(which is contained in Purchas), is not considered credible. He
describes the Patagonians to he fifteen or sixteen spans in height;
and that of these eannibals, there came to them at one time
above a thousand ! The Indians at Port Famine, in the smne
nai-rative, are mentioned as a kind of strange cannibals, short
of body, not above five or six spans high, very strong, and
tliick made.*
The natives, who were so inluimanly murdered by Oliver
Van Noort, on the Island of Santa Maila (near Flizabeth
Island), were described to be nearly of the same stature as the
common people in Holland, and were remai'ked to be broad
and hio-h-chested. Some captives were taken on board, and one,
a boy,“informed the crew that there was a tribe living fardier
in-land, named ‘ Tiremenen,’ and their territory ‘ Com;
that they were “ gi-eat people, like giants, being from ten to
twelve feet high, and that they came to make wai- against
the other trihes,t whom they reproached for being eaters of
ostriches!”) „ ,.
Spilhero-en (1615) says he “ saw a man of extraordinary
stature, ivlio kept on the higher grounds to observe the s^iips ;
and on an island, near the entrance of the Strait, were found
the dead bodies of two natives, wi-apped in the skins ot penguins,
and very lightly covered with earth; one of them was
of the common human stature, the other, the journal says,
was two feet and a half longer.% The gigantic appeai-ance of
the man on the hills may perhaps be explained by the optical
deception we ourselves experienced.
Le Maire and Schouten, whose accounts of the graves of
the Patagonians agree precisely witli what we noticed at Sea
Bear Bay, of the body being laid on the ground covered with
• Bumey, ii. p.
t The tribes described by this boy are the
1 KemeDites, inhabiting a place called Karay.
2'. ................................................ Karamay.
3 Karaike .................................. .. M«nne.
4 Enoo, the tribe to which the Indians, whom they murdered,
a heap of stones, describe the skeletons as measuring ten or
eleven feet in length, “ the skulls of which we could put on our
heads in the manner of helmets ! ”
The Nodales did not see any people on the northern side of
the Strait ; those with whom they communicated were natives
of Tierra del Fuego, of whose form no particular notice is
taken.
Sir John Narborough saw Indians at Port San Julian, and
describes them as “ people of a middling stature: well-shaped.
* * * Mr. Wood was taller than any of them.” He also
had an interview with nineteen natives upon Flizabeth Island,
but they were Fuegians.
In the year 1741, Patagonian Indians were seen by Bulkley
and his companions. They were mounted on horses, or mules,
which is the first notice we have of their possessing those
animals.
Duclos de Guyot, in the year 1766, had an interview with
seven Patagonian Indians, who were mounted on horses
equipped with saddles, bridles, and stirrups. The shortest of
the men measured five feet eleven inches and a quarter Fnglish.
The others were considerably taller. Their chief or leader
they called ‘ Capitan.’
Bougainville, in 1767, landed amongst the Patagonians. Of
their size he remarks : “ They have a fine shape; among those
whom we saw, not one was below five feet ten inches and a
quarter (Fnglish), nor above six feet two inches and a half in
height. Their gigantic appearance arises from their prodigiously
broad shoulders, the size of their heads, and the
thickness of all their limbs. They are robust and well fed :
their nerves are braced and their muscles strong, and sufficiently
hard, &c.” This is an excellent account; but how different is
that of Commodore Byron, who says, “ One of them, who
afterwards appeared to be chief, came towards me; he was of
gigantic stature, and seemed to realise the tales of monsters in
a human shape: he had the skin of some wild beast throivn
over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander wears his plaid,
and was painted so as to make the most hideous appearance I
H 2
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it