102 



FORMER ACCOUNTS OF PATAGONIANS. 



muscular forms, and length of body, in some measure bear 

 out the above accounts; for had the present generation pro- 

 portionate limbs, they might, without any exaggeration, justify 

 the account of Commodore Byron. The Jesuit Missionary 

 Falkner,^ who, from an intercourse of forty years with the 

 Indians of South America, must be considered as one of the 

 best authorities, says, speaking of a Patagonian named Canga- 

 pol, " This chief, who was called by the Spaniards the Cacique 

 Bravo,-|- was tall and well-proportioned ; he must have been 

 seven feet and some inches in height, because on tiptoe I could 

 not reach the top of his head : I was very well acquainted 

 with him, and went some journe3^s 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 Sausimian was but 

 about six feet high. The Patagonians or Puelches 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 the Southern Indians." 



This is an account in 1746, only twenty years before that of 

 Bougainville. Taking all the evidence together, it may be con- 

 sidered, that the medium height of the males of these southern 

 tribes is about five feet eleven inches. The women are not so tall, 

 but are in proportion broader and stouter : they are generally 

 plain-featured. The head is long, broad and flat, and the 

 forehead low, with the hair growing within an inch of the eye- 

 brows, which are bare. The eyes are often placed obliquely, 

 and have but little expression, the nose is generally rather flat, 

 and turned up ; but we noticed several with that feature 



* Falkner, according to Dean Funes, was originally engaged in the 

 slave trade at Buenos Ayres ; but afterwards became a Jesuit, and studied 

 in the college at Cordova, where, to an eminent knowledge of medicine, 

 he added that of theology. He is the author of a description of Pata- 

 gonia, published in London after the expulsion of the Jesuits. — {Ensayo 

 de la Historia Civil del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, y Tucuman, pot el 

 Doctor Bon Gregorio Funes, Hi. p. 23, note. Published at Buenos Ayres. 

 '^vo. 1817.) 



t See Dean Funes's account of Buenos Ayres, and of the Indian tribes^ 

 vol. ii. 394. 



