'Pedro de
Cieca, chap.
5 z. Garci-
Lrfl'o, Hift.
du Pérou, liv.
9. chap. 9.
-him 'many marks upon a rock -which they faid were im-
-prefied by the thunderbolts, , and many bones o f an extraordinary
fize, which .they believed to be remains o f the giants;
■ but they did not pretend to know when the deluge happened.
“ The'Ynca GarcilaiSb de la Vega, in his hiftory o f Peru, rebates,
that accordingtoatraditionuniverfallyreceived,a number
of vefiels or junks came to Point SaintHelena with a company
o f giants on board, o f a ftature fo enormous that the
natives of the country were not higher than their knees: that
their eyes were as broad as the bottom o f a plate, and their
1 imbs proportionably large: that fome o f them were naked, and
others flighfly covered with the fkins o f beads. That when
they came on fliore, they dug a pit o f an aftonithing depth
in the rock, and each o f them confuming as much provi-
lions as would be fufficient for fifty men, the country was
foon exhautled, and they were obliged to live upon fifh : that
they feized the women o f the country, to whom their brutality
was fatal, and afterwards giving themfelves up to
woife vices, the whole race was deftroyed by fire from
heaven, which however left their bones unconfumed, as a
lafting memorial of Divine vengeance. Bones of an amazing
fize are faid to have been found in this country, and frag-
ments o f teeth, which, i f they were whole, muft have
weighed ha lf a pound.
“ Thofe who wifh to know all the particulars o f thefe
A merican traditions may fatisfy their curiofity by reading Tor-
•quemado, lib. 1. chap, j 3 and 14. where they will find that
ihefe fables are very fimilar to thofe relative to the fame
fubjeCt in other parts o f the world. The bones, faid to have
.been the bones o f giants, which have been found in America,
and which were fliewn at Mexico and other places in
the year lyfO) are probably the bones o f fome animal unknown
; and indeed nothing lefs than the fight o f fuch a
race o f human beings, or o f an entire fkeleton, can be admitted
as a proof o f their exigence. Turner, the naturalift,
reports, that in the year 1610, the thigh bone o f a man was
fliewn in London, who muft have been of an enormous fize; .
but this teftimony is not decifive, though the author adds,,
that he had himfelf feen near the river Plata, upon the coaflf
o f Brafil, a race o f giants who went Hark naked; that the
hinder part of their heads was flat, and not round-; that the-
women had long black hair, as coarfe as ahorfe’s mane;
that the men were excellent archers, and, befides their bow-
and arrows-, carried two maffive balls on bullets; each fattened-
to one end o f a thong, a weapon which they- ufed with great-
dexterity and force, either by ftriking- with it, or throwing
it like a ftone from a fling. One o f thefe giants, he fays,
was twelve feet h igh ; btu acknowledges that he faw no
other fo tall.
“ O f this fact there are other ocular witnefles who perhapss
may be thought more worthy o f credit; among the Spaniards,
Magellan; Loaifa, Sarmiento, and Nodal; among the-
Englifti, Cavendilh, Hawkins, and Knivet; among the.Dutch, ,
Sebald, de Noort, le Maire, and Spilberg; and among the
French, thofe who went in the expedition from-Marfeilles,
and Saint Maloes. Thofe who bear teftimony to the con--
trary, are Winter, the Dutch Admiral Hfcrmite, Froger in de -
Gennes’s narrative, and Sir John Narborough. Winter, after:
having himfelf feen the inhabitants o f Patagonia, fays in:
direCf terms, that the accounts o f their being giants are-
falfehoods invented by the Spaniards; and it inuft be con-
fefied that the teftimony of thefe navigators at leaft counter-
L balances