td Slrait of Magellan. S3 



^f tills intercourse, it is easy to hear them pronounce many- 

 Spanish words, of whose meaning, however, they ^^•ere ireneraiiy 

 i^yiiorant; and to observe, tliat they possessed several articles 

 of furniture and arms of Spanish manufacture. 



The Patagonians possess most uncommon facility in repeat- 

 ing any word they hear pronounced, and even retain it in 

 tlieir memory. The seaman brought away by Cavendish, 

 says, in his declaration, tfiat he often heard them pronounce 

 the words Jesus Santa Maria^ looking up at the same time 

 to heaven ; and that they made the Spanish settlers understand 

 that, up the country, there were other men with beards and 

 boots, and other children like those of the settlers. This 

 faculty of retaining w^ords and phrases of different languages, 

 has been constantly remarked and admired by all travellers in 

 these seas. Captain Wallis mentions, that he taught some of 

 them to repeat distinctly the English piirase Englishmen^ 

 come on-shore wdiich, on bis meeting with them many days 

 afterwards, in another place, they correctly repeated. This 

 power seems to proceed from their not having any harsh, nor 

 indeed any peculiar, accent in their own language, from their 

 acul'C hearing, and from their extreme volubility and pliable- 

 ness of tongue, and other organs of speech. There is nothing 

 either particularly harsh nor sweet in their language, which 

 is very full of vowels, and its pronunciation somewhat 

 guttural. 



We proposed to several of them to carry them home with us 

 to Spain, promising to bring tliem back again to their native 

 country, but all answered, that they did not desire to leave their 

 comrades ; so that we did not deem it either reasonable or just 

 in itself to take advantage of our superiority, to drag these 

 men, against their will, from the bosom of their country and 

 families, — to them so valuable and dear; especially as no other 

 fruit could be reaped from such a step, than merely the satisfy- 

 ing idle curiosity with the sight of men whose stature exceeds 

 that of the ordinary race of mortals, but which does not exceed, 

 nor indeed even reach, that of particular individuals who have 

 frequently been exhibited in Europe as preternatural produc- 

 tions of tne powers of nature. 



If ignorance of those things which it most imports man to 

 know, and of the comforts and security of civilized life, which 

 seem to be so congenial to man's nature, w^ere not, in our 

 opinion, insurmountable obstacles in the way of happiness, 

 few men could be in a situation to render them more con- 

 tented and happy than these Patagonians. They enjoy all 

 the essential b^iiehts of suciety, without being subjected to 



