetta, the 
companion and historian of Magalhaens, called Se¢ebos, which 
Admiral Burney supposes to have been the original of one of 
Shakspeare’s names in the “ Tempest”— 
‘“< ___. his art is of such power 
He would controul my dam’s god Setebos.”’ * 
Maria’s dress was similar to that of other females of the 
tribe; but she wore ear-rings, made of medals stamped with a 
figure of the Virgin Mary, which, with the brass-pin that 
secured her mantle across her breast, were given to her by one 
Lewis, who had passed by in an American sealing-vessel, and 
who, we understood from her, had made them “ Christians.” 
‘The Jesuit Falkner, who lived among them for many years, 
has written a long and, apparently, a very authentic account 
* Burney, i. 35 and 37. 
