The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-12
CATAGoNIAN GIANTS.
Early Navigators ROmanced Shameful
Iy About Them. =

Early Navigators Romanced Shameful
Iy About Them.
Correspondence in Salt Lake City
Desert News.
Who has not heard marvellous tales
of the giants of Patagonia and of the
dwarfs who live just across the mar
rev channel on the islands of Terra
del Fuego? So much nonsense has peen
written and told about tnese people
ever since the first white man found
them Gin the year 1890 that to this
day the world possesses few actual
facts concerning them. You remember
how Don Pigfetta. the champion liar
of Magellans expedition, describes the
Patagonians as "of that biggenesse
that our MEME OF meane stature could
| reach up to their waystes," and all the
early explorers felt bound to see and
describe as amazing things as their pre-
decessors had done. while a few of them
went even farther in their laudable
efforts to 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 modern. Sir Francis
Drake, who came here in 1873 testi-
fled that the Patagonians were mot
taller than many Englishmen." schou-
| ten, the German explorer. declared
them to be living skeletons. 10 or IL
| feet long. D'orbigny, the French
scientist. wrote in 1899 that he never
! found any exceeding 5 feet II inches"
FitSroy and Darwin computed their
average height to he Q feet, and Cum
bingham, who made them a careful stu
! dy not many years ago. says that he
found one chief who measured feet
IL inches and saw few less of stature
than feet 10 inches.
Capt. Mayne 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: They have
been measured! Twelve-foot giants
can no longer be found. They never
existed. except in the fertile magma
| lions of the old navigators, whose em-
bodied testimony, nevertheless, IL is
! different to disbelieve Other and more
reliable witnesses have done away with
the Titans, but still we are unable to
reduce the stateuTe OF the Patagoniana
\ to that of ordinary men. II not actual
giants, they are very tall many of them
standing Z feet In their boots of guiana
co leather, few less than feet and a
like few rising nearly to 3. These
measurements are definite and certain; ;
1 therefore. II not positive giants, IL Is
| safe to consider the Patagonians as
among the tallest of human beings, per-
haps the very tallest that exist or eve
err existed upon the face of the earth"
One of the most vivid scenes in MEM
ory's gallery-one that still stands out
distinct and clear amid a multitude Of
misty shapes and half -obliterated facts
of far greater importance-is that OF
a missionary lecture on log ago Sum
day afternoon, when the speaker inn
pressively said: THE poor giants of
Patagonia, though nearly twice as tall
as anybody in this church. II not in
this country-eay from to IL feet
high--have neither minds nor hearts
in proportion to their bodies. They are
among the most fierce and degraded
people on earth; they are canpibals,
who feast on the bodies of their enc