FORMER ACCOUNTS OF PATAGONIANS. 101 
Shortly afterwards, Wallis, in the neighbourhood of Cape 
Virgins, communicated with the same people, and as the story 
of the Patagonian giants had been spread abroad, and was 
very much discredited, he carried two measuring rods with 
him ; and says, in his narrative, “‘ We went round and mea- 
sured those that appeared to be the tallest. One was six feet 
seven inches high, several more were six feet five, and six feet 
six inches ; but the stature of the greatest part of them was 
from five feet ten to six feet.” 
In the voyage of the Santa Maria de la Cabeza,* 1786, it 
is related that the height of one or two Patagonians, with 
whom the officers had an interview, was six feet eleven inches 
and a half (of Burgos), which is equal to six feet four inches 
and a half (English). This man wore a sword, on which was 
engraved “ Por el Rey Carlos III.,” and spoke a few words 
in Spanish, proofs of his having had communication with some 
of the Spanish settlements. It does not, however, appear from 
the account that there were many others, if any, of that 
height. 
Of all the above accounts, I think those by Bougainville and 
Wallis the most accurate. It is true, that of the number we 
saw, none measured more than six feet two inches ; but it is 
possible that the preceding generation may have been a larger 
race of people, for none that we saw could have been alive at 
the time of Wallis’s or Byron’s voyage. The oldest certainly 
were the tallest ; but, without discrediting the accounts of 
Byron, or any other of the modern voyagers, I think it pro- 
bable that, by a different mode of life, or a mixture by 
marriage with the southern or Fuegian tribes, which we know 
has taken place, they have degenerated into a smaller race, and 
have lost all right to the title of giants; yet their bulky, 
the fifty-seventh volume of the Phil. Trans., parti. p. 75, in which an 
exaggerated account is given of this meeting. The men are described to 
be eight feet high, and the women seven and a half to eight feet. “ They 
are prodigious stout, and as well and proportionably made as ever I saw 
people in my life.” This communication was probably intended to cor- 
roborate the commodore’s account. 
* Ultimo Viage, p. 21. 
