These
Savage Natives Of The Country Round Port Desire Were Exceedingly Wild
And Rude, And As It Would Seem Of
A gigantic race, as the measure of one
of their foot marks was eighteen inches long.[48] This agrees well
With
the assertion of Magellan, though some pains have been taken to
represent that as fabulous. Magellan called this country Patagonia, and
its inhabitants Patagons, meaning to signify that they were five cubits,
or seven feet and a half high. Hence, as the Portuguese are not
commonly very tall, we need not wonder if they styled them giants. If we
take the usual proportion of the human foot, as between a fifth and a
sixth part of the height of the whole body, the account given by
Magellan agrees very exactly with this fact afforded us by Mr Candish;
and it will be seen in the sequel, that this is not falsified by any of
our subsequent navigators. When any of these savages die, he is buried
in a grave constructed of stones near the sea-side, all his darts being
fastened about his tomb, and his treasure, consisting of shells, laid
under his head.
[Footnote 48: Without meaning to impugn the received opinion, that the
Patagons are beyond the ordinary size of man, it may be permitted to
say, that the evidence, in the text, the only one here adduced, is
altogether inconclusive; and the subsequent reflections are evidently
those of Harris, not of Candish. - E.]
They left Port Desire on the 28th December, and anchored near an island
three leagues to the southward. The 30th they came to a rock, much like
the Eddystone at Plymouth, about five leagues off the land, in lat 48 deg.
30' S. and within a mile of it had soundings in eight fathoms, on rocky
ground. Continuing their course along shore S.S.W. they found vast
numbers of seals every where on the coast. January 2d, 1587, they fell
in with a great white cape in lat. 52 deg. S. and had seven fathoms within a
league of the cape. Next day they came to another cape, in lat. 52 deg. 45'
S. whence runs a long beach about a league to the southwards, reaching
to the opening into the Straits of Magellan.[49] January 6th, they
entered the straits, which they found in some places five or six leagues
wide, but in others considerably narrower. The 7th, between the mouth of
the straits and its narrowest part, they took a Spaniard, who had been
left there with twenty-three others of that nation, being all that
remained alive of four hundred, who had been landed three years before
in these straits. This Spaniard shewed them the hull of a small bark,
supposed to have been left by Sir Francis Drake.
[Footnote 49: The cape at the north side of the eastern entrance into
the Straits of Magellan, is named Cape Virgin, and is in lat 52 deg. 28' S.
The great white cape in lat.
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