1840s (fanciful) illustration of a Patagon chief from near the Straits of Magellan, bedecked in costume of war; from "Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Oceanie…" by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville

The Patagones or Patagonian giants are a mythical race of people, who first began to appear in early European accounts of the then little-known region and coastline of Patagonia. The Straits of Magellan (rarely referred to as the Magellanic Straits) comprise a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande Rear Admiral Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville ( May 23, 1790, Condé-sur-Noireau, France &ndash May 8, 1842, The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Llao LLaojpg|thumb|250px| Lake Nahuel Huapi, near Bariloche, Argentina They were supposed to have exceeded at least double normal human height, some accounts giving heights of 12 to 15 feet or more. Tales of these improbable people would take a hold over European concepts of the region for some 250 years, until they were substantially debunked at the end of the 18th century. However, South American legends speak of several giant tribal races, such as the Chancas or Chanak of Peru, which are said to be 7 feet tall on average, and have red hair. The Chankas were a Late Intermediate (ca 1400 CE ethnic group in Peru. Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. This article is about people with red hair also sometimes called redheads

First mention of these people came from the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, who claimed to have seen them while exploring the coastline of South America en route to their circumnavigation of the world in the 1520s. Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães fɨɾˈnɐ̃ũ dɨ mɐgɐˈʎɐ̃ĩʃ Fernando de Magallanes (Spring 1480 &ndash April 27 1521 Mactan Island, Cebu Antonio Pigafetta, one of the expedition's few survivors and the chronicler of Magellan's expedition, wrote in his account about their encounter with natives twice a normal person's height:

"One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head. Antonio Pigafetta (c 1491 was an Italian Scholar born in Vicenza. The captain-general [i. e. , Magellan] sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. Having done that, the man led the giant to an islet where the captain-general was waiting. When the giant was in the captain-general's and our presence he marveled greatly, and made signs with one finger raised upward, believing that we had come from the sky. He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, and he was well proportioned. . . "

Pigafetta also recorded that Magellan had bestowed on these people the name "Patagão" (i. e. "Patagon", or Patagoni in Pigafetta's Italian plural)^[1], but did not further elaborate on his reasons for doing so. Since Pigafetta's time the assumption that this derived from pata or foot took hold, and "Patagonia" was interpreted to mean "Land of the Bigfeet". However, this etymology remains questionable, since amongst other things the meaning of the suffix -gon is unclear. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Nevertheless, the name "Patagonia" stuck, as did the notion that the local inhabitants were giants. Early maps of the New World afterwards would sometimes attach the label regio gigantum ("region of giants") to the area. The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia.

1840s illustration of Patagon encampment; from account by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake's ship chaplain, Francis Fletcher, wrote about meeting very tall Patagonians. Rear Admiral Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville ( May 23, 1790, Condé-sur-Noireau, France &ndash May 8, 1842, Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral, (c 1540 &ndash 27 January 1595 was an English Privateer, navigator, Slaver, and politician

In the 1590s, Anthonie Knivet claimed he had seen dead bodies 12 feet long in Patagonia.

In 1766, a rumour leaked out upon their return to England that the crew of HMS Dolphin, captained by Commodore John Byron, had seen a tribe of nine-foot tall natives in Patagonia when they passed by there on their circumnavigation of the globe. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Early service Not long after her commissioning the hostilities of the Seven Years' War had escalated and spread to Europe, and in May of 1756 Britain Commodore is a Military rank used in many navies for officers whose position exceeds that of a navy captain, but is less than Vice-Admiral John Byron, RN ( November 8, 1723 – April 10, 1786) was an English Vice-admiral. However, when a newly-edited revised account of the voyage came out in 1773, the Patagonians were recorded as being merely 6 ft 6 in (1. 98 m); tall perhaps, but by no means giants.

The people encountered by Byron were in all likelihood the Tehuelches, indigenous to the region. Tehuelches is the collective name of the native tribes of Patagonia. Later writers consider the Patagonian giants to have been a hoax, or at least an exaggeration and mis-telling of earlier European accounts of the region. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that

References

1. ^ Antonio Pigafetta, Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo, 1524: "Il capitano generale nominò questi popoli Patagoni. Antonio Pigafetta (c 1491 was an Italian Scholar born in Vicenza. " The original word would probably be in Magellan's native Portuguese (patagão) or the Spanish of his men (patagón). Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães fɨɾˈnɐ̃ũ dɨ mɐgɐˈʎɐ̃ĩʃ Fernando de Magallanes (Spring 1480 &ndash April 27 1521 Mactan Island, Cebu It has been interpreted later as "big foot" but the etymology is unclear.

• The Patagonian Giants. Museum of Hoaxes. Retrieved on August 15, 2005.
• Carolyne Ryan. European Travel Writings and the Patagonian giants. Lawrence University. Retrieved on August 15, 2005.