Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-06
GIANTS AND DWARFS,
About Whom the Liars Who Have
Visited Southern South Amer
ica Write Politically.
The 12-FOOTERS ARE ALL GONE.
Whisky and Diseases of White Men Have
Played Havoc There as Well as
Among other Sayages
How THE S0-C4LLED PIGMIEs LIVE.
Gissi-;aries Don't Talk Of Fades as Warm for That
Is Where They Would Like to Co
THE 12-FOOTERS ARE ALL GONE.
How TIE SO-C4LLED PIGMTEs LIVE.
Gissi-:aries Don't Talk Of Fades as Warm for That
Is Where They Would Like to Go
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE p1spArcH.l !

" no Mas not heard marvellous tales of tn,
giants of Patagonia, and of the dwarfs tina
live Just across the narrow channel on the
islands Of Terra del Fuego? So much non
sense has been written and told about thest
people, ever since the first white men found
them (in the year 1920, that to this day the
world possesses few actual facts concerning
them You remember how Don Pigafetta
the champion liar of Magellan's expedition
described the Patagonians as ''Of that big.
Cenesse that our meme of meane stature
could reach up to their waystes, " and all the
early explorers that followed fel: bound to
see and describe amazing things as their
predecessors had done, while few of them
went even farther in their laudable efforts
70 keep up European interest in the New
World.
Regarding the stature of these giants,
there is an amusing discrepancy in the
statements of celebrated travellers, ancient
and .,oG5r1. Sir Franct= Drake, who carr.
here in 155S, testified that the Patagonians
were mot taller than many Englishmen. :"
Schouten, the German explorer, declared
them TO be civ 'ng skeletons, 10 or IL feet
long" D'OrbignE the French scientist
N-ttC III 1C-S sllAL tG never 1OunO anT eN-
cseding . feet IL inches" Fitzroy and
Darwin computed their average height to
be feet; and Cunningham, vino made them
careful study only about 20 years ago,
says he found one chief who measured s
feet II inches, and saw few of less stature
than feet 10 inches
An Average OF Seven Feet
Captain Navne Reid, whose delightful
book called ''Old People" stands next TO
Robinson Crusoe" in the estimation of
millions OF boys, wrote these words about
the Patagonians: 'Twelve-foot giants can
10 longer be found. They never existed,
except il The fertile imaginations of the old
naviCaJors-whoSe embodied testimony,
nevertheless, il is difficult to disbeIieye.
Other and more reliable witnesses have
done sTay with the Tians; but still we are
unable - reduce the stature of the Pata-
gonia q To that of ordinary men. If not
actual giants, they are very tall, many of
them standing feet in their boots of
guanaco leather, few less than feet and a
Ike few rising nearly to s. These measure
nents are definite and certain; therefore if
7ot positive giants, il is safe TO consider the
Patagcn2ans IS among the tallest of human
teInEs-perhaps the very tailest that exist
or ever existed, upon the face of the earth. -
One oi the most vivid scenes il memory's
picture C2llery-cne that still stands out,
Glssinct and clear, amid multitude of |
misty shapes and half obliterated facts of |
iar greater importance-is that of mis- |
slonary lecture, on lorg-ago Sunday after |
noon, when The speaker impressively said:
Tales Of the yerzcious Missionary.
The poor giants OF Patagonia, though
nearly twice as tall as anybody in this |
church, II not in tnis country-ssy from to |
L Iest LiEh-haye neither minds nor hearts |
IN proportion to their bodies. They are |
among the most fierce and degraded people |
on earth-thev are cannibals, who feast on |
the bodies o. their enemies, and on ship |
wrecked sailors and other foreigners who |
happen to Iat into their hands. At other |
flmes they subsiSt on raw fish But when |
the streams are frozen, as they are during
greater part of the year, and no fish are to
te lslQ, they eat all the old women of the
tribe; next they devour their horses, if need
be; and lastly, but only to save themselves
from starvation, sacrifice the beloved dogs
to the cooking pct. The people of Terra
del Fuego are even more ugly, being dwarfs
nos mere than three or four feet tall, with |
enormously swollen bodies, large heads
short and crooked limbs. They file their
front teeth sharp like those OF a dog and
devou2 their food raw; and, though they |
live IL s climate so cold that water freezes |
every nlght IN the year, they build no
houses, and wear no clothes whatever.
Nay heaven forgive the reverend gentle
wan his ignorance-for I don't believe he
deliberately slandered the heather He
merely gave Us the commonly accepted
2riHion II Europe and America, cleaned,
undoubtedly, from some standard Encyclo-
pe1ia OF Universal Knowledgei But at any
rate, our youthful imaginations were ex-
cited and generous pity aroused, that every
I'm baDk belonging to every child in the
Sunday school was rGthlesslv broken and
all or boarded pennies dispatched to the
Poor Patagonlans through the pockets of {
the missionary.
FEhisky's Hsvoc Among Giants.
As YOU may imagine. that which most
Interests US Just now in Punta Arenas are | |
the Patagonian Indians, parties of whom
Etrsrgie il almost daily a! this season of
the year TO exchange their guanaco furs and
ostrich feathers forprovisions and the worth. :
less triuEets thas delight their souls. The
''gii.nts'' seem to be all dead and the race
Ear gone in its decadence. 1t is the old
stcry-pitituily true wherever the ,
red man has adopted the white
on peaceable terms as his near
whisky and disease soon I
make sad havoc among the former The
once sturdy Pataronlan, like his cousins in s
North America, seems to have acquired all !
st VICES u Clh iaiLsstiotl lIU nave omitted Its
virtues. his highest ambition now being to t
get enough to eaJ, drink and smoke with the ]
least possible labor. He hangs around the d
ranches to pick up what is thrown to him. o
sell and the dogs in the line of food, and de- b
peHds upon stealing and begging for whisky t
and tobacco. u
Il should be remembered, however, that I
there are several distinct nations of Pata- i
gonlans-not counting the Araucanians on C
he north nor the Firo-landers on the south C
and that each nation has distinguishing o
Those above referred to Il
ire the southern Tehueloches, who sloucb
sbout the country from Santa Cruz and q
punta Arenas "
Who the Giants Were. . :
The "giants," if there ever were any f
deserving the name, were N
cund among this tribe, who are much taller n
nd more slender than any of their neigh n
,crs, and have different complexion, being i
ed like the North American Indians | i,
Gther than muddy brown, like the South 6.
American. They are excessively dirty, | f,
a:T and treacherous, fond Of personal | II
dornments made out of bones, shells, beads q
nd silver, gold, strangely enough, they do n,
ot Eke), and are ready at any time to al
srter all their earthly possessions-wives, n,
orses even the few garments that cover II
heir rakedne .s-for little ''fire water" III
Inc "F2mpas Patagones'-so called be- d,
aUse they inhabIt the vast pampas, or ac
laIns Of the ncTh-are subdivideG into n,
)ur tribes, known respectively as Puelches, IN
r Eastern people," the word Puel mean ST
ig east, cha people; the Picunches, picun fic
in Il. D.