218 



CHARLES DARWIN 



During our previous visit (in January), we had an inter- 

 view at Cape Gregory with the famous so-called gigantic 

 Patagonians, who gave us a cordial reception. Their height 

 appears greater than it really is, from their large guanaco 

 mantles, their long flowing hair, and general figure: on an 

 average, their height is about six feet, with some men taller 

 and only a few shorter; and the women are also tall; alto- 

 gether they are certainly the tallest race which we anywhere 

 saw. In features they strikingly resemble the more northern 

 Indians whom I saw with Rosas, but they have a wilder and 

 more formidable appearance: their faces were much painted 

 with red and black, and one man was ringed and dotted with 

 white like a Fuegian. Captain Fitz Roy offered to take any 

 three of them on board, and all seemed determined to be of 

 the three. It was long before we could clear the boat; at 

 last we got on board with our three giants, who dined with 

 the Captain, and behaved quite like gentlemen, helping them- 

 selves with knives, forks, and spoons: nothing was so much 

 relished as sugar. This tribe has had so much communication 

 with sealers and whalers that most of the men can speak a 

 little English and Spanish; and they are half civilized, and 

 proportionally demoralized. 



The next morning a large party went on shore, to barter 

 for skins and ostrich-feathers; fire-arms being refused, 

 tobacco was in greatest request, far more so than axes or 

 tools. The whole population of the toldos, men, women, and 

 children, were arranged on a bank. It was an amusing 

 scene, and it was impossible not to like the so-called giants, 

 they were so thoroughly good-humoured and unsuspecting: 

 they asked us to come again. They seem to like to have 

 Europeans to live with them; and old Maria, an important 

 woman in the tribe, once begged Mr. Low to leave any one 

 of his sailors with them. They spend the greater part of the 

 year here; but in summer they hunt along the foot of the 

 Cordillera: sometimes they travel as far as the Rio Negro, 

 750 miles to the north. They are well stocked with horses' 

 sach man having, according to Mr. Low, six or seven, and 

 all the women, and even children, their one own horse. In 

 the time of Sarmiento (1580), these Indians had bows and 

 arrows, now long since disused; they then also possessed 



