Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2- Appendix): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

APPENDIX. 103 sewed ; his arms, a stout and thick bow, a quiver of long arrows feathered at one end, and armed at the other with flint. The height of these people was about seven feet (French) ; but they were not so tall as the person who approached them first, who is represented to have been of so gigantic a size that Magellan's men did not, with their heads, reach as high as the waist of this Patagonian. They had with them beasts of burden, on which they placed their wives. By Magellan's description of them, they appear to have been the animals now known by the name of Llama. These interviews ended with the captivating two of the people, who were carried away in two diiFerent ships ; but, as soon as they arrived in a hot climate, each of them died. I dwell the longer on this account, as it appears ex- tremely deserving of credit ; as the courage of Magellan made him incapable of giving an exaggerated account through the influence of fear ; nor could there be any mistake about the height, as he had not only a long intercourse with them, but the actual possession of two for a very considerable space of time.* It was Magellan who first gave them the name of Patagons, because they wore a sort of slipper made of the skin of animals. " Tellement," says M. de Brosse,t qu'ils paroissoient avoir des pattes de betes." In 1525 Garcia de Loaisa saw, within the Straits of Magellan, savages of a very great stature, but he does not particularize their height. After Loaisa, the same Straits were passed in 1535 by Simon de Alcazova, and attempted in 1540 by Alphonso de Camargo, but without being visited by our tall people. The same happened to our countryman. Sir Francis Drake ; but, because it was not the fortxme of that able and popular seaman to meet with these gigantic people, his contem- poraries considered the report as the invention of the Spaniards. In 1579, Pedro Sarmiento asserts that those he saw were three ells high. This is a writer I wordd never venture to quote singly, for he destroys his own credibility by saying the savage he made pri- soner was an errant Cyclops. I only cite him to prove that he fell in with a tall race, though he mixes fable with truth. In 1586 our countryman. Sir Thomas Cavendish, in his voyage, had only * Vide Ramusio's Coll. Voyages, Venice, 1550; also the Letter of Maxi- milian Transylvanus, Sec. to Charles V. ; and in the first volume, p. 376, A. and B. t This account, as well as the others where I do not quote my autliority, are taken from that judicious writer, M. de Brosse.