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Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vol. I |
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION. (continued) him many marks upon a rock which they said were impressed by the thunderbolts, and many bones of an extraordinary size, which they believed to be remains of the giants; but they did not pretend to know when the deluge happened. [Pedro de Cieca, chap. 52. Garcilasso, Hist. du Perou, liv. 9. chap. 9.] "The Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega, in his history of Peru, relates, that according to a tradition universally received, a number of vessels or junks came to Point Saint Helena with a company of giants on board, of a stature so enormous that the natives of the country were not higher than their knees: that their eyes were as broad as the bottom of a plate, and their limbs proportionably large: that some of them were naked, and others slightly covered with the skins of beasts. That when they came on shore, they dug a pit of an astonishing depth in the rock, and each of them consuming as much provisions as would be sufficient for fifty men, the country was soon exhausted, and they were obliged to live upon fish: that they seized the women of the country, to whom their brutality was fatal, and afterwards giving themselves up to worse vices, the whole race was destroyed by fire from heaven, which however left their bones unconsumed, as a lasting memorial of Divine vengeance. Bones of an amazing size are said to have been found in this country, and fragments of teeth, which, if they were whole, must have weighed half a pound. "Those who wish to know all the particulars of these American traditions may satisfy their curiosity by reading Torquemado, lib. 1. chap. 13 and 14. where they will find that these fables are very similar to those relative to the same subject in other parts of the world. The bones, said to have been the bones of giants, which have been found in America,
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