77 2 
P A T A 
a great number of dogs, with which, it was fuppofed, 
they chafed the wild animals which ferved them for food. 
Their horfes, though not large nor in good condition, 
feemed to be nimble, and well broken. Their bridle 
was a leathern thong, with a bit of a fmall piece of wood, 
and their faddles refembled the pads ufed among the 
country people in England. The women rode altride, 
and both men and women without dirrups ; and yet they 
galloped w'ithout fear over the fpit on the lhore, the (tones 
of which were large, loofe, and llippery. Such is the ac¬ 
count given by Byron, in Hawkefworth’s Voyages, vol. i. 
Mr. C. Clarke, an officer of Byron’s (hip, in a letter 
publiffied in the Philofophical Tranfaftions, vol. lvii. 
d-efcribes the Patagonians as of a coppercolour, with long 
black hair, and fays, that fome of them were certainly 
nine,feet, if they did not exceed this (lature. They are 
(lout and well made : the women, he fays, were from 
(even and a half to eight feet, though there was hardly a 
man lefs than eight feet. It does not appear, however, 
that thefe people were actually meafured. 
The country is reprefented as fomewhat hilly : the foil, 
in that part which lies off Port Defire, is fandy, produc¬ 
ing nothing but a coarfe harfh grafs. Captain Wallis, 
who vifited this coaft in 1766, meafured thofe that ap¬ 
peared to be the tailed among them. One of thefe was 
fix feet feven inches high, feveral more were fix feet five 
inches, and fix feet fix inches; but the dature of mod 
was from five feet ten inches to fix feet. Captain Car¬ 
teret’s account agrees with that of Wallis. (See Phil. 
Trauf. vol. lx.) Thefe feem to have been the lame peo¬ 
ple, whofe fize had been fo much over-rated in the year 
1764. j for feveral of them had beads, and red baize, fuch 
as that which had been put on-board Wallis’s drip, and 
which he naturally concluded they had got from Byron. 
In 1767 they were again meafured by M. Bougainville, 
whole account agrees nearly wdth that of Wallis. To 
thefe tedimonies we may here add another of great weight. 
In the year 1762, Don Bernardo Ibagnez de Echavarri 
accompanied the marquisdeValdelirios toBuenos Ayres, 
and redded there feveral years. He obferves, that the 
fouthern extremity of America is inhabited, not by the 
fabulous Patagonians, who have been fuppofed to occu¬ 
py this didrift, but by Indians of the fame dature with 
Spaniards, among whom no one was feen that exceeded in 
height two vnras and two or three inches, i. e. about 80or 
81-332 Englifli inches, if Echavarri make his computation 
according to the vara of Madrid. This agrees nearly 
with the meafurement of captain Wallis. Mr. Falkner, 
who redded as a miffionary forty-eight years in the fouthern 
parts of America, fays, that “the Patagonians, or Puel- 
ches, are a large-bodied people ; but I never heard of that 
gigantic race which others have mentioned, though I have 
feen perfonsof all the different tribes of Southern Indians. 
Falkner publiffied, in 1774, a two-fheet map of Patago¬ 
nia ; but, when compared with the great fix-ffieet map 
of South America by La Cruz(Madrid 1775, Loud. 1779.) 
it will be found to be very erroneous. 
Captain Wallis defcribes them as being of a deep copper 
colour, like that of the Indians in North America, with 
draight hair as harffi as hog’s bridles, which was tied 
back with a cotton dring: they are well made, robud, 
and bony; but their hands and feet are remarkably fmall. 
They were clothed with the Ikins of theguanaco, an ani¬ 
mal refembling a deer, without horns, and having a 
hump on its back: thefe (kins were fowed together in 
pieces about fix feet long and five feet wide, wrapped 
round the body, and fadened with a girdle, with the 
hairy fide inwards: fome of them had a fquare piece of 
cloth made of the downy hair of the fame animal, through 
which a hole being cut for the head, the red hung round 
them about as low as the knee. They alfo wore a kind 
of drawers, and bulkins, reaching from the mid-leg to 
theinftep before, and behind brought under the heel: the 
red of the foot was without any covering. Round their 
eyes were the circles already mentioned; and they were 
G O N I A, 
painted on their arms, and on other parts of the face. 
The eye-lids of all the young women were painted black. 
Every one had a miffile weapon, tucked into the girdle. 
This weapon confided of two round dones, covered with 
leather, and weighing about a pound, which w-ere faf- 
tened to the ends of a dring about eight feet long. This 
they ufed as a (ling, keeping one end in the hand, and 
whirling the other round the head, till, with the force it 
had acquired, they difcharged it upon the objeft. In 
the management of this double-headed (hot they are fo 
expert, as to be able to hit a mark not larger than a (hil¬ 
ling, with both the dones, at the didance of fifteen yards : 
it is not, however, their cudom to drike either the gua- 
naco or the odrich with them in the chafe ; but they dif- 
charge them fo that the cord comes againd the legs of 
the odrich, or two of the legs of the guanaco, and fo 
twided round them by the force and fwing of the balls, 
that the animal, being unable to run, became an eafy 
prey to the hunter. They eat their fleffi raw, and the 
paunch of the odrich without any preparation befides 
turning it infide out and (baking it. 
Each of thefe people, both men and women, fays Wal¬ 
lis, had a horfe, with a faddle, dirrups, and bridle. The 
men had wooden fpurs, except one who had a large pair 
of fuch as are worn in Spain, brafs dirrups, and a Spanifii 
fcymitar without a fcabbard; but, notvrithdanding thefe 
didinftions, he did not appear to have any authority over 
the red : the women had no fpurs. Their horfes, about 
fourteen hands high, appeared to be of a Spanifii breed. 
Although they had no objeftion to familiar intercourfe, 
they manifeded no intention of mifchief, and jumped into 
the Engiiffi boats with alacrity and joy, and when in 
them fung feveral o( their country fongs ; when on-board 
they expreffed no curiofity or wonder which the multi¬ 
plicity of objefts 3 round them had a tendency to excite: 
they partook of the (hip’s provifions without hefitation 
or fcruple, but they would drink nothing befides water. 
The animals on-board, particularly the hogs and ffieep, 
and the Guinea hens and turkeys, engaged their atten¬ 
tion, but they feemed not to defire any thing which they 
fawexcept the apparel; and only one of them, who was 
an old man, a(ked for that. When the fird volley was 
fired by the marines in their exercife, they were (truck 
with adonifliment and terror; the old man in particular, 
threw himfelf down upon the deck, pointed to the muf- 
kets, and then driking his bread with his hand, lay fome 
time motionlefs, with his eyes (hut; thus, as it was fup¬ 
pofed, intending to (how that he was not unacquainted 
with fire-arms, and their fatal effefts. The red, feeing 
the people on-board merry, and finding themfelves un¬ 
hurt, foon refumed their cheerfulnefs and good humour, 
and heard a fecond and a third volley fired without much 
emotion : but the old man continued prodrate upon the 
deck for fome time, and never recovered his fpirits till 
the firing was over. Although they were pleafed with the 
beads and other trinkets which were didributed among 
them, and feemed very defirous of hatchets and bill¬ 
hooks, they did not give the lead intimation that they 
would part with any provifions; therefore no traffic was 
carried on between them and the Engiiffi navigators. 
This country coniids, for the greater part, of open de- 
ferts and favannas: with a few willow-trees on the rivers ; 
and feems to enjoy a temperate but rather cool climate. 
But, feparated in the middle by the vad mountains of 
the Andes, one part of it, and alfo its inhabitants, dif¬ 
fer widely from the other. To the northward of La 
Plata this part of South America is covered with wood, 
and dored with an inexhaudible fund of large timber : 
but to the fouthward of that river the eye can fcaroely 
difcover a fir.gle tree or ffirub fit for any mechanical pur- 
pofe ; but even this feemingly-barren country has fome 
good paltures, and numerous droves of wild horned cat¬ 
tle ; and every didrift abounds with horfes, which are 
fuppofed to have been brought hither by the Spaniards. 
It has been fuggeded, that the Patagonians are de¬ 
fendants 
