Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

Sf:) BYZANTE — MAUiA. May 1827. ligible, Spanish, and stated herself to be sister of Bysante, the cacique of a tribe near the Santa Cruz River, who is an impor- tant personage, on account of his size (which Maria described to be immense), and his riches. In speaking of him, she said he was very rich ; he had many mantles, and also many hides (" muy rico, tiene muchas mantas y tambien muchos cueros"). One of Maria's companions, a brother of Bysante, was the tallest and largest man of this tribe ; and though he only measured six feet in height, his body was large enough for a much taller man. He was in great affliction : his daughter had died only two days before our arrival ; but, notwithstand- ing his sad story, which soon found him friends, it was not long before he became quite intoxicated, and began to sing and roar on the subject of his misfortunes, with a sound more like the bellowing of a bull than the voice of a human being. Upon applying to Maria, who was not quite so tipsy as her brother, to prevent him from making such hideous noises, she laughed and said, " Oh, never mind, he's drunk ; poor fellow, liis daughter is dead" (Es boracho, povrecito, murio su hija) and then, assuming a serious tone, she looked towards the sky, and muttered in her own language a sort of prayer or invoca- tion to their chief demon, or ruling spirit, whom Pigafetta, the companion and historian of Magalhaens, called Setebos, which Admiral Burney supposes to have been the original of one of Shakspeare's names in the " Tempest" " his art is of such power He would controul my dam's god Setebos."* Maria's dress was similar to that of other females of the tribe ; but she wore ear-rings, made of medals stamped with a figure of the Virgin Mary, which, with the brass-pin that secured her mantle across her breast, were given to her by one Lewis, who had passed by in an American sealing-vessel, and who, we understood from her, had made them " Christians." 'I'he Jesuit Falkner, who lived among them for many years, has written a long and, apparently, a very authentic account * Burnev, i. 35 and 37.