of history are to be recorded; but as each of the narratives in this work is a single thread, the transactions of every day are fet down in a regular fucceffion, and the time noted in the margin.

By this narrative, it will be feen how far the existence or non-existence of a southern continent is already afcertained, and what land has in the course of these voyages been first discovered: and a careful attention in comparing the latitudes and longitudes affigned to the various places mentioned herein, will prevent any miftake that might arife from the fame name having been. given to different islands, &c. &c. by the feveral Commanders in these voyages.

As it is but a very few years fince the existence of a race of men above the common ftature, upon the coast of Patagonia, was the fubject of eager difpute among all ranks of people in this country, I have brought together the whole of the evidence on the question, as I find it in a collection of voyages lately printed in France, under the title of "Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Auftrales."

"It must be acknowledged, that the contrariety of the reports that have been made, by ocular witnesses, concerning a fact easy to be determined, does not deviate less from the common course of things than the gigantic ftature of the people in queftion. It appears, that during an hundred years, almost all navigators, of whatever country, agree in affirming the existence of a race of giants upon the coast of Patagonia; and that, during another century, the much greater number agree in denying the fact, treating their predeceffors as idle fabulists, and imputing their reports either to the terror which the rude fierceness of a favage people infpired, or to the natural propensity of mankind to affume importance, by pretending to have seen wonderful things. That men have a strange propensity to the marvellous cannot be denied, nor that fear naturally magnifies its object; but though it be allowed, that the accounts of the Patagonians have in some instances been exaggerated, it is certain, that all, who have affirmed their stature to be gigantic, were not under the influence of fear; and it is very strange, that nations,

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who have an hereditary hatred to each other, and an acknowledged oppofition of intereft, fhould agree in afferting an evident falfehood.

"In the first place, it is well known to have been an opinion long established, both in our ancient world and in America, that there was once a race of giants upon earth, who distinguished themselves by violence and guilt.

"Barbenais was told by the inhabitants of South America, that, a deluge having laid Peru under water, the Indians retired to the mountains till the flood fhould fubfide; and that when they came again down to the plain, they found there men of an enormous ftature, who attacked them with great ferocity, killing many, and driving the reft to the caves of the rocks; but that having continued in their hiding places many years, they faw in the air a young man who deftroyed the giants by thunderbolts, and thus restored to them the poffeffion of their country. His guides alfo fhewed him many marks upon a rock, which they faid were impreffed by the thunderbolts; and many bones of an extraordinary fize, which they believed to be the remains of the giants; but they did not pretend to know when the deluge happened.

"The Ynca Garcilaffo de la Vega, in his historyCieca, ch. of Peru, relates, that according to a tradition univer52.Garcilaf 1o. Hift. du fally received, a number of veffels or junks came to Perou, liv. Point Saint Helena with a company of giants on board, ix. chap. 9. of a ftature fo enormous that the natives of the country were not higher than their knees: that their eyes were as broad as the bottom of a plate, and their limbs proportionably large: that fome of them were naked, and others flightly covered with the skins of beasts : that when they came on fhore, they dug a pit of an aftonishing depth in the rock, and each of them confuming as much provifions as would be fufficient for fifty men, the country was foon exhaufted, and they were obliged to live upon fish: that they feized the women of the country, to whom their brutality was fatal; and afterwards giving themselves up to worse vices, the whole race was deftroyed by fire from Heaven, which however left their bones unconfumed, as a lafting memorial of Divine vengeance. Bones of an amazing

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.

"Thofe who wish to know all the particulars of these American traditions, may satisfy their curiofity by reading Torquemado, lib. 1. chap. 13 and 14, where they will find that these fables are very fimilar to those relative to the fame subject 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 sight of such a race of human beings, or of an entire skeleton, can be admitted as a proof of their existence. Turner, the naturalift, reports, that in the year 1610, the thigh bone of a man was shewn in London, who must have been of an enormous size; but this testimony is not decifive; though the author adds, that he had himself seen near the river Plata, upon the coast of Brafil, a race of giants who went ftark 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, befides their bow and arrows, carried two maffive balls or bullets, each faftened to one end of a thong, a weapon which they ufed 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, those who went in the expedition from Marfeilles and Saint Maloes. Thofe who bear teftimony to the contrary, are Winter, the Dutch Admiral Her mite, 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, in

vented by the Spaniards; and it must be confeffed, that the testimony of these navigators at least counterbalances the evidence on the other fide, especially as they were best acquainted with the Streight of Magellan, and the neighbouring country. Such navigators as have visited this country, and are filent with respect to the stature of the inhabitants, particularly Sir Francis Drake, must be confidered as witnesses against the fact in queftion; for their filence is a proof that they faw nothing extraordinary. It must, however, be observed, in the first place, that the greater part of those, who hold the affirmative in this queftion, fpeak of people that inhabited the defert coast of Patagonia to the east and weft; and that, on the contrary, thofe 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 diftricts are certainly not the fame ; and if the first have fometimes been feen in the Streight, it cannot be thought strange, confidering how fhort the diftance is from Port Saint Julian, which appears to be their ordinary habitation. Magellan and his people faw them there very often, and trafficked with them, fometimes on board his fhips, and fometimes on fhore: nor was this all, he feized two of them, and kept them prifoners 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: thefe are facts than which nothing can be more pofitive, or less fubject to illufion.

"I affirm, fays Knivet, that when I was at Port Defire I measured 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 same ftature. I have also 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 fpans and our English prifoners at Brazil have affured me that they had feen many men of the fame ftature upon the coafts of the Streight." Sebald de

Wert

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 also saw women that were gigantic, and others of the common stature. Oliver de Noert 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, distinguished by the name of Tiremenen, who were continually making war upon the other nations. Spilberg relates, that he saw a man of an extraordinary ftature upon the coast of Terra del Fuego, but that the fepulchres which he found, had received men of the common height. Aris-Clafz, who was on board La Maire's fleet in the character of Commissary, a man well worthy of credit, declares, that having visited the fepulchres which he discovered upon the coast of Patagonia, he 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 others, particularly Nodel and Sir Richard Hawkins, content themselves with faying that these Lavages were a head taller than the inhabitants of Europe, and of fuch a ftature that the people on board their vessels called them giants. Such is the evidence of paft times; we fhall 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 these 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 stature. That Harrington and Carman reported this fact, is attefted by M. Frezier, fuperintendant of the fortifications of Bretagne, a man well

known,