Of the Patagonians. Formed from the relation of Father Falkener a Jesuit who had resided among them thirty eight years. And from the different voyagers who had met with this tall race

Table of contents

- [titlepage]

- [tothereader]

- TO THE HONORABLE DAINES BARRINGTON.

- Copy of a Paper transmitted from Admiral Byron to me; through the hands of the Right Reverend John Egerton late Bishop of Durham, after he had perused the Manuscript of the foregoing account.

FINIS.

OF THE PATAGONIANS.

FORMED from the relation of Father FALKENER a Jesuit who had resided among them thirty eight Years. And from the different Voyagers who had met with this tall race.

PRINTED BY THE FRIENDSHIP OF GEORGE ALLAN ESQ. AT HIS PRIVATE PRESS AT DARLINGTON.

MDCCLXXXVIII.

IN the Year 1771 happening to fall into company in which the subject of the Patagonians was mentioned, several opinions arose, some savoring of scepticism: others gave full credit to the accounts lately published. By accident I heard of Father Falkener, who had been expelled the Spanish Dominions in America and sent to Europe with the rest of his Brethren. He was at that time at Spetchley near Worcester. I immediately procured recommendation to the worthy owner Robert Berkely Esq from whom I met with every politeness. I then commenced with him a friendship which ever since has given me singular pleasure. I found Father Falkener to be a man of about seventy Years of age, active in mind and body, Brusque in his manners, having never shaken off those he had acquired in his thirty eight Years residence among the Savages. He very freely communicated to me every thing he knew respecting those People. He informed me also that he was born at Manchester; that about the Year 1731 he was a Surgeon in the Assiento Ship, and in that Year became at Buenos Ayres a convert to Popery; and in due time of the society of Jesuits, and was sent on the mission of Paraquay. This little piece would never have seen the light but for the friendship of Mr. ALLAN; and let the few to whom this may give pleasure, unite in thanks to that liberal Gentleman, with

his obliged and affect: humble Servant THOMAS PENNANT.
Downing March 1st. 1788.

TO THE HONORABLE DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR,

I NOW execute the promise I made in Town some time ago, of communicating to you the result of my visit to Mr. Falkener an antient Jesuit who had passed thirty eight Years of his life in the Southern part of South America between the River la Plata and the streights of Magellan. Let me endeavour to prejudice you in favor of my new Friend, by assuring you, that by his long intercourse with the Inhabitants of Patagonia, he seems to have lost all European guile, and to have acquired all the simplicity and honest impetuosity of the people he has been so long conversant with. I venture to give you only as much of his narrative as he could vouch for the authenticity of; which consists of such as he was eye witness to, and such as will (I believe) establish past contradiction the veracity of our late Circumnavigators and give new lights into the manners of this singular race of Men: It will not I flatter myself be deemed impertinent to lay before you a Chronological Mention of the several evidences that will tend to prove the existence of a People of a supernatural height inhabiting the Southern Tract. You will find, that the majority of Voyagers who have touched on that Coast have seen them, and made reports of their size that will very well keep in countenance the verbal account given by Mr. Byron, and the printed by Mr. Clarke; you will observe, that if the old Voyagers did exaggerate, it was thro' the novelty and amazement at so singular a sight; but the latter forewarn'd by the preceding accounts, seem to have made their remarks with coolness, and confirmed them by the experiment of measurement.

A. D. 1519. The first who saw these people was the great Magellan, one of them just made his appearance on the banks of the River la Plata, and then made his retreat, but during Magellan's long stay at Port St. Ju•an, he was visited by numbers of this tall Race. The first approached him, singing, and flinging the Dust over his head; and shewed all signs of a mild and peaceable disposition; his visage was painted, his Garment the skin of some Animal neatly 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 carry'd away in two different Ships, but as soon as they arrived in the hot Climate each of them died

I dwell the longer on this account, as it appears extremely 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 thy wore a sort of slipper made of the skin of Animals, Tellement says M. de Brosse [†] quils, paroissoit avoir des pattes de Bêtes.'

In 1525. Garcia de Louisa saw within the streights of Magellan savages of a very great stature, but he does not particularize their height.

After Louisa the same Streights 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 fortune of that able and popular seaman to meet with these gigantic People, his Contemporaries 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 would never venture to quote singly, for he destroys his own credibility by saying, the Savage he made prisoner was an errant Cyclops; I only cite him to prove that he had fell in with a tall race tho' he mixes Fable with Truth.

In 1586.—Our Countryman Sir Thomas Cavendish in his Voyage had only opportunity of measuring one of their footsteps, which was eighteen inches long: he also found their Graves, and mentions their customs of burying near the shore.[*]

In 1591. Anthony Knevet who sailed with Sir Thomas Cavendish in his second Voyage relates, that he saw at Port-Desire Men, fifteen or sixteen spans high, and that he measured the bodies of two that had been recently buried, which were fourteen spans long.[†]

1599.—Sebald de Veert who sailed with Admiral de Cordes was attacked in the streight Magellan by savages whom he thought to be ten or eleven feet high: he adds, that they were of reddish color and had long hair.[‡]

In the same Year Oliver du Nort a Dutch Admiral, had a rencontre with this gigantic race, whom he represents to be of a high stature and of a terrible aspect.

1614.—George Spilbergen, another Dutchman in his passage thro' the same streight saw a Man of a gigantic stature climbing a hill as if to take a view of the Ship.[§]

1615. —Le Maire and Schouten discovered some of the burying places of the Patagonians beneath heaps of great stones, and found in them Skeletons ten or eleven feet long.‖

Mr. Falkener supposes, that formerly there existed a race of Patagonians superior to these in size; for skeletons are often found of far greater dimensions particularly about the River Texeira. Perhaps he may have heard of the old tradition of the natives mentioned by Cieza, [*] and repeated from him by Garcilasso de la Vega, [†] of certain Giants having come by sea and landed near the cape of St. Helena, many ages before the arrival of the Europeans.

1618.—Gracias de Nodal a Spanish Commander in the course of his Voyage, was inform'd by John Moore one of his crew, who landed between Cape St. Esprit and Cape St. Arenas on the S. side of the Streights; that he trafficked with a race of Men taller by the head than the Europeans. This and the next are the only instances I ever met with of the tall race, being found on this side of the Streights.

1642.—Henry Brewer a Dutch Admiral observed in the Streights le Maire, the footsteps of Men which measured eighteen inches, this is the last evidence in the 17th. Century of the existence of these tall People: but let it be observ'd, that out of the fifteen first Voyagers who passed through the Magellanic Streights, not fewer than nine are undeniable Witnesses of the fact we would establish.

In the present Century I can produce but two evidences of the existence of the tall Patagonians. The one in 1704 when the crew of a ship belonging to St. Maloes commanded by Captain Harrington saw seven of these Giants in Gregory Bay. Mention is also made of six more being seen by Captain Carman a Native of the same Town; but whether in the same Voyage my authority is silent.[‡]

BUT as it was not the fortune of the four other Voyagers [§]who sailed through the streights in the 17th. Century to fall in with any of this tall race, it became a fashion to treat as fabulous the account of the preceding nine, and to hold this lofty race as the mere creation of a warm Imagination.

In such a temper was the public on the return of Mr. Byron from his Circumnavigation in the Year 1766. I have not the honor of having had personal conference with that Gentleman, therefore will not repeat the accounts I have been inform'd he has given to several of his friends, I rather chuse to recapitulate that given by Mr. Clarke ‖ in the Philosophical Transactions for 1767 p. 75. Mr. Clarke was Officer in Mr. Byrons ship, landed with him in the streights of Magellan, and had for two hours an opportunity of standing within a few yards of this race, and seeing them examined and measured by Mr. Byron. He represents them in general as stout and well proportion'd, and assures us, that none of the Men were lower than eight feet, and that some even exceeded nine; and that the Women were from seven feet and an half to eight feet, he law Mr. Byron measure one of the Men, and notwithstanding the Commodore was near six feet high, he could when on tip toe, but just reach with his hand the top of the Patagonian's head; and Mr, Clarke is certain, that there were several taller than him on whom the experiment was made, for there was about five hundred Men Women and Children. They seem'd very happy at the landing of our people, and expressed their joy by a rude sort of singing. They were of a copper color, and had long lank hair, and faces hideously painted; both sexes were cover'd with skins, and some appeared on horseback and others on foot.

M. de Premontel makes this an object of ridicule, as if the size of the horses were unequal to the burden of the riders. Our Navigators tell us, that the horses were fifteen or sixteen feet high. It is well known, that a Mill-horse has been known to carry nine hundred and ten pounds, a weight probably beyond that of any Patagonian they saw.

A few had on their legs a sort of boot with a sharp pointed stick at the heel instead of a spur. Their bridles were made of thong, the bit wood; the saddle as artless as possible, and without stirrups. The introduction of horses into these parts by the Europeans, introduced likewise the only species of manufacture they appear to be acquainted with. All their skill seems to extend no further than these rude essays at a harness; and to equip themselves for Cavaliers. In other respects they would be in the same state as our first parents just turned out of paradise, cloathed in coats of skins; or at best in the same condition in which Caesar found the ancient Britons; for their dress was similar, their hair long, and their bodies like those of our Ancestors made terrific by wild painting. These people by some means or other had acquired a few beads and bracelets; otherwise not a single article of European fabric appeared among them. These they must have gotten by the intercourse with the other Indian tribes: for had they had any intercourse with the Spaniards, they never would have neglected procuring knives, the stirrups, and other conveniences which the people seen by Mr. Wallis had.

I should have been glad to have closed in this place these relations of this stupendous race of Mankind; because the two following accounts given by gentlemen of character and abilities seem to contradict great part of what had been before advanced, or at left serve to give scoffers room to say, that the preceding Navigators had seen these people thro' the medium of magnifying glasses instead of the sober eye of observation: but before I make my remarks on what has been before related, I shall proceed with the other Navigators, and then attempt to reconcile the different accounts. In 1767 Captain Wallis of the Dolphin and Captain Philip Carteret of the Swallow Sloop saw and measured with a pole several of the Patagonians who happen'd to be in the streights of Magellan during his passage,[*] he represents them as a fine and friendly people, cloathed in skins, and on their legs a sort of boots, and many of them tied their hair, which was long and black with a sort of woven stuff of the breadth of a garter made of some kind of wool. That their arms were slings formed of two round balls, fasten'd one to each end of a cord, which they fling with great force and dexterity, He adds they hold one ball in their hand and swing the other at the full length of the cord round their head by which it acquires a prodigious velocity: they will fling it to a great distance, and with such exactness, as to strike a very small object; these people were also mounted on Horses, their faddles bridles &c. were of their own making; some had iron and others metal bits to their bridles, and one had a Spanish broad sword; but whether the last articles were taken by war or procured by commerce is uncertain, but the last is most probable. It seems evident that they had intercourse with Europeans, and had even adopted some of their fashions, for many had cut their dress into form of Spanish Punches, or a square piece of cloth with a hole cut for the head, the rest hanging loose as low as the knees. They also wore drawers, so these people had attained a few steps farther towards civilization than their gigantic neighbors, others again will appear to have made a far greater advance, for these still devour'd their meat raw and drank nothing but water.

M. Bougainville in the same year saw another party of the natives of Patagonia: he measured several of them, and declares that none were lower than five feet five inches, French, or taller than five feet ten, i. e. five feet ten or six feet three English measure, he concludes his account with saying, that he afterwards met with a taller people in the S. sea, but I do not recollect that he mentions the place.

I am sorry to be obliged to remark in these voyages a very illibral propensity to cavil at, and invalidate the account given by Mr. Byron: but at the same time exult in having an opportunity given me by that Gentleman of vindicating his and the national honor. M. Bougainville in order to prove he fell in with the identical people that Mr. Byron conversed with, asserts, that he saw numbers of them possessed of knives of an English manufactory, certainly given them by Mr. Byron, but he should have considered that there are more ways than one of coming at a thing, that the commerce between Sheffield and South America through the port of Cadiz is most uncommonly large; and that his Indians might have got their knives from the Spaniards at the same time that they got their gilt nails and Spanish harness: but for farther satisfaction on this subject, I have liberty to say from Mr. Byron's authority, that he never gave a single knife to the people he saw, that he had not one at that time about him, that excepting the presents given with his own hands, and the tobacco brought by Lieutenant Cummins, not the least trifle was bestowed. I am furnished with one other proof, that these lesser Indians whom Mr. Wallis saw were not the same with those described by Mr. Byron as has been insinuated: for the first had with him some officers who had been with him on the preceding Voyage, and who bear witness not only to the difference of size, but declare that these people had not a single article among them given by Mr. Byron [*]. It is extremely probable that these were the Indians that Mr. Bougainville fell in with, for they were furnished with bits, a Spanish scymeter and brass stirrups as before mentioned.

My last evidence of these gigantic Americans is that which I received from Mr. Falkener; he acquainted me that about the year 1742 he was sent on a misson to the vast plains of Pampas, which if I recollect right lies to the S. W. of Buenos Ayres and extends near a thousand miles towards the Andes. In these plains he first met with some tribes of these people and was taken under the protection of one of the Caciques. The remarks he made on their size were as follows; that the tallest which he measured in the same manner that Mr. Byron did, was seven feet eight inches high, that the common height or middle size was six feet, that there were numbers that were even shorter, and that the tallest Women did not exceed six feet. That they were scattered from the foot of the Andes, over that vast tract which extends to the Atlantic Ocean and are found as far as the red river at Bay Anagada lat. 40. 1; below that the land is too barren to be habitable and none are found except accidental migrants till you arrive at the river Gallego near the streights of Magellan.

They are supposed to be a race derived from the Chilian Indians, the Puelches who inhabited the eastern side of the Andes, the same brave nation who defeated and destroyed the avaritious Spaniard Baldivia but after that were dispossess'd of their seat.

They dwell in large tents covered with the hides of Mares and divided within into Apartments for the different ranks of the Family, by a sort of blanketting. They are a most migratory people and often shift their quarters; when the Women strike the tents assist in putting them on their horses and like the females of all savage countries undergo all the laborious work.

They have two motives for shifting their quarters, one for the sake of getting salt which they find incrusted in the shallow pools near the sea side.

The other inducement is the superstition they have of burying their dead within a certain distance of the ocean, and I may certainly add a third, that of the necessity they must lie under of seeking fresh quarters on account of the chace which is their principal subsistance.

Those who deny the existence of these great People never consider the migratory nature of the Inhabitants of this prodigious tract, and never reflect that the tribes who may have been seen this month on the coast, may the next be some hundreds of miles inland and their place occupied by a tribe or nation totally different. These Gentlemen seem to lay down as a certain position, that Patagonia is peopled by only a single nation, and from that false principle they draw their arguments, sneer insult and even grossly abuse all that differ in opinion. Among the most illiberal of these writers is M. de Premontel, who with the rapid ingenuity of his country mounts on his head strong courser PREJUDICE, sets off full speed, rides over all the honest fellows that would inform him of his road, and spurns even truth herself tho' she offers to be his guide: but truth is unadorned and hated by this fantastic writer, would spoil him of all the flowers of fiction, and tropes of abuse against a rival country, would teach him facts that would ruin his argument and reduce his eloquent memoire to a single narrative of uncontested veracity.

Their food is (almost entirely) animal: the flesh of Horses, Oxen, Guanacoes and Ostriches, all of which they eat roasted or boiled. Their drink is water except in the season when certain species of Fruit are ripe, for of those they make a sort of fermenting Liquor called Chucha common to many parts of South America. One kind is made of a podded fruit called Algarrova which smells like a bug, and when bruised in Water becomes an inebriating Liquor. The same fruit is also eaten as bread. The other Chucha is made of the Molic a small fruit, hot and sweet in the Mouth, both these cause a deep drunkenness, especially the last which excites a phrenetic inebriation and a wildness of Eyes, which lasts, two or three Days.

The Cloathing of these People is either a mantle of Skins or of a Woolen[*] Cloth manufactur'd by themselves; some is so strong and compact as even to hold Water, the color is various; for some are striped and dyed with the richest red made of Cochineel and certain Roots. They wear a short apron before, which is tucked between the Legs and preserves a modest appearance. They never wear feather'd ornaments, except in their Dances. Their Hair is long and tied up with a fillet. They have naturally Beards,[*] but they generally pluck up the Hairs; not but some leave Mustaches, as was observ'd by Mr. Carteret and M. Bougainville.

When they go to War they wear a fourfold Coat of the Skin of the Tapier, a Cap of Bull's hide doubled, and a broad Target of the same. Their offensive Weapons are Bows and Arrows, the last headed with bone, launces headed with Iron and broad swords, both which they procure from the Spaniards; but their native Weapons are Slings, of these they have two kinds, one for War which consists of a thong, headed with Stone, at only one end; and during their Campaigns they carry numbers of these wraped about their bodies.

The Slings which they use in the chace of Horses, Cattle or Ostriches have a Stone fixed to each end; and sometimes another thong with a third Stone is fasten'd to the middle of the other: these with amazing dexterity, they fling round the objects of the chace be they Beasts or Ostriches which entangle them so that they cannot stir. The Indians leave them I may say thus tied neck and heels, and go on in pursuit of fresh Game; and having finish'd their sport return to pick up the Animals they left secur'd in the slings.

Their Wars are chiefly with the other Indians, for Patagonia is inhabited by variety of People, not a single nation. They have a great deal of intercourse with the Spaniards and often come down to Buenos Ayres to trade for Iron, Bugles &c.

This commerce with the Europeans has corrupted them greatly, taught them the vice of dram-drinking and been a dreadful obstacle to their moral improvement. Mr. Falkener inform'd me, that he once prevaled on about five hundred to form a reduction, but that they grew unruly and ungovernable as soon as the Spanish Traders got among them.

Their War and their chace are carried on Horseback, for they are most expert riders and have multitudes of Horses with which the Country is perfectly over-run for they go in herds of thousands. The price of a Horse at present is two Dollars or 9s. and 2d. provided it has been broken About the Year 1554[*] near the time of the Conquest of Peru, the common price of one was from four to six thousand to ten thousand Pesos [†] or from 1350l. to 2250l. English.

The venereal distemper is common among them. They do not speak of it as an exotic disorder, so probably it is aboriginal.

In respect to religion they allow two principles a good and a bad.[‡] The good they call the Creator of all things; but consider him as one that after that, never sollicits himself about them. He is styled by some Soucha or chief in the Land of strong drink, by others Gauyara-cunnee or Lord of the dead. The evil principle is called Hucccovoe or the wanderer without. Sometimes these (for there are several) are supposed to preside over particular Persons, protect their own People or injure others. These are likewise call'd Valichu or dwellers in the air.

They have Priests and Priestesses, whose office is to mediate with these Beings in case of sickness or any distress; by the intervention of the Priest they are consulted about future events; at those seasons the Priest shuts himself up and falls into a phrenetic extacy [§] and appears epileptic. If he gives a wrong answer he lays the fault on the evil principle who he says had deceived him by not coming in person, but only sent one of his slaves. At these times the great People assemble about the cabin, from whence the Oracle is to be delivered, waiting its report with great anxiety.

If a Cazique dies or any public calamity happens; for example in particular when the small pox had made great ravages among the Tribes, the Priests are sure to suffer, for the misfortune is presumed to have happened thro' their neglect in not deprecating the evil, in these cases they have no other method of saving themselves, but by laying the blame on others of their Brethren.

Priests are chosen from among the young People the most effeminate they can find, but those that are epileptic have always the preference, and these dress in a female habit.

The Puelches have a notion of a future state, and imagine that after death they are to be transported to a Country, where the fruits of inebriation are eternal, there to live in immortal drunkenness, and the perpetual chace of the Ostrich.

When a Person of eminence dies, the most respectable Women in the place goes into the Tent, clears the Body of all the intestines, and scrapes off as much of the flesh from the bones as possible, and then burns very carefully both that and the entrails; when that is done, the bones are buried till the rest of the flesh is quite decay'd: they are taken up within a year; and if any of the bones drop out of their places they are refixed and tied together, and the whole form'd into a perfect skeleton. Thus complete, it is packed up in a hide, put on the back of a favorite Horse of the deceased, and then translated to the Tomb of his Ancestor, perhaps 300 miles distant and always within a small space from the Sea.

The skeleton is then taken out and deck'd in its best Robes, and adorn'd with plumes and beads, is placed siting in a deep square pit parallel with those buried before, with Sword Launce and other Weapons placed by them, and the skins of their Horses stuff'd and supported by stakes also accompany them. The top of the pit is that cover'd with Turf placed on transverse Beams.

A Matron is appointed to attend these Sepulchers, whose office it is to keep the Skeletons clean and to new Cloath them Annually.[*] I forgot to add that on deposeting a Skeleton in its Tomb the Puelches make a libation of Chucha, and like what I have heard of an honest Spaniard drank viva el morte long live the dead.

They allow Polygamy, and marry promiscuously among other Americans, they are allowed as many as three Wives apiece, but if any take more htan that number he is esteemed a libertine and held in very little esteem.

Widows black their Faces for a Year after their Husbands decease.

In respect to Government the Caziques are hereditary, it is their business to protect the property of tehir People, and they have power of life and death the office is far from being elegible; many reject it, because they are oblig'd to pay all their People for their services who may at pleasure change their Caziques, so that several refuse to accept new vassals, who may offer themselves; for it is not allow'd any Indian to live out of the protection of some Cazique: in such a case he would certainly be looked on as an outlaw.

Eloquence is in high esteem with them. If a Cazique wants that talent he keeps an orator just as leaders in opposition have been known to do among us.

This closes the history Mr. Falkener favored me with, but I must not quit that Gentleman without informing you that he return'd to Europe with a suit of Patagonian Cloth, a Cup of Horn and a little Pot made of Chilian copper, the whole fruits the Spaniards left him after the labors of a thirty eight years mission.

From the preceding account it appears that the country which goes under the name of Patagonia extending from the River la Plata Lat. 35. to the streights of Magellan Lat. 53 [*] and westward as far as the Andes, is inhabited by Men who may be divided into three different Classes, and to them may be added a fourth a combination or mixture of others.

The first is a race of Men of common size, who have been seen by numbers and whose existence is indisputable. These often are seen on the northern side of the streights of Magellan and oftner on the Terra del Fuego side even as low as opposite to Cape Horn. These are frequently an exiled race, unhappy fugitives drove by their enemies, to take shelter from their fury, in those distant parts; for such is the information Mr. Falkener received from some Indians he met with in the southern parts of Patagonia, and this will account for the settled melancholy of the People observed by the Navigators in Terra del Fuego.

The second Class consists of those who (in general) exceed the common height of Europeans by a few inches or perhaps the head; such were those who were seen by John Moore who sail'd with Gracias de Nodal in 1618; by Mr. Carteret in 1767, and by M. Bougainville in the same year.

The third Class is compos'd of those whose height is so extraordinary as to occasion so great a disbelief, of the accounts of Voyagers; and yet they are indisputable an existent People, they have been seen by Magellan and six other in the 16th. Century and by two if not three in the present.

The fourth Class is a mixed race, who careless about preserving their generous and exalted breed pure and undegenerate, have degraded themselves by intermixing with the puny tribes of the country, and from that intercourse have produced a mongrel breed of every size, except that of the original standard, some few, as if by accident, seem to aspire to the height of their ancestors, but are checked in their growth, and stop at the stature of seven feet eight inches, scarce the middle size of the genuine breed. But another reason maybe assigned for the degeneracy and inequality of size in this Class: they live within the neighborhood of Europeans, they have intercourse with them, and from them they have acquired the vice of dram drinking and all its horrible consequences; this alone is sufficient to make a nation of giants dwindle into pygmies.

A third reason may still be assigned viz. The introduction of manufacturies among them. Those people who depended on the spoils of the chase for their habiliments were certain of preserving their full vigor, their strength of constitution and fullness of habit, while those who are confin'd to the loom grow enervate and lose much of the force of their bodily faculties. They also live in tents lin'd with woollen manufacture, which doubtlessly are much more delicate, luxurious and warm than the dwellings of the third undegenerate Class. We are unacquainted with the form of their tents, but we know that they still cloath themselves with the skins of beasts, and that among those, Mr. Clarke saw there was not the lest appearance of manufactury excepting what related to their horse furniture. These seem to have been the genuine remains of the free race, the conquerors of Pedro de Baldivia, the Puelches whose original station was among the Andes of Chiloe in about Latitude 43 and almost due east of the isle of Chiloe. These were the descendents of the Indians who retreated to the south far out of the common track of Europeans and who retain their primaval grandeur of size; the others who fled northeast forgetful of their orignal magnificent stature, lost in general that noble distinction by unsuitable alliances and the use of spirits, while the first probably only marry among themselves and certainly have all strong liquor in abhorrence; some of this tall race seem still to inhabit the stations of their Ancestors or some not very remote from them; for M. Frezier was assur'd by Don Pedro Molina Govenor of Chiloe that he once was visited by some of these People, who were four varas or about nine or ten feet high; they came in company with some Chiloe Indians [*] with whom they were friends and who probably found them in some of their excursions.

M. de Premontal insults M. Frezier with much acrimony on account of this relation; and charges him with changing the seat of those People from the eastern coast to the western or the tract between Chiloe and the Magellanic streights, but the truth is, that Frezier says no such thing, but mentions them as a nation living up the country inland not near the shores; M. Premontal also sneers at the evidence of the crews of the Maloe ships; but they by no means place these tall People on the western coast of S. America, but at Gregory Bay a place very little distant from the eastern entrance of the Streights and near which these giants have been more frequently seen than any where else.

My remarks on M. de Premontal are but a tribute to the many civilities I have received from doctor Matie who has been most unprovokedly unjustly and illiberally abused by this vague and pragmatical writer.

Thus I conclude all that I collect relating to these singular People. Let me beg you to receive the account with your usual Candor and think me with the most regard

Dear Sir
Your faithful and affect. humble Servant THOMAS PENNANT.
Downing November 28th. 1771.

Notes

*
Vide Ram•sias Coll. Voyages. Venice 1550, also the Letter of Maximilian Transylvanus Sec. to Charles V. and in the 1st. Vol. p. 376 A. and B.
↵

†
This Account (as well as the others where I do not quote my Authority) are taken from that
••
ditious Writer M. de Brosse.

↵

*
Purchas. 1.58.—
↵

†
Purchas 1.1232 — Col. Voy. by the Dutch East India Company &c. Dondon 1703 p. 319.—
↵

‡
Ibid. 1.91.
↵

§
Purchas 1.80.—
↵

‖
Ibid. 1.91.
↵

*
Seventeen Years Travels of Peter de Cieza 138.—
↵

†
Translated by Ricaut p. 263.—
↵

‡
Frezier's Voy. 84.
↵

§
Sir John Narborough in 1670. Bartholomew Sharp in 1680. De Ge••es in 1696, and Beauchesne Gouin in 1699.
↵

‖

〈…〉
O

•

ficer commanded the Discovery in Captain Cooks last Voyage, and died off Kamtschatka August 22. 1779.
↵

*
P•••. Tr••s. 1
•
70 p. 21. Hawkes•••••. Voy. 1. 3

•

4
↵

*
See Mr. Byrons letter at the end.
↵

*
The Puelches have no Sheep but what they purchase from the V•luches who Inhabit the Andes, cultivate Sheep and raise Corn, the Wool is equally fine with that of old Spain.
↵

*
M. Premontel roundly asserts that they have no beards.
↵

*
Garcilassa de la Vega 337 Engl. transl.—
↵

†
Pesos in the original; perhaps Pesos duros which makes the above Sum.—
↵

‡
M. de Premontal is clear they have no sort of Religion.—
↵

§
The pretenders to second sight in the He•rides and the Awenyddion or the Inspired among the Welch are seized with the same extasie
↵

*
This account agrees with those given by Lafitau in most particulars, vide Maeurs des Sauvages 11.438.
↵

*
M. de Premontal will compare Patagonia to the space between the Riviere des Sardines and the streights of Magellan.
↵

*
Frezier's Voyage p. 86.
↵

Copy of a Paper transmitted from Admiral Byron to me; through the hands of the Right Reverend John Egerton late Bishop of Durham, after he had perused the Manuscript of the foregoing account.

The People I saw upon the coast of Patagonia were not the same that was seen the second Voyage. One or two of the Officers that sail'd with me and afterwards with Captain Wallace declar'd to me that they had not a single thing I had distributed amongst those I saw. M. Bougainville remarks that his officers landed amongst the Indians I had seen, as they had many English knives amongst them which were, as he pretends, undoubtedly given by me: now it happen'd that I never gave a single knife to any of those Indians, nor did I even carry one a shore with me.

I had often heard from the Spaniards that there were two or three different nations of very tall People, the largest of which inhabit those immense plains at the back of the Andes. The others some where near the river Galiegos. I take it to be the former that I saw, and for this reason, returning from Port Famine where I had been to wood and water I saw those Peoples fires a long way to the westward of where I had left them and a great way inland, so as the winter was approaching they were certainly returning to a better climate. I remarked that they had not one single thing amongst them that shewed they ever had any commerce with Europeans. They were certainly of a most amazing size: so much were their horses disproportion'd that all the People that were with me in the boats when very near the shore swore that they were all mounted upon deer; and to this instant I believe there is not a man that landed with me, tho' they were at some distance from them, but would swear they took them to be nine feet high. I do suppose many of them were between seven and eight and strong in proportion.

Mr. Byron is much obliged to Mr. Pennant for the perusal of his Manuscript and thinks his remarks very judicious.

Information about this book

Title statement

Of the Patagonians. Formed from the relation of Father Falkener a Jesuit who had resided among them thirty eight years. And from the different voyagers who had met with this tall race

Pennant, Thomas, 1726-1798.

Publication

Distributor

University of Oxford Text Archive
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road
Oxford
OX2 6NN
ota@oucs.ox.ac.uk

ID [ota]

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4086

ID [isbn10]

110601085X

ID [isbn13]

9781106010858

ID [TCP]

K041295.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3300459132

ID [ECHG]

0175800600

Availability

Distributed by the University of Oxford under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Source

— Of the Patagonians. Formed from the relation of Father Falkener a Jesuit who had resided among them thirty eight years. And from the different voyagers who had met with this tall race, Pennant, Thomas, 1726-1798.. [4],16p. ; 4⁰. Darlington :: printed by the friendship of George Allan at his private press,. 1788.. [Signed: Thomas Pennant.] [Limited edition of 40 copies.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT42129.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2p5.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

This electronic text file was keyed from page images and partially proofread for accuracy. Character capture and encoding have been done following the guidelines of the ECCO Text Creation Partnership, which correspond roughly to the recommendations found in Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file.