The Emperors
Charlemagne and Jovianus were also accredited with great height
and strength.
In the olden times there were extraordinary stories of the giants
who lived in Patagonia. Some say that Magellan gave the name to
this country because its inhabitants measured 5 cubits. The
naturalist Turner says that on the river Plata near the Brazilian
coast he saw naked savages 12 feet high; and in his description
of America, Thevenot confirms this by saying that on the coast of
Africa he saw on a boat the skeleton of an American giant who had
died in 1559, and who was 11 feet 5 inches in height. He claims
to have measured the bones himself. He says that the bones of the
leg measured 3 feet 4 inches, and the skull was 3 feet and 1
inch, just about the size of the skull of Borghini, who, however,
was only of ordinary height. In his account of a voyage to the
Straits of Magellan, Jacob Lemaire says that on December 17,
1615, he found at Port Desire several graves covered with stones,
and beneath the stones were skeletons of men which measured
between 10 and 11 feet. The ancient idea of the Spaniards was
that the men of Patagonia were so tall that the Spanish soldiers
could pass under their arms held out straight; yet we know that
the Patagonians exhibit no exaggeration of height--in fact, some
of the inhabitants about Terra del Fuego are rather diminutive.
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