was destroyed by fire from heaven, which however left their bones unconfumed, as a lafting memorial of Divine vengeance. Bones of an amazing fize are faid to have been found in this country, and fragments of teeth, which, if they were whole, must have weighed half a pound.

"Those who wish to know all the particulars of these American traditions may fatisfy their curiofity by reading Torquemado, lib. 1. chap. 13 and 14. where they will find that thefe fables are very fimilar to thofe relative to the fame fubject in other parts of the world. The bones, faid to have been the bones of giants, which have been found in America, and which were fhewn at Mexico and other places in the year 1550, are probably the bones of fome animal unknown; and indeed nothing less than the fight of fuch a race of human beings, or of an entire skeleton, can be admitted as a proof of their existence. Turner, the naturalist, reports, that in the year 1610, the thigh bone of a man was fhewn in London, who must have been of an enormous fize; but this teftimony is not decifive, though the author adds, that he had himself seen near the river Plata, upon the coast of Brazil, a race of giants who went stark naked; that the hinder part of their heads was flat, and not round; that the women had long black hair, as coarfe as a horfe's mane; that the men were excellent archers, and, besides their bow and arrows, carried two maffive balls or bullets, each fastened to one end of a thong, a wea

pon which they used with great dexterity and force, either by ftriking with it, or throwing it like a stone from a fling. One of these giants, he fays, was twelve feet high; but acknowledges that he faw no other fo tall.

"Of this fact there are other ocular witneffes who perhaps may be thought more worthy of credit; among the Spaniards, Magellan, Loaifa, Sarmiento, and Nodal; among the English, Cavendish, Hawkins, and Knivet; among the Dutch, Sebald, de Noort, le Maire, and Spilberg; and among the French, thofe who went in the expedition from Marseilles and Saint Maloes. Those who bear teftimony to the contrary, are Winter, the Dutch Admiral Hermite, Froger in de Gennes's narrative, and Sir John Narborough. Winter, after having himself feen the inhabitants of Patagonia, fays in direct terms, that the accounts of their being giants are falfehoods invented by the Spaniards; and it must be confeffed that the teftimony of these navigators at least counterbalances the evidence on the other fide, efpecially as they were beft acquainted with the Streight of Magellan, and the neighbouring country. Such navigators as have vifited this country, and are filent with refpect to the ftature of the inhabitants, particularly Sir Francis Drake, must be confidered as witneffes against the fact in queftion; for their filence is a proof that they faw nothing extraordi nary. It must however be observed, in the first place, that the greater part of those who hold the

affirmative

affirmative in this queftion, fpeak of people that inhabited the defert coaft of Patagonia to the east and weft; and that, on the contrary, those who hold the negative, fpeak of those who inhabit the Streight upon the fides of the utmost point of America to the north and fouth. The nations of these two districts are certainly not the fame; and if the first have fometimes been feen in the Streight, it cannot be thought strange, confidering how short the distance is from Port Saint Ju. lian, which appears to be their ordinary habitation. Magellan, and his people saw them there very often, and trafficked with them fometimes on board his ships, and fometimes on fhore; nor was this all, he seized two of them, and kept them prisoners in his veffel, one of whom was baptized fome time before his death, and taught feveral words of his language to Pigafette, who formed them into a little dictionary: these are facts than which nothing can be more pofitive, or lefs fubject to illufion.

"I affirm, fays Knivet, that when I was at Port Defire I meafured feveral dead bodies that I found buried there, which were from fourteen to fixteen spans high, and faw tracks in the fand which must have been left by people of nearly the fame ftature. I have alfo frequently feen at Brazil, one of the Patagonians who had been taken at Port Saint Julian, and though he was but a youth, he measured no less than thirteen spans : and our English prifoners at Brazil have affured

me

me that they had feen many men of the fame ftature upon the coafts of the ftreight." Sebald de Wert fays, that when he was in the Streight, he faw giants of the fame bulk, who tore up trees by the roots, that were a span in diameter, with great facility; he alfo faw women that were gigantic, and others of the common ftature. Oliver de Noort reports, that he faw favages of a gigantic ftature at Port Defire, but does not call them giants that he took fix of them prifoners, and carried them on board his fhip, one of whom afterwards told him that the country was inhabited by many different nations, four of which were of the ordinary ftature; but that farther within the land, in a territory called Coin, there was a gigantic people, diftinguished by the name of Tiremenen, who were continually making war upon the other nations. Spilberg relates, that he faw a man of an extraordinary ftature upon the coaft of Terra del Fuego, but that the fepulchres which he found, had received men of the common height. ArisClafz, who was on board La Maire's fleet in the character of Commiffary, a man well worthy of credit, declares, that having visited the fepulchres which he discovered upon the coast of Patagonia, be found the bones of men who were between ten and eleven feet high, which convinced him that the reports of former navigators were true; and here it must be confeffed that the examination was made in cold blood, when it cannot be pretended that the object was magnified by fear.

Some

Some others, particularly Nodal and Sir Richard Hawkins, content themselves with faying that these favages were a head taller than the inhabitants of Europe, and of fuch a ftature that the people on board their veffels called them giants. Such is the evidence of past times; we shall now confider that of the age in which we live. In 1704, the Captains Harrington and Carman, who commanded two French veffels, one from Saint Maloes, and the other from Marseilles, faw at one time seven of thefe giants in Poffeffion Bay, at another time fix, and at a third time they had an interview with a company of more than four hundred men, part of whom were gigantic, and part of the common ftature. That Harrington and Carman reported this fact, is attested by M.Frezier, fuperintendent of the fortifications of Bretagne, a man well known, and univerfally esteemed. Frezier never faw any of these savages himself, but he fays, that being upon the coaft of Chili, Don Pedro Molina, Governor of the ifle of Chiloë, and many other eye-witneffes, told him, that there was at a confiderable diftance within the country, an Indian nation, called by their neighbours Caucobues, who fometimes came down to the Spanish settlements, that were more than nine feet high, and were the fame race with the Patagonians who live on the eastern coaft, and have been mentioned in former relations. We are told by Reaveneau de Luffan, that the Spaniards who live upon the Lea coast in South America, report that certain