Patagonian Giants

20 Mar 2021

Many cultures and civilizations all around the world have stories about giants in their mythology or folklore. The reports of their size greatly vary and characteristics range from vicious man-eating beasts to superior demigods. But few of them have such a plethora of first-hand accounts in the historical literature as the Patagonia region, specifically the areas around the Strait of Magellan during the Age of Sail.

This is an attempt to make a list of all such mentions in the primary sources.

Note: It is important to take into account that between the 16th and 18th centuries the name “Patagonia” was given to all territory to the South of the Río de la Plata estuary.

Source	Description
Magellan (1523)1	ten spans [2.3 m, 7 ft. 6 in.]
García Jofre de Loaísa (1525)2	thirteen spans [3 m, 9 ft. 9 in.]
Francis Drake (1577)3	7 foote and halfe [2.3 m]
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1579)4	big people / giants
Anthonie Knivet (1591)5	corpse fourteen spans tall [3 m, 9 ft. 9 in.]
	fifteen to sixteen spans (based on footprints)
Sebald de Veert (1599)6	ten or eleven feet high [3-3.3 m]
Oliver van Noort (1599)7	ten or twelve feet high [3-3.6 m]
Joris van Spilbergen (1614)8	a human being of very big stature
Willem Schouten (1615)9	bones 10 to 11 feet [3-3.3 m]
Gonzalo García del Nodal (1618)10	taller, by the head, than the Europeans
Jacques L’Hermite (1624) †	not larger than the inhabitants of Europe
Dionisio de Rueda (1641) ‡	gigantic people
John Narbrough (1670)11	people of average height/not taller that us
Jean-Baptiste de Gennes (1696)12	not taller than six feet [1.8 m]
Harrington & Carman (1704)13	giants
Pedro Molina y Valiente (1714)13	nine or ten foot [2.7-3m]
Thomas Pascoe (1741)14	middling stature
John Byron (1764)15	8 to 9 feet [2.5-2.8 m]
Charles de Brosses (1765)16	thirteen spans [3 m, 9 ft. 9 in.]
	corpse of fourteen spans [3.2 m, 10 ft. 5 in.]
Samuel Wallis (1767)17	six feet tall [2 m]
Louis de Bougainville (1676)18	between 5 feet 10 and 6 feet 2 [1.8-1.9 m]
Thomas Falkner (1774)19	7 feet and some inches tall [~2.1 m]
Antonio de Viedma (1783)20	between two varas and nine palms [~1.8 m, 6 ft.]
Alonso de Cordova (1785)21	6 ft. 7 in. [2 m]

Sources

• Austin Whitall - Patagonia Monsters: Patagonia Giants – Parts One, Two & Three.

• † Mentioned in Hawkesworth²², p. xviii (1773). We could not locate the original source.

• ‡ Mentioned in Patagonian Monsters blog, but we could not locate the original source.