THE AMERICAN FAMILY. 71 



that it is not climate is sufficiently obvious ; and whether it arises from partial 

 immigrations from other countries, remains yet to be decided. 



Nothing can be more variable than the stature of these people, which presents 

 some remarkable contrasts, of which a few only need be noticed at present, as I 

 shall revert to this subject on a future occasion. The Patagonians of the main 

 land, after rejecting the absurd fables of the early voyagers, are the tallest nation 

 on the American continent. Commodore Byron states that among five hundred 

 men he saw together, the shortest were at least four inches taller than his own 

 men.* Captain Wallace, however, took the pains to measure many of them, 

 among whom one was six feet seven, and several were six feet five ; but the 

 greater part of them were from five feet ten to six feet.f On the other hand 

 Humboldt found the Chaymas and some other tribes of the Upper Orinoco to be 

 remarkably short, while in the adjacent Charib nation the men were not less 

 conspicuous for their great stature. The Pourys and Coroadosf of Brazil are 

 diminutive races, while the Abipones of Paraguay are, to a man, of gigantic pro- 

 portions. The late Mr. Bartram, who passed much time among the Florida 

 nations, describes the Creek (Muscogee) Indians as strikingly tall and athletic, " a 

 full size larger than Europeans ; many of them above six feet, and few under that, 

 or five feet eight or ten inches." Yet what is very singular, he assures us that 

 the women of that nation are seldom above five feet high, and that the greater 

 number of them never attain to that stature ; an observation that has also been 

 made respecting the Indians of Paraguay. § 



Although the Americans are generally of good stature, they are not so 

 generally of strictly athletic proportions. Their chests are often less expanded 

 and their shoulders narrower than one would expect ; defects which are usually 

 ascribed to habitual indolence ; for the men make little exertion with their arms 

 beyond bending the bow. On the other hand, many nations both of North and 

 South America, are remarkable for their perfect symmetry: among numerous 

 examples we may instance the Patagonians of the main land, the Charruas of 

 Brazil, and the Creeks and Seminoles of Florida. In fact there is ample evidence 

 to disprove the hypothesis of some closet naturalists, that the physical man of 

 the new world is of a defective and degenerate organisation. 



* Hawks. Voy. I, p. 26. 



t Ibid. I, p. 124. — The reader will find an interesting examination of this question in the Intro- 

 duction to Havvksworth's Voyages, and also in De Pauw, Rescb. sur les Amer. T. I, p. 283, &c. 

 t Spix and Mart. Trav. II, 239. § Pernetty, Voy. I, 299. 



