96 SIZE OF THE PATAGoxiAXs. May ]89,7. 



In the evening my son landed, when the same Indian came 

 down to meet him, appeared delighted to see him, and pre- 

 sented him with a bunch of feathers, of the same size as those 

 which he had distributed in the morning. At this, our second 

 visit, there were about fifty Patagonian men assembled, not 

 one of whom looked more than fifty-five years of age. They 

 were generally between five feet ten and six feet in height : 

 one man only exceeded six feet — whose dimensions, measured 

 by Captain Stokes, were as follows : — 



ft. in. 



Height 6 If 



Round the chest 4 1| 



Da loins 3 4| 



I had before remarked the disproportionate largeness of 

 head, and length of body of these people, as compared with the 

 diminutive size of their extremities ; and, on this visit, my 

 opinion was further confirmed, for such appeared to be the 

 general character of the whole tribe ; and to this, perhaps, may 

 be attributed the mistakes of some former navigators. Magal- 

 haens, or rather Pigafetta, was the first who described the 

 inhabitants of the southern extremity of America as giants. 

 He met some at Port San Julian, of whom one is described 

 to be " so tall, that our heads scarcely came up to his waist, 

 and his voice was like that of a bull.""* Herrera,* however, 

 gives a less extravagant account of them : he says, " the least 

 of the men was larger and taller than the stoutest man of 

 Castile and Maxim. Transylvanus says they were " in height 

 ten palms or spans ; or seven feet six inches.^^ 



In Loyasa''s voyage (1526), Herrera mentions an interview 

 with the natives, who came in two canoes, " the sides of which 

 were formed of the ribs of whales.^' The people in them were 

 of large size " some called them giants ; but there is so little 

 conformity between the accounts given concerning them, that 

 I shall be silent on the subject.''"*-f 



As Loyasa''s voyage was undertaken immediately after the 

 return of Magalhaens^ expedition, it is probable that, from the 



* Burney, i. p. 33. f Ibid, p. 135. 



I 



