CONFIDENCE— STATURE WANDERINGS. 



145 



usually broad and prominent : all the features, indeed, are 

 large, excepting the eyes. The expression of their countenances 

 is open and honest (compared with other savages), and their 

 intrepid, contented look is rather prepossessing. The unhe- 

 sitating manner in which, unarmed, they trust themselves among 

 strangers whom they never before saw, or venture on board 

 ship, even under sail in the offing (if they can obtain a pas- 

 sage in the boat), and go voluntarily from place to place with 

 their white acquaintances, is very remarkable. 



Of the stature and bulk of these Indians I have already 

 spoken. It appears to me that those who now live on the 

 northern side of Magalhaens" Strait are descendants of the Pata- 

 gonians whose size excited so much surprise and discussion ; 

 and that, occasionally, individuals have exceeded the common 

 height. Speaking of Cangapol, whose chief resort was the 

 vicinity of the river Negro, though he and his tribe were rest- 

 less wanderers, Falkner says — " This chief, who was called by 

 the Spaniards the ' Cacique bravo,"* was very tall and well pro- 

 portioned. He must have been seven feet and some inches in 

 height, because, on tiptoe, I could not reach to the top of his 

 head. T was very well acquainted with him, and went some 

 journeys in his company. I do not recollect ever to have seen 

 an Indian that was above an inch or two taller than Cangapol. 

 His brother, Sau simian, was but about six feet high. The 

 Patagonians are a large-bodied people ; but I never heard of 

 that gigantic race which others have mentioned, though I have 

 seen persons of all the different tribes of southern Indians.*" In 

 another place he says, " there is not a part of all this extremity 

 of the continent that some of these wandering nations do not 

 travel over frequently."" Of their wanderings, many persons 

 besides myself and those with me can bear witness. Patago- 

 nians, who were personally known by officers of the Beagle, 

 were seen by them at the Spanish (now the Buenos Ayrean) 

 settlement, Del Carmen, near the mouth of the river Negro, in 

 September 1832 ; and by Mr. Low, at their usual abode, near 

 the Strait of Magalhaens, in February 1833. The individual 

 who was then most noticed, a half-breed Indian woman, named 



A^OL. II. L 



