History of a Voyage to the Falkland Islands

Half a century after Magellan, Drake—the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and the same man who was devoured alive by crabs This refers to a legendary and likely apocryphal account of Sir Francis Drake's death; historically, he died of dysentery.—saw eight giants on the coast of Patagonia, beside whom the tallest Europeans appeared no taller than Lapps A historical term for the Sámi people of northern Scandinavia, often used in this period as a shorthand for people of short stature. (n).

" [They have] huts made of skins, which they transport at will from one place to another. They live on raw meat and a root called capas in their language. The prisoner we had on board ate a full basket of biscuits in one meal and drank half a bucket of water in one gulp. They have their hair cut in a circle like monks, and their heads are bound with a cotton cord in which they tuck their arrows." See the English translation original: "traduction françoise" of the *Journal* of Pigafetta, Knight of Rhodes, addressed to the Grand Master Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.

(n) At least such is the account of Argensola in his History of the Moluccas, book 3. This author adds that the bulk of the Patagonians' bodies did not hinder their agility; they did not run, they flew.

Around the year 1592, the Knight Cavendish crossed the Strait of Magellan; he testified to having seen two Patagonian corpses on the American coast that were fourteen spans long A "span" or "palm" (palme) was a unit of length; fourteen spans would suggest a height of roughly 10 to 11 feet.. He measured the footprint of one of these savages on the shore, and it was found to be four times longer than one of his own. Finally, three of his sailors were nearly killed even while in the sea by chunks of rock that a giant threw at them (o): here is the Polyphemus A reference to the one-eyed giant from Homer's Odyssey who threw boulders at Odysseus's ship. of the West.

(o) See the account of Anthony Knivet in the collection by Purchas, volume IV, book 6. The author of Philosophical Researches on the Americans says, volume 2, page 295, that in the time of Cavendish, the belief in the existence of giants was universal, and that Kni... The text cuts off mid-name, likely referring to Knivet.