ike men of the common
bulk, run up accidentally to an unusual height; and a man who should
measure only six feet two inches, and equally exceed a stout well-set
man of the common stature in breadth and muscle, would strike us rather
as being of a gigantic race, than as an individual accidentally
anomalous; our sensations therefore, upon seeing five hundred people,
the shortest of whom were at least four inches taller, and bulky in
proportion, may be easily imagined. After I had presented the tobacco,
four or five of the chief men came up to me, and, as I understood by the
signs they made, wanted me to mount one of the horses, and go with them
to their habitations, but as it would upon every account have been
imprudent to comply, I made signs in return that I must go back to the
ship; at this they expressed great concern, and sat down in their
stations again. During our pantomimical conference, an old man often
laid his head down upon the stones, and shutting his eyes for about half
a minute, afterwards pointed first to his mouth, and then to the hills,
meaning, as I imagined, that if I would stay with them till the morning
they would furnish me with some provisions, but this offer I was
obliged to decline. When I left them, not one of them offered to follow
us, but as long as I could see them continued to sit quietly in their
places. I observed that they had with them a great number of dogs, with
which I suppose they chase the wild animals which serve them for food.
The horses were not large, nor in good case, yet they appeared to be
nimble and well broken. The bridle was a leathern thong, with a small
piece of wood that served for a bit, and the saddles resembled the pads
that are in use among the country people in England. The women rode
astride, and both men and women without stirrups; yet they galloped
fearlessly over the spit upon which we landed, the stones of which were
large, loose, and slippery.

SECTION IV.

_Passage up the Strait of Magellan to Port Famine; with some Account of
that Harbour, and the adjacent Coast._

Soon after I returned on board I got under way, and worked up the
strait, which is here about nine leagues broad, with the flood, not with
a view to pass through it, but in search of some place where I might get
a supply of wood and water, not chasing to trust wholly to the finding
of Falkland's Islands, which I determined afterwards to seek. About
eight in the evening, the tide of ebb beg