in which we live. In 1704, the Captains Harrington and
Carman, w h a commanded two French veffels, one from?
Saint Maloes, and the other from Marfeilles, faw at onetime
fe y en o f thefe giants in Poffeffion Bay, at another time-
fix, and at a third time they had an interview with a company
o f more than four hundred, men,, part o f whom were'
gigantic, and part o f the common fiature. That Harrington
and Carman reported this faA, is attefted by M. Frezier,.
fuperintendant of the fortifications o f Bretagne, a man well1
known, and univerfally elleemed. Frezier never faw any
o f thefe: favages himfelf, but he lays, that being upon
the coaft o f Chili, Don Pedro Molina, Governor o f the ille o f
Ghiloe, and many other eye-witnefies, told him,, that there
was at a.confiderable dillance within the country, an Indian
nation, called by their neighbours Caucohuei,. who fome-
trimes came down to the Spaniflr fettlements, that were more
than nine feet high, and were the fame race with the Patagonians
who live on the eaftern coaft, and have been mentioned
in former relations. We are told by Reaveneau de
Luffan, that the Spaniards who live upon the lea coaft in South
America, report that certain white Indians inhabit part of Chili,
with whom they are always at w a r : that they are of an enormous
bulk and ftature, and that whenever they take a Spaniard
prifoner, they force up the- breaft-bone, as they would
the Ihell of a tortoife, and tear out his heart. Narborough,,
on the contrary, though he agrees that the Indians who inhabit
the mountains near the Spanilh fettlements at Chili,,
and perpetually commit hoftilities againft them, are tall,
exprefsly denies that their ftature is gigantic. He had often
meafured the Ikulls and the prints o f the feet o f the favages
on the coafts of the Streight of Magellan, which, he fays,
were of the common fize : he had alfo feveral times feen numerous
companies o f them even at Port Saint Julian, and
6 thefe
thefe he declares not to be taller or bigger than other men.
Narborough is certainly a credible witnefs, and his evidence
is direcftly to the point: it is confirmed by that of L ’Hermite,
who fays, that the people he faw upon the coaft of Terra del
Fuego, though they were robuft and well-proportioned,
were not larger than the inhabitants o f Europe 5 and laftly,
M. de Gennes bears teftimony that none of the people he faw
at Port Famine were fix feet high.
“ Thofe who diligently confider thefe different relations will
find reafon to believe, that all the parties have fpoken truth,
each o f them faithfully reporting what he faw, and there-
for6 that the exiftence of a gigantic race in thefe parts is a
real fa£l, not to be queftioned merely becaufe they were not
feen by every mariner that vifited the country.
“ It appears to be well eftabliflied, that the inhabitants o f
the two borders o f the Streight are of the common ftature j
and that the race diftinguifhed by the name o f Patagonians,
made their conftant refidence upon the defart coafts, either
in fome miferable hovels in the depth o f the woods, or in
fome caverns of the rocks,- fcarcely acceflible to any but
themfelves: and it appears from the account o f Oliver de
Noort, that when the Streight began to be frequented by
European veffels, they hid themfelves as foon as the fliips
were in fight, which accounts both for their not being feen,
and for the recent marks of inhabitants upon a coaft that
appeared to be defart. Perhaps the frequent appearance of
our fhips upon this coaft, at length determined them to quit
it as a fettled habitation, returning only at particular feafons
>of the year, and taking up their conftant refidence in the interior
part of the country. Lord Anfon was of opinion, that
they refided ftatedly on the weftern fide o f the Cordeliers,
c 2 and