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diff --git a/75432-0.txt b/75432-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5437674 --- /dev/null +++ b/75432-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,426 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75432 *** + + + + + + AN + ACCOUNT + OF THE + GIANTS + +Lately Discovered+. + + (Price One Shilling.) + + + + + This Work is entered in the Hall-Book of the +Company+ of + +Stationers+, according to Act of Parliament; whoever Prints it, + or any Part thereof, will be prosecuted as the Law directs. + + + + + AN + ACCOUNT + OF THE + GIANTS + LATELY DISCOVERED; + In a Letter to a Friend in the Country. + + LONDON: + Printed for +F. Noble+, opposite _Gray’s-Inn, + Holborn_. + + MDCCLXVI. + + + + + An +Account+ of the + GIANTS + LATELY DISCOVERED. + + +_Dear Will_, + +Though People in the Country are enough disposed to believe Wonders, +yet are they prudently apt to suspend giving Credit to all that are +sent from _London_, except of a political Cast. You good Folks still +believe in an uninterrupted Generation of Patriots; and though they so +seldom come to Years of Maturity, you trust in them as fast as they +are produced in St. _Stephen_’s Chapel. For other monstrous Births, +you are fonder of them, the farther they come. Ghosts and Witches are +entirely of your own Growth. Excepting the famous Ghost of a Sound in +_Cock-Lane_, from which the Methodists expected such a rich Harvest, +(for what might not a rising Church promise itself from such well +imagined Nonsense as the Apparition of a Noise?) I think many, many +Years have elapsed, since the Capital could boast of having regenerated +a Spirit. Your Sagacity will therefore incline you to doubt the +marvellous Account I am going to give you of a new discovered Race of +Giants. + +Perhaps you will take the Relation for some political Allegory, or +think it a new vamped Edition of _Swift_’s Brobdignags. My good +Friend, it is neither the one nor the other; though I must own, a +political Mystery, and a wonderful one too, for it is really kept a +Secret.—The very Crew of the Ship who saw Five Hundred of these lofty +Personages, did not utter a word of the Matter for a whole Year; and +even now, that a general Idea has taken wind, can scarce be brought to +give any Particulars to their most intimate Friends. + +All that the Public can yet learn, is, that Captain _Byron_ and his Men +have seen on the Coast of _Patagonia_ Five Hundred Giants on Horseback. +Giants? you will cry, what do you call Giants? why, my Friend, not Men +of Fifty or an Hundred Feet high, yet still very personable Giants, and +much taller than any Individual ever exhibited at _Charing Cross_. +Come, what do you think of Nine or Ten Feet high? and what do you think +of Five Hundred such? will Mrs. —— cry, “pish, That is no Giant, it is +only a well made Man?” + +I am told, for I am no reader of Travels, that this Gigantic Nation +was known to exist as early as the discovery of that Continent: That +Sir _John Narborough_ mentions them; and of late Years, _Maupertuis_. +The _Spaniards_ assert that they have long been acquainted with their +existence——So they you see can keep a Secret too. But the Reasons +given why we know so little of the Matter, are, that few Ships ever +touch on that Coast, standing more out to Sea, in order to double the +_Cape_, and that these Giants are a roving Nation, and seldom come +down to the Coast; and then I suppose, only _to bob for Whales_. + +You will be eager to know a great deal more than I can tell you; but +thus much I think is allowed. That Captain _Byron_ being on that +Coast, saw a Body of Men at a distance on very small Horses; as they +approached, he perceived that the Horses were common-sized Horses, but +that the Riders were enormously tall, though I do not hear that their +Legs trailed much on the Ground. This was fine Game for a Man sent +on Discoveries. The Captain and part of his Crew immediately landed, +on which Messieurs the Giants as quickly retreated. Whether this +Timidity was owing to the Terror which the _English_ Arms have struck +into all Parts of the known, and I conclude, unknown World; whether +they took Captain _Byron_ for Mr. _Pitt_; whether they took our Men +for _Spaniards_, whose name must be in Horror to all _Americans_; or +whether they had any apprehensions of Fire-Arms, I cannot tell. Be +that as it may, the more the Captain and his Men advanced, the faster +the Giants kept trotting off. Seeing this, the Captain took a bold +and sensible Resolution: he ordered his Men to lay down their Arms +and remain Stock still, himself alone advancing. I doubt much whether +_Homer_ would have cared to venture his _Jupiter_ alone against Five +Hundred _Titans_. + +Captain _Byron_’s _Titans_ had more of the _Scavoir vivre_, and seeing +him advance alone, stopped. He came up with them, and addressed them +in all the Languages he knew, and that they did not. They replied in +the Giant-Tongue, which I am told a very reverend Critic, upon the +Strength of one Syllable which the Captain remembered, affirms is +plainly _Phœnician_. The Captain not being Master of that exceedingly +useful and obsolete Language, had the Misfortune of not comprehending a +Word they said. Had he been a deep Scholar, he would undoubtedly have +had recourse to Hieroglyphics, which the Learned tell us was the first +Way of conveying Instruction: But I must beg leave to observe that it +was very lucky the Captain had not so much Erudition. I do not know +whether he can draw or not, but most probably if he can, he had not his +Implements with him. At most perhaps a Black-Lead Pencil, or a Pen and +Ink, and the Cover of a Letter. He could not with such Tools have asked +many Questions; and as the Giants are probably not better Painters +than the _Egyptians_, he would have understood their Answers as little +as the Learned do the Figures on Obelisks. Thus he would have lost +his Time, and got no Information; or what is worse to every Man but a +Critic, have made a thousand absurd Guesses. The Captain having a great +Deal more Sense, and the Savages some, they naturally fell into that +_Succedaneum_ to Language, Signs. Yet I do not hear that either Side +gained much Information. + +The first Thing, or rather first Sign, he said to them in this Dilemma, +was, _sit down_, which he explained by sitting down on the Ground +himself. The poor good Giants understood him, dismounted, and sat down +too. It is said, but far be it from me to affirm it, that when the +Captain (who I am told is upwards of Six Feet) rose again, the nearest +Giant to him, tho’ sitting, was taller than he. + +An Hour or two was spent in fruitlesly endeavouring to understand one +another: All I hear the Captain comprehended, was, that the Giants +invited him very civily to go with them into the Woods, where, I +suppose, _Gigantopolis_ stands, and their King resides, who, no doubt, +is at least two Feet taller than the tallest of his Grenadiers. The +Captain declined the Offer, at which these polite Savages expressed +much Concern, but never once, as any still more polite People would +have done, attempted to force him. + +When he took his leave they remained motionless, and continued so, as +he observed by his Glasses, till the Ship was out of their Sight. + +Very few other Particulars are come to my Knowledge, except that +they were clothed in Skins of Beasts, and had their Eyes painted of +different Colours; that they had no Weapons, but Spears pointed with +Fish-Bones, that they devour Fish raw, and that they showed great +Repugnance to taste any Liquids offered to them by the Captain; and +that though they were too polite absolutely to refuse his Toast, they +spit the Liquor out of their Mouths again; whether from Apprehension +of Intoxication or Poison, is not certain: However it looks as if they +had some Notion of such _European_ Arts. What is more remarkable; the +Weather being very severe at that Season, the whole Colossal Troop +seemed as sensible of the Cold, and shivered like us little delicate +Mortals of Six Feet high. They had a few Giantesses with them, but as +the Captain did not survey them with the small End of his Spying-Glass, +I do not hear that he was much struck with their Charms. + +This, my dear Friend, is all the Satisfaction I can give you. However I +am proud to be the first who has communicated this important Discovery +to _Europe_. + +The Speculations it has already occasioned, and will occasion, are +infinite. The Wolf of the _Gevaudan_, that Terror of the _French_ +Monarchy, is already forgotten. Naturalists, Politicians, Divines, +and Writers of Romance, have a new Field opened to them. The Scale of +Being ascends; we mount from the Pigmies of _Lapland_ to the Giants of +_Patagonia_. + +You will ask, but I cannot answer you, Whether the Scale of the Country +is in proportion to such Inhabitants? Whether their Oaks are half as +lofty again as the _British_; and such is your Zeal for _England_, +you will already figure a Fleet built of their Timber. How large is +the Grain of their Corn? of what Size their Sheep, Cows, and Poultry? +Do not go and compute by _Gulliver_’s Measures, and tell me that a +populous Nation of such Dimensions would devour the Products of such a +Country as Great _Tartary_ in half a Year. Giants there are; but what +proportionable Food they have, except Elephants and Leviathans, is more +than I can tell. They probably do not live upon Bantam-Chickens. + +As you are still more of a Politician than a Naturalist, you will be +impatient to know if Captain _Byron_ took Possession of the Country for +the Crown of _England_, and to have his Majesty’s Stile run, +George+ +the Third, by the Grace of +God+, King of _Great-Britain, France, +Ireland, and the Giants_! You will ask why some of their Women were not +brought away to mend our Breed, which all good Patriots assert has been +dwindling for some Hundreds of Years; and whether there is any Gold or +Diamonds in the Country? Mr. _Whitfield_ wants to know the same Thing, +and it is said intends a Visit for the Conversion of these poor blinded +Savages. + +As soon as they are properly civilized, that is, enslaved, due care +will undoubtedly be taken to specify in their Charter that these Giants +shall be subject to the Parliament of _Great-Britain_, and shall not +wear a Sheep’s Skin that is not legally Stamped. A Riot of Giants would +be very unpleasant to an Infant Colony. But Experience, I hope, will +teach us, that the invaluable Liberties of _Englishmen_ are not to be +wantonly scattered all over the Globe. Let us enjoy them ourselves, but +they are too sacred to be communicated. If Giants once get an Idea of +Freedom, they will soon be our Masters instead of our Slaves. But what +Pretensions can they have to Freedom? They are as distinct from the +common Species as Blacks, and by being larger, may be more useful, I +would advise our prudent Merchants to employ them in the Sugar Trade; +they are capable of more Labour; but even then they must be worse +treated, if possible, than our Black Slaves are; they must be lamed +and maimed, and have their Spirits well broken, or they may become +dangerous. This too will give a little respite to _Africa_, where we +have half exhausted the Human, I mean, the Black Breed, by that wise +maxim of our Planters, that if a Slave lives Four Years, he has earned +his Purchase-Money, consequently you may afford to work him to Death in +that time. + +The Mother Country is not only the First, but ought to be the sole +Object of our political Considerations. If we once begin to extend the +Idea of the Love of our Country, it will embrace the Universe, and +consequently annihilate all Notion of our Country. The Romans, so +much the Object of modern Admiration, were with difficulty persuaded +to admit even the rest of _Italy_ to be their Countrymen. The true +Patriots never regarded any thing without the Walls of _Rome_, except +their own _Villas_, as their Country. Every thing was done for immortal +_Rome_, and it was immortal _Rome_ that did every thing. Conquered +Nations, which to them answered to discovered Nations with us, for they +conquered as fast as they discovered, were always treated accordingly; +and it is remarkable that two Men equally famous for their Eloquence +have been the only Two that ever had the weakness to think that +conquered Countries were intituled to all the Blessings of the Mother +Country. _Cicero_ treated _Sicily_ and _Cilicia_ as tenderly as the +District of _Arpinum_, and I doubt it was the folly of that Example +that misled his too exact Imitator on a late occasion. However, the +Giants must be impressed with other Ideas: Bless us, if like that Pigmy +old _Oliver_, they should come to think the Speaker’s Mace a Bawble! + +What have we to do with _America_, but to conquer, enslave, and make +it tend to the Advantage of our Commerce? shall the noblest Rivers in +the World roll for Savages? shall Mines teem with Gold for the Natives +of the Soil? and shall the World produce any Thing but for _England_, +_France_, and _Spain_? It is enough that the Overflowings of Riches in +those three Countries are every Ten Years wasted in _Germany_. + +Still, my political Friend, I am not for occupying _Patagonia_, as we +did _Virginia_, _Carolina_, &c. such might be the Politics of Queen +_Elizabeth_’s Days. But modern Improvements are wiser. If the Giants +in question are Masters of a rich and flourishing Empire, I think they +ought to be put under their Majesties, a _West-Indian_ Company; the +Directors of which may retail out a small Portion of their Imperial +Revenues to the Proprietors, under the Name of a Dividend. This is an +excellent Scheme of Government totally unknown to the Ancients. I can +but think how poor _Livy_ or _Tacitus_ would have been hampered in +giving an Account of such an _imperium in imperio_. _Cassimirus Alius +Caunus_, (for they latinized every proper Name, instead of delivering +it, as uncouthly pronounced by their Soldiers and Sailors) would +have sounded well enough: But Dividends, Discounts, _India_ Bonds, +_&c._ were not made for the Majesty of History. But I am wandering +from my Subject; though, while I am talking of the Stocks and Funds, I +could chalk out a very pretty New South-Sea Scheme, _à propos_ to the +_Patagonians_. It would not ruin above Half the Nation, and would make +the Fortunes of such industrious Gentlemen, as during the Want of a War +in _Germany_ cannot turn Commissaries. + +Command is the Object of every Man’s Ambition; but by the impolitic +Assent of Ages and Nations to Hereditary Monarchy, you must be begotten +on a Queen, or are for ever excluded from wearing a Diadem; except in +a very few Instances; as in _Poland_, where the Throne is elective; +in _Corsica_, where they will not acknowledge Hereditary Right in the +Republic of _Genoa_; in _Russia_, where a Soldier’s Trull succeeded +her Husband the _Czar_, and where there are other Ways of succeeding a +Husband; in _Peru_ where they are tired of exchanging their Gold for +Tyrants; and in _Paraguay_, where the Outcasts of the Earth, and the +Inventors of the Oath of Obedience, have thrown off all Submission to +their Prince, and having mounted the Throne, will probably renounce the +Oath of Chastity too. But it is to _England_ that Persons of the lowest +Birth are indebted for the Invention and Facility of weilding at least +Part of a Scepter. Buy but an _India_ Bond and you have a Property in +the Kingdom of _Bengal_. Rise to be a Director, and the _Mogul_ has not +more Power appointing and displacing Nabobs. _Indian_ Sovereigns may +now be born in _Threadneedle-Street_. + +What the Government means by pocketing a whole Nation of Giants, is +not to be conceived. It ought again to draw down the Vengeance of +their Antagonists on the present Ministers. I am sure they have done +nothing worse. Who knows but at this Instant they may be preparing to +pour in Forty or Fifty thousand Giants upon us? Their Love of Liberty, +their Tenderness of the Constitution, their Lenity, Mildness and +Disinterestedness, their Attention to the Merchants, in short, all +their Virtues may be affected, and only calculated to lull us asleep, +until the fatal Blow is struck. I own my Apprehensions are gloomy; yet, +thank +God+, we have a pretty tall Opposition, who will not suffer us +to be enslaved by any Thing higher than themselves. + +In the mean Time, till we know something of the Matter, it is to be +hoped, that all speculative Authors, who are so kind as to govern and +reform the World through the Channel of the News Papers, will turn +their Thoughts to Plans for settling this new acquired Country. I call +it new acquired, because whoever finds a Country, though Nobody has +lost it, is from that Instant intitled to take a Possession of it for +himself, or his Sovereign. _Europe_ has no other Title to _America_, +except Force and Murder, which are rather the executive Parts of +Government than a Right. Though _Spain_ pretends a Knowledge of our +Giants, she has forfeited all Pretensions to their Allegiance, by +concealing the Discovery; as is plain from the Decision of the _Canon_ +Law, _Tit. de novis regionibus non abscondendis_. + +The first Thought that will occur to every good Christian, is, that +this Race of Giants ought to be exterminated, and their Country +colonized; but I have already mentioned the great Utility that may +be drawn from them in the Light of Slaves. I have also said, that +a moderate Importation might be tolerated for the Sake of mending +our Breed; but I would by no Means come into a Project I have heard +dropped, and in which Propagation would not be concerned, I mean the +Scheme of bringing over a Number of Giants for second Husbands to +Dowagers. _Ireland_ is already kept in a State of Humiliation. We +check their Trade, and do not allow them to avail themselves of the +best situated Harbours in the World. Matrimony is their only Branch of +Commerce unrestricted, and it would be a most crying Injustice to clog +that too. + +In truth, we are not sufficiently acquainted with these Goliaths to +decide peremptorily on their Properties. No Account of them has been +yet transmitted to the Royal Society: But it would be exceedingly +adviseable, that a Jury of Matrons should be sent in the next +embarkation to make a report; and old Women for old Women, I would +trust to the Analysis of the Matrons in preference to that of the +Philosophers. + +I will now, my Friend, drop the political Part of this Discussion, and +inform you what effect this Phænomenon has had on another Set of Men. +It has started an obvious and very perplexing Question, _viz._ whether +these Giants are _Aborigines_; if they are not, from which of the Sons +of _Noah_ are they descended, and in that case how we shall account for +this extraordinary increase of Stature? + +The modern Philosophers are peremptory that these Giants are +_Aborigines_, that is, that their Country has been inhabited by Giants +from the Creation of the World. The Scriptures, say those Gentlemen, +mention Giants, but never posterior to the Flood; whence we ought +to believe that they perished in the General Deluge. Neither, add +they, are we told that any Son of _Noah_ was of Stature supereminent +to his Brethren. Yet we will suppose, say they, that some of their +Defendants might have Shot up to an Extraordinary height, without +Notice being taken of it in Sacred Writ. Nay, they allow that this +increase of Stature might not have appeared till after the Date of +Holy Writ. Yet is it credible, say they, that a race of Giants should +have been formed, and remain unknown to all Ages, all Nations, all +History? Did these Monsters pass unobserved from the most Eastern Part +of the Continent (the supposed Communication by which _America_ was +peopled) to the Northern Parts of the other World, and migrate down +that whole Continent to the most Southern Point of it, without leaving +any Trace, even by Tradition, in the memory of Mankind? Or are we to +believe, that Tribes of Giants sailed from _Africa_ to _America_? +What Vessels wafted them? Was Navigation so perfected in the infant +Ages of the World, that Fleets enormously larger than any now existing +were constructed for the transportation of a Race of _Polyphemes_? Or +to come to the Third Point, is it the Climate that has ripened them, +as _Jamaica_ swells Oranges to Shadocks, to this stupendous Volume? +But North and South of them are Men of the ordinary size, nor has the +same Latitudes produced any thing similar. Natural Philosophers cannot +account for it, therefore Divines certainly can; and when this People +shall be better known, I do not doubt but the Mystery will be cleared +up; for as these Giants have indubitably remained unmixed longer than +any other People, we shall probably discover stronger Traces of +their _Jewish_ Origin. Their Cult is in all likelihood less corrupted +from that of the Sons of _Noah_, than is to be found elsewhere: their +Language possibly the Genuine _Hebrew_, not _Phœnician_; and if I might +hazard a Conjecture, these Giants are probably the Descendants of the +Ten Tribes so long lost, and so Fruitlessly sought by the Learned; and +having deviated less from the true Religion of their Forefathers, may +have been restored so, or preserved in their primitive Stature and +Vigour. I offer this Opinion with much Modesty, though I think it more +reasonable than any _Hypothesis_ I have yet heard on the Subject. + +Whatever their Religion shall appear to be, it will be matter of great +Curiosity. We scarce know of any People, except the _Hottentots_, or +the _Heroes_, who lived in the Days of _Fingal_, among whom no Traces +of any Religious Notions or Worship have been discovered. + +If they are not _Jews_, but Idolaters, the Statues of their Divinities, +their sacrificing Instruments, or whatever are the Trinkets of their +Devotion, will be great Rarities, and worthy of a place in any Museum. + +Their Poetry will be another Object of Inquiry, and if their Minds are +at all in proportion to their Bodies, must abound in the most lofty +Images, in the true Sublime. Oh! If we could come at an Heroic Poem +penned by a Giant! We should see other Images than our puny Writers of +Romance have conceived; and a little different from the Cold Tale of a +late notable Author, who did not know better what to do with his Giant +than to make him grow till he shook his own Castle about his own Ears. + +In short, my good Friend, here is ample Room for Speculation: but I +hope we shall go calmly and systematically to Work: that we shall not +exterminate these poor Monsters till we are fully acquainted with their +History, Laws, Opinions, Police, _&c._ that we shall not convert them +to Christianity, only to cut their Throats afterwards; that Nobody will +beg a Million of Acres of Giant-Land, till we have determined what +to do with the present Occupiers: and that we shall not throw away +Fifteen or Twenty Thousand Men in conquering their Country, as we did +at the _Havannah_, only to restore it to the _Spaniards_: + + + _July 1, 1766._ + + Your’s, + + _S. T._ + + + Transcriber’s Notes: + + • Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + • Text enclosed by pluses is in small caps (+small caps+). + • Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. + • Antiquated spelling is unchanged. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75432 *** |