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

96 SIZE OF THE PATAGONIAKS. May 1827. In tlie evening my son landed, when the same Indian came down to meet him, appeared delighted to see him, and pre- sented him with a bunch of feathers, of the same size as those which he had distributed in the morning. At this, our second visit, there were about fifty Patagonian men assembled, n<^t one of whom looked more than fifty-five years of age. They were generally between five feet ten and six feet in height one man only exceeded six feet — whose dimensions, measured by Captain Stokes, were as follows : ft, in. Height 6 If Round the chest 4 Ij Do. loins 3 4 4 I bad before remarked the disproportionate largeness of head, and length of body of these people, as compared with the diminutive size of their extremities ; and, on this visit, my opinion was further confirmed, for such appeared to be the general character of the whole tribe ; and to this, perhaps, may be attributed the mistakes of some former navigators. Magal- haens, or rather Pigafetta, was the first who described the inhabitants of the southern extremity of America as giants. He met some at Port San Julian, of whom one is described to be " so tall, that our heads scarcely came up to his waist, and his voice was like that of a bull." Herrera,* however, gives a less extravagant account of them : he says, " the least of the men was larger and taller than the stoutest man of Castile;" and Maxim. Transylvanus says they were "in height ten palms or spans ; or seven feet six inches." In Loyasa's voyage (1526), Herrera mentions an interview with the natives, who came in two canoes, " the sides of which were formed of the ribs of whales." The people in them were of large size " some called them giants ; but there is so little conformity between the accounts given concerning them, that I shall be silent on the subject."-|- As Loyasa's voyage was undertaken immediately after the return of Magalhaens' expedition, it is probable that, from the • Burney, i. p. 33. t Ibid, p. 135.