The ancients acquaint us that, in the reign of Claudius, a giant named Galbara, 10 feet high, was brought to Rome from the coast of Africa. An instance is cited by Goro pius, an author with whom we are otherwise unacquainted, of a female of equal stature. A certain Greek sophist, Promresius, is said to have been nine feet in height. Julius Capitolinus affirms, that Maximinian the Roman emperor was eight feet and a half : there was a Swede one of the life guards of Frederick the Great, of that size. M. Le Cat speaks of a giant exhibited at Rouen, measur ing eight feet and some inches; and we believe some have been seen in this country, within the last 30 years, whose stature was not inferior. In Notes History of Staffordshire, there is an instance of a man of seven feet and a half high, and another in Thoresby's account of Leeds, of seven feet five inches. Examples may be found elsewhere of several individuals seven feet in height, below which, after the opinion of the ancients, we may cease to consider men gigantic. A porter belonging to the Prince of \Vales, commonly called Big Sam, though long esteemed of much larger stature, we believe proved to be only six feet ten inches. Entire families sometimes, though rarely, occur of six feet four, or six feet six inches high.
From all this we may conclude, that there may have pos sibly been seen some solitary instances of men who were ten feet in height; that those of eight feet are extremely uncom mon, and that even six feet and a half far exceeds the height of men in Europe. Neither, as we shall afterwards explain, is there any reason to suppose that the human race has degenerated with the progress of time. But first let us say a few words on a subject which has excited much controversy, the existence of a nation of giants on the continent of South America.
The earlier navigators towards the Straits of Magellan and the neighbouring coasts, soon remarked the extraordi nary size of the natives repairing to the coast ; and in the narrative of 111agellan's own voyage, is an account of the first Patagonians, so called by the Portuguese in allusion to a long measure, who came on board a European vessel. The strangers were also visited by others displaying the same good nature, and those properties which still charac terize the inhabitants of the coast ; they were pleased with every thing they saw ; the shackles with which Magellan prepared to make them prisoners, they took for play-things, and innocently allowed themselves to be fettered, and car ried into captivity from a barbarous curiosity. Sir Rich ard Hawkins, and Nodal, a Spanish navigator, describe the natives of the coast as a head taller than Europeans, and of such stature that the crew of their vessels called them giants ; and Sir Thomas Cavendish, speaking of those at Port Desire, says one of their feet measured eighteen inches long. The Spaniards also, who had formed settle ments in South America, seem to have been acquainted with a tribe of large stature ; and a woman, who had been many years in captivity, returned with an account of a whole army of giants. Still there was but a very imper fect knowledge of their history in Europe, until the public curiosity was roused by the narratives of the English cir cumnavigators, between the years 1760 and 1770 ; for the preceding notices of Turner, who said he had seen a giant 12 feet high on the coast of Brazil, and of Knivet, who had seen a youth 13 spans in height, attracted no attention. In the year 1764, Commodore Byron visited the coast of Pa tagonia, and, in describing the inhabitants as of gigantic stature, concluded, from his own size, that they could not be less than six feet and a half, or seven feet high ; but he did not measure any of them. This omission, however, was supplied by Capt. Carteret of the Swallow sloop of war, which reached Cape Virgin Mary near the eastern entrance of the Straits of Magellan in 1766. When he went ashore, 60 or 70 of the natives had assembled, and the number con tinually increasing, had augmented next morning to seve ral hundreds of men, women and children. They were a fine race of people, their features large, with tolerably clear complexions and long black hair ; and on measuring the size of many, Captain Carteret found it in general from six feet to six feet five inches high ; some were six feet seven inches, but none taller. This proves the hazard of conjecture, for Mr Charles Clarke, who had accompanied Commodore Byron, concludes, that of about 500 people, there was hardly a man less than eight feet high, most of them considerably more, and some who certainly attained the height of nine feet, if not above it. The women also, he infers, were from seven and a half to eight feet. Ex cept with regard to the height, the accounts of Captain Carteret and Mr Clarke coincide ; but Captain Wallis further corroborates the words of the former. In the
course of several interviews, he found by "measuring rods," that the tallest man among the Patagonians was 6 feet 7 inches high ; that several were within an inch or two of that height, but the ordinary size was from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet. Both sexes were clothed in skins, and so much alike, that at first sight it was not easy to distin guish them. Their manners were mild and courteous ; they had a ready apprehension, and were extremely intelli gent. Many rode horses of the Spanish breed, fourteen or fifteen hands high; and it appeared their residence was in land, not on the coast. Mr Clarke seems aware, that the credibility of his relation might be called in question : Captain Carteret's was written very soon after the inter view, and was accompanied with regrets, that the orders of his commanding officer were of such a description as to p-reclude a more familiar intercourse with the Patagonians. We call them Patagonians, in coincidence with the name bestowed on them by their earlier visitors ; but their pro per appellation is Tehuels, or Tchuelhets,—as we learn from a missionary who resided many years in the country, and whose remarks will probably solve the difficulties which have been excited by the accounts of transient navi gators. The Tehuelhets occupy a mountainous tract of South America, intersected by deep vallies, and wanting rivers of considerable size, bounded on the cast by a vast desert, and on the north by a tribe called Chcchehets. Their stature rarely exceeds seven feet in height, and often does not reach six feet. About forty or filly years ago, they had a chief seven feet and some inches high, with whom the missionary Mr Falkncr was well acquaint ed; but he affirms, that he never saw any Indian above an inch or two taller ; that is, we conceive, seven feet and a half. The brother of this chief did not exceed six feet. They are a strong well made people, not so tawny as the other Indians, and some of their women as white as Spa niards: they are restless and nomadic, chiefly mounted on horseback, and always in motion. Another tribe, or as some suppose, a different division of the same tribe, called Puelches, dwells on the western side of the continent, where bounded by the straits of Magellan on the south. They are very large, several being nearly seven feet six inches high. One branch of the tribe Huilliches, in the same vi cinity, is denominated Great Huilliches, from their larger stature ; and the Chechehets are tall and stout, like their neighbours the Tehuelhets, but speak a different dialect : and both acknowledge the Levuches, of whom we have no particulars, as their bead. Most of those tribes are eques trian ; but there is one called Yacanacunnees, or foot-peo ple, because they always travel on foot, and have no horses in their country. Many concurring circumstances tend to prove, that the Patagonians of the older authors, and also of more recent navigators, are the various races of South Americans now described, though at this day greatly re - duced from their former numbers. Larger stature, per sonal appearance, courteous disposition, a nomadic life, and a variety of peculiarities, are common to both. Thus it seems undoubted, that certain tribes of mankind exist on the South American continent, whose size considerably exceeds the common stature of mankind, that they might reasonably be esteemed giants when compared with their Portuguese or Spanish visitors, who probably were of very ordinary dimensions ; but that the extreme height to which the tallest reach at present, does not exceed seven feet and a half. We read, that the ancient Germans, Gauls, and Caledonians, were men of great bulk and strength: magma corpora et tantunz ad impetunz valida,—as expressed by the historian of Agricola. Had these nations been preserved pure, and without intermixture, perhaps their stature might have been preserved also: Yet it is scarcely to be denied, that the stature, or at least the strength of mankind, improves with civilization. The savages of no part of the New World, if we except the Patagonians, of whose pow ers we have never obtained a comparative view, are equal ly strong as the inhabitants of Europe ; and it has been as certained, that the natives of Great Britain are individually the strongest of all the human race hitherto known. The warmer climates, as well as those where extreme cold pre vails, arc equally unfavourable to strength and stature ; and each seems to have a decided influence on the mind : It is within the temperate regions of the earth, that nature has endowed mankind with the most distinguished mental and personal energies.