FORMER ACCOUNTS OF PATAGONIANS. 



101 



Shortly afterwards, Wallis, in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Virgins, communicated with the same people, and as the story 

 of the Patagonian giants had been spread abroad, and was 

 very much discredited, he carried two measuring rods with 

 him ; and says, in his narrative, '* We went round and mea- 

 sured those that appeared to be the tallest. One was six feet 

 seven inches high, several more were six feet five, and six feet 

 six inches ; but the stature of the greatest part of them was 

 from five feet ten to six feet." 



In the voyage of the Santa Maria de la Cabeza,* 1786, it 

 is related that the height of one or two Patagonians, with 

 whom the officers had an interview, was six feet eleven inches 

 and a half (of Burgos), which is equal to six feet four inches 

 and a half (English). This man wore a sword, on .which was 

 engraved " Por el Rey Carlos III.,"' and spoke a few words 

 in Spanish, proofs of his having had communication with some 

 of the Spanish settlements. It does not, however, appear from 

 the account that there were many others, if any, of that 

 height. 



Of all the above accounts, I think those by Bougainville and 

 Wallis the most accurate. It is true, that of the number we 

 saw, none measured more than six feet two inches ; but it is 

 possible that the preceding generation may have been a larger 

 race of people, for none that we saw could have been alive at 

 the time of Wallis's or Byron's voyage. The oldest certainly 

 were the tallest ; but, without discrediting the accounts of 

 Byron, or any other of the modern voyagers, I think it pro- 

 bable that, by a different mode of life, or a mixture by 

 marriao^e with the southern or Fuegian tribes, which we know 

 has taken place, they have degenerated into a smaller race, and 

 have lost all right to the title of giants ; yet their bulky, 



the fifty- seventh volume of the Phil. Trans., part i. p. 75, in which an 

 exaggerated account is given of this meeting. The men are described to 

 he eight feet high, and the women seven and a half to eight feet. " They 

 are prodigious stout, and as well and proportionahly made as ever I saw 

 people in my life." This communication was probably intended to cor- 

 roborate the commodore's account. 

 * Ultimo Viage, p. 21. 



