108 



APPENDIX. 



that there are more ways than one of coming at a things — ^that the 

 commerce between Sheffield and South America, through the port 

 of Cadiz, is most uncommonly large — and that his Indians might 

 have got their knives from the Spaniards, at the same time that 

 they got their gilt nails and Spanish harness. But for farther 

 satisfaction on this subject, I have liberty to say, from Mr. Byron's 

 authority, that he never gave a single knife to the people he saw — 

 that he had not one at that time about him — that, excepting the 

 presents given with his own hands, and the tobacco brought by 

 Lieutenant Cummins, not the least trifle was bestowed. I am fur- 

 nished with one other proof that these lesser Indians, whom Mr. 

 Wallis saw, were not the same as those described by Mr. Byron, as 

 has been insinuated ; for the first had with him some officers who 

 had been with him on the preceding voyage, and who bear witness 

 not only to the difference of size, but declare that these people had 

 not a single article among them given by Mr. Byron.* It is 

 extremely probable that these were the Indians that Mr. Bougain- 

 ville fell in with; for they were furnished with bits, a Spanish 

 scy meter, and brass stirrups, as before-mentioned. 



My last evidence of these gigantic Americans is that which I 

 received from Mr. Falkner : he acquainted me that, about the year 

 1742, he was sent on a mission to the vast plains of Pampas, which, 

 if I recollect right, lie to the south-west of Buenos Ayres, and 

 extend near a thousand miles towards the Andes. In these plains 

 he first met with some tribes of these people, and was taken under 

 the protection of one of the caciques. The remarks he made on 

 their size were as follows : — -that the tallest, which he measured 

 in the same manner that Mr. Byron did, was seven feet eight inches 

 high — that the common height, or middle size, was six feet— that 

 there were numbers that were even shorter — and that the tallest 

 woman did not exceed six feet ; that they were scattered from the 

 foot of the Andes over that vast tract which extends to the Atlantic 

 Ocean, and are found as far as the Red River, at Bay Anegada, 

 lat. 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 Straits of Magellan. 



M. Frezier was assured by Don Pedro Molino, Governor of 

 * See Mr, Byron's letter at the end. 



