Note 89 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

Guillemard, who follows the Amoretti edition, translates (p. 180) this passage: “His hair was short and colored white,” but this translation is borne out by neither the Italian MS. nor MS. 5,650. Guillemard presents a picture of a Patagonian, as does also Wilkes (Narrative of U. S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842), i, facing p. 95. The latter describes Indians, whom the officers of the expedition thought to be Patagonians, and who were taller than average Europeans, as follows: “They had good figures and pleasant looking countenances, low foreheads, and high cheekbones, with broad faces, the lower part projecting; their hair was course and cut short on the crown leaving a narrow border of hair hanging down; over this they wore a kind of cap or band of skin or woolen yarn. The front teeth of all of them were very much worn, more apparent, however, in the old than in the young. On one foot they wore a rude skin sandal. Many of them had their faces painted in red and black stripes, with clay, soot, and ashes. Their whole appearance, together with their inflamed and sore eyes, was filthy and disgusting.” They showed that they had had previous communication with white men. Their food was fish and shellfish, and they carried bows and arrows and had dogs. Brinton (American Race, New York, 1891) says that “The Patagonians call themselves Chonek or Tzoneca, or Inaken (men, people), and by their Pampean neighbors are referred to as Tehuel-Che, southerners.” Many of them are “from six to six feet four inches in height, and built in proportion. In color they are a reddish brown, and have aquiline noses and good foreheads.” Ramon Lista (Viage al pais de los Tehuel-Ches) gives the average height of the Patagonians as 1.854 m., hence the early accounts of their great stature are greatly exaggerated (Mosto, p. 57, note 6). See also the description of the Patagonians in the “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 5); and World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Hakluyt Society edition), pp. 40, 56–61 (where the origin of the name “Patagonian” is wrongly given).