v a r i e - ciples 'of- humanity and-equity, We faw the greater and more
rational part of them extremely cautious in giving.us any reafon. for
complaint, and to fuch a degree were they anxious to prevent
hoftilities beingcommenced by their people, that they feem to have
been fenlible o f the injuftice o f giving the firft provocation, which
might bring on a retaliation on our fide j nay, they hindered feve-
ral o f their people from giving even the leaft umbrage to us..
jidedio n>ero terra falubris utrimque mixtura^ fertilis ad omnia tra5tust magna te in colore temperie^.
ritus molles, fenjus liquidus, ingenia ftecunda, totiufquejiatura capacia.
PuNius Hill. Nat. l .iii. c . 78A
s
% ^ ^
T H O U G H the inhabitants o f T i e r r a -d e l F u e g o belong to
neither o f the races o f men in . the South Sea,. being moft.pro-.
bably defeended from fome of the natives in South. America, yet we:
cannot entirely pafs them by in filence.- B u t . finding ■ at the fame,
time, that the greater part o f voyagers and compilers, and- likewife.
thofe authors who have made ufe of the various accounts o f voyagers,
frequently confound the. different nations-on the extremity
o f South America, I will previoufly endeavour-to fix our. ideas
relative to the various tribes that are to be met. with in thefe parts
o f the world,
The
T h e people at the entrance of the Magellanic Strait were feen
and meafured by 'Captain W a l l i s : * * . he found the ftature of the
greater part .of them, to be from five feet ten inches to fix feet high ;
feveral. were fix feet five inches and fix feet fix, and one of-the tailed:
was fix feet feven inches high. Mr. d e B o u g a i n v i l l e * found-
none below five feet five or. fix inches French meafure, and none
above five feet nine or ten inches.: but the crew, o f the. Etoile.had
feen feveral in a preceding voyage fix feet high : thefe meafure-
ments when reduced to the -Englifh flandard, give five feet ten
inches and fix feet two inehes, but the laft" amounts .to fix
feet 4.728 inches,1 Mr. d e l a G i r a u d .a i s J-, o f the Pink .Etoile,
fays, the leaft o f thofe.he faw in 17.66 was-five .feet feven inches
French meafu-re, which is.'above five feet-eleven, inches Englifh.
Mr. D u c l o s . G u y o t , J in the Eagle frigate, informslus,-. that the
fllorteft of the people feen by him in 1766, meafured five feet feven
inches French meafure— 5 feet 11.498 inches Englifh : the reft
were confiderably taller. P i g a f e t t a , || in the.fliip.yidtoria, faw
with Magalhaens at Port St. Julian, people, eight S.panifh feet.high,
which are equal.to feven feet four inches Englifh. K n i v e t , § who?
w.«nfc
-;** HawkefworthY Compilation, vol. i .p . 374.' •
' f Bougainville’s Voyage, Englifh tranflation, p. 142.
•)■ Pernetty’s Hiftory of a Voyage to the Falkland Ifland?. Englifh tranflation* p. 288.
% Ibid. p. .273^
|| Pigafetta, ap. Ramufio. vol. i. p. 353 1|||
§ Knivet’s Voyage,