known, and univerfally esteemed. Frezier never faw any of these favages himfelf; but he fays, that being upon the coast of Chili, Don Pedro Molina, Governor of the ifle of Chiloë, and many other eye-witnesses, told him, that there was, at a confiderable distance within the country, an Indian nation, called by their neighbours Cauchues, who fometimes came down to the Spanish fettlements, that were more than nine feet high, and were the fame race with the Patagonians who live on the eastern coast, and have been mentioned in former relations. We are told by Reaveneau de Luffan, that the Spaniards who live upon the fea coaft in South America report, that certain white Indians inhabit part of Chili, with whom they are always at war that they are of an enormous bulk and ftature, and that whenever they take a Spaniard prifoner, they force up the breaft-bone, as they would the shell of a tortoise, and tear out his heart. Narborough, on the contrary, though he agrees that the Indians who inhabit the mountains near the Spanish fettlements at Chili, and perpetually commit hoftilities against them, are tall, exprefsly denies that their stature is gigantic. He had often measured the skulls and the prints of the feet of the favages on the coasts of the Streight of Magellan, which, he fays, were of the common fize: he had alfo feveral times feen numerous companies of them even at Port Saint Julian, and thefe he declares not to be taller or bigger than other men. Narborough is certainly a credible witnefs, and his evidence is directly to the point: it is confirmed by that of L'Hermite, who fays, that the people he faw upon the coaft of Terra del Fuego, tho' they were robuft and well-proportioned, were not larger than the inhabitants of Europe; and lastly, M. de Gennes bears teftimony that none of the people he faw at Port Famine were fix feet high.

"Those who diligently confider these different relations will find reafon to believe, that all the parties have fpoken truth, each of them faithfully reporting what he faw; and therefore that the existence of a gigantic race in these parts is a real fact, not to be queftioned merely because they were not feen by every mariner that visited the country.

It appears to be well established, that the inhabitants of the two borders of the Streight are of the common ftature; and that the race diftinguished by the name of Patagonians, made their conftant refidence upon the defart coafts, either in fome miferable hovels in the depth of the woods, or in fome caverns of the rocks, fcarcely acceffible to any but themselves: and it appears from the account of Oliver de Noort, that when the Streight began to be frequented by European veffels, they hid themfelves as foon as the fhips were in fight, which accounts both for their not being feen, and for the recent marks of inhabitants upon a coaft that appeared to be a defart. Perhaps the frequent appearance of our fhips upon this coaft, at length determined them to quit it as a fettled habitation, returning only at particular feafons of the year, and taking up their conftant refidénce in the interior part of the coun try. Lord Anfon was of opinion, that they refided ftatedly on the western fide of the Cordeliers, and vifited the eastern fide occafionally, but not often: fo that if they have been rarely feen by the veffels which have touched at the coast of Patagonia for the last hundred years, the reafon probably is, that being, like other Indian nations, defirous to conceal themselves from ftrangers, they retired to the mountains. It is indeed to be regretted, that no fkeleton of thefe people has been brought into Europe; and it may at first seem strange, that no fuch evidence of their uncommon stature should have been produced, as it is known that feveral of them, who had been made prifoners by the Commanders of European veffels, died on board foon after they came into a hot climate; but the wonder will ceafe, when it is confidered that all mariners have a fuperftitious opinion, "That the compafs will not traverse, if there is a dead body on board the vessel." Upon the whole, it may reasonably be prefumed, that the concurrent teftimony of late navigators, particularly Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, and Captain Carteret, Gentlemen of unqueftionale veracity, who are still living, and who not only faw and converfed with these people, but measured them, will put an end to all the doubts that have been hitherto entertained of their existence."

Having thus brought together the whole of the evidence for and against a fact, which has long been the object both of popular and philofophical curiofity, I fhall not anticipate any opinion that the Reader may form concerning future navigations, in the tract which has been defcribed by any of the veffels, whofe voyages are here related, except that although it is the opinion of Commodore Byron, who spent seven weeks and two days in paffing through the Streight of Magellan, that it may be paffed in three weeks at the proper season, yet the passage cost Captain Wallis near four months, though he performed it precifely at the time recommended by the Commodore, having reached the eastern entrance about the middle of December.

I cannot however difmifs my Readers to the following narratives, without expreffing the regret with which I have recorded the deftruction of poor naked favages, by our fire-arms, in the course of these expeditions, when they endeavoured to reprefs the invaders of their country; a regret which I am confident my Readers will participate with me; this however appears to be an evil which, if discoveries of new countries are attempted, cannot be avoided: refiftance will always be made, and, if those who refift are not overpowered, the attempt must be relinquished. It may perhaps be faid, that the expence of life upon thefe occafions is more than is neceffary to convince the natives, that further conteft is hopeless; and perhaps this may fometimes have been true: but it must be considered, that if fuch expeditions are undertaken, the execution of them must be intrusted to persons not exempt from human frailty; to men who are liable to provocation by fudden injury, to unpremeditated violence by fudden danger, to error by the defect of judgment or the ftrength of paffion, and always difpofed to transfer laws, by which they are bound themselves, to others who are not fubject to their obligation; fo that every excess thus produced is also an inevitable evil.

Ifit fhould be faid, that fuppofing thefe mifchiefs to be inevitable in attempting difcoveries, difcoveries ought not to be attempted; it must be confidered, that upon the only principles on which this opinion can be fupported, the rifk of life, for advantages of the fame kind with

thofe

those proposed in discovering new countries, is in every other inftance unlawful. If it is not lawful to put the life of an Indian in hazard, by an attempt to examine the country in which he lives, with a view to increase commerce or knowledge; it is not lawful to risk the life of our own people in carrying on commerce with countries already known. If it be faid, that the risk of life in our own people is voluntary, and that the Indian is brought into danger without his confent, the confequence will ftill follow; for it is univerfally agreed, at least upon the principles of Chriftianity, that men have no more right over their own lives than over the lives of others; and fuicide being deemed the worst fpecies of murder, a man must be proportionably criminal in expofing his own life, for any purpofe that would not justify his expofing the life of another. If the gratification of artificial wants, or the increase of knowledge, are justifiable caufes for the risk of life, the landing by force on a newly difcovered country, in order to examine its produce, may be juftified; if not, every trade and profeffion that expofes life for advantages of the fame kind is unlawful; and by what trade or profeffion is not life expofed? Let us examine all the multitudes that art has employed, from the refiner who fweats at the furnace to the fedentary artificer who grows pale at the loom, and perhaps none can be found in which life is not in fome degree facrificed to the artificial neceffities of civil fociety. But will it therefore be faid, that civil fociety, to which this facrifice is made, is for that reafon a combination contrary to the great original principles of morality, which are the bafis of all duty? Will it be faid, that to exercise the faculties which are the diftinguishing characteristics of our nature is unnatural? and that being endowed with the various powers which in civil focieties only can be brought into action, it was incongruous to the will of our Creator that any such society should be formed; and that it would be pleafing to him, if, ftill continuing in a favage ftate, thefe powers fhould lie torpid in our nature, like life in an embrio, during the whole of our exiftence? This furely muft appear extravagant and abfurd in the highest degree, efpecially as it must be allowed, that although commerce and arts in fome inftances expofe life, in others they preferve it; they sup

ply

ply the wants of Nature, without rapine and violence, and, by producing a common intereft, they prevent the inhabitants of the fame country from being divided into different clans, which among favages are almost perpetually committing hoftilities against each other, with a ferocious cruelty which is not to be found where civil government and literary knowledge have meliorated the manners of mankind. Upon the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude, that the increase of knowledge and commerce are ultimately common benefits; and that the lofs of life, which happens in the attempt, is among the partial evils which terminate in general good.

I have now only to request of fuch of my Readers as may be difpofed to cenfure me for not having attributed any of the critical escapes from danger that I have recorded, to the particular interpofition of Providence, that they would, in this particular, allow me the right of private judgment; which I claim with the greater confidence, as the very fame principle, which would have determined them to have done it, has determined me to the contrary. As I firmly believe the divine precept delivered by the Author of Christianity, "There is not a fparrow falls to the ground without my father," and cannot admit the agency of chance in the government of the world, I muft neceffarily refer every event to one caufe, as well the danger as the efcape, as well the sufferings as the enjoyments of life: and for this opinion, I have, among other refpectable authorities, that of the Bible. Shall we," fays Job, "receive good from the hand of God, and fhall we "not receive evil?" The Supreme Being is equally wife and benevolent in the difpenfation of both evil and good, as means of affecting ultimate purposes worthy of his ineffable perfections; so that whether we confider ourselves as Chriftians or Philofophers, we must acknowledge that he deserves bleffing not more when he gives than when he takes away. If the fall of a fparrow, as well as its prefervation, is imputed to Providence, why not the fall as well as the preservation of a man? and why fhould we attribute to Providence only what appears to be good in its immediate effect, when we fuppofe that the whole concatenation of

events,