C H A P T E R VIII.
ANALOGICAL INVESTIGATION CONTINUED----OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
RELATED TO THE SAME INQUIRIES----CONCLUSION
OF THIS ARGUMENT.
Section I.—Of Diversity o f Stature.
There is no variety of stature, in the different races of m<jn
which can afford any ground for s u i t i n g them to. fee.of ^ r
tinct .origin or species. I shall, tta ffo re pa^s QveythfS,|ub^ct
a t present with a very brief notice. The particular varieties qf
stature which are known, as they characterize different-
nations, will be adverted to when' I proceed , to. the physical
descriptionofeachrace. ^
There are no varieties of stature in different-nations^^lcff
are so considerable as those which frequently occur ^in, the
same family. . s ?1
P e r h a p s the tallest race of men existing are the Patagonians.
They are usually from six ta seven fefet high., Piga-
fetta, who accompanied Magalhaens, in the first voyage
performed round the world,giyes their height at eight Spanish
feet, that is seven feet four inches in English measure- '.Commodore
Byron, who saw and conversed with many companies
of these p e o p le , says, th a t few individuals were much short of
seven feet high. An Englishman of six feet two inches appeared
among them as a pigmy among giants. They were
large and muscular in proportion. I t must be observed, that
Byron did not measure them.*
Captain Wallis, who landed afteiwards on the same coast,
* Hawkesworth’s Voyages,
DIVERSITY OF STATURE. 359
measured'several of^the1* Patagonians. He says, that he saw
one man-six-feet seven inches high, several- of six feet five or six
i n c h e s b u t that ■ the?stature of the greater part was from five
feet-tepîto
The stature of the' Patagonians was measured with great
accuracy" b‘y«the Spanisff><p<|feïfeife'ftof ifche expedition to the
Straits- of Magalhaens, »in 1785; and 1786. They fo u n d the
Common heigbt t‘0*lfedj~om six and a h a lf tosseyen feet, and
the tallest was »seven-feet bne inch and a quarter high.ff,v,
Ameri^inèt only produces the talfest, but al&pisoine of the
most diminutive'tfs|)eçimen's' of th e human kind. The natives
;©f|Tierrk;rdreKFuego are described by P o fo t^ h s a set of mi-
serabl’éj ff,tstituté^ârôl>^)hny^h’êâ^es/b;The Esquimaux, in the
northern tract oflhffN‘<lw World, are. à still more diminutive
people, s .This race was first seen by Europeans at thé time,
when thC Norwegians, who -Waited from Old Greenland under
Xieff in 1 OOd/dïscovéred Winelaha in Ganada, hr-Newfoundland.
The natives* of this country were described by the
Norwegians as pigmies, only two ^ëllKits h ilp | and were
t'êrfhed skfællings*, spri gS^br : dwarfs. Modem and authentic
aecoiffîtsfeprèsènt the stature of the race as generally lower
than five feetij
Africa prodüces 'some vfery small rkces. The Bushmen are
perhapsJhe hiost deformed of foankind. Two individuals of
this nation, seem by Professor Lichtenstein, were scarcely four
feet high.
T h e’ S to ry of the Quimos, or KimbS'j a nation of pigmies,
said to inhabit some mountainous " tracts, in the interior of
Madagascar, is now generally discredited:; According to
Commerson, a female of this nation, who was purchased by
the Ffoneh governor at Fort Dauphin, was about three feet
and a half high, and had long arms reaching to her knees.
She- was probably a person affected with morbid deformity.
I shall examine the accounts of these nations in a future
part of this work. At present they are mentioned only that,
they may be included under the observation already sug-
* Hawkes worth’s Voyages.
Voyage to the Strait, cited, by Mr. Lawrence, p. 440.
$ Crantz’s History of Greenland.