OF DHE PAT AGONTAN S; 
that thefe were the Jndians that Mr. Bougainville fell in with; for 
they were furnifhed with bits, a Spani/b fcymeter, and brafs ftir- 
rups as before mentioned. 
My laft evidence of thefe gigantic Americans is that which I 
received from Mr. Falkener; he acquainted me, that about the 
year 1742 he was fent on a miffion to the vaft plains of Pampas, 
which, if I recolleét right, lie to the fouth-weft of Buenos Ayres, 
and extend near a thoufand miles towards the des. In thefe 
plains he firft met with fome tribes of thefe people, and was 
taken under the protection of one of the Cazigues. The remarks 
he made on their fize were as follows; that the talleft, which he 
meafured in the fame manner that Mr. Byron did, was feven 
feet eight inches high; that the common height, or middle fize, 
was fix feet; that there were numbers that were even fhorter; 
and that the talleft women did not exceed fix feet. That they 
were fcattered from the foot of the “4vdes, over that vaft tract 
which extends to the Atlantic Ocean, and are found as far as the 
Red River at Bay Anagada, \at. 40.1; below that the land is 
too barren to be habitable, and none are found, except accidental 
migrants, till you arrive at the river Gallego, near the ftreights of 
Magellan. 
Tuey are fuppofed to be a race derived from the Chilian In- 
dians, the Puelches who inhabited the eaftern fide of the Andes, 
the fame brave nation who defeated and deftroyed the avari- 
cious Spaniard Baldivia, but after that were difpoffeffed of their 
feat. 
“Tuey dwell in large tents covered with the hides of mares, 
and divided within into apartments, for the different ranks of the 
family, by a fort of blanketing. They are a moft migratory 
I people, 
