Leaving these islands and the African coast on the 10th September, and holding their course W.S.W. obliquely across the Atlantic, they fell in with a great mountain in Brazil, on the 31st of October, twenty-four leagues from Cape _Frio_. This mountain has a high round top, shewing from afar like a little town. On the 1st November, they stood in between the island of St Sebastian and the main; where they carried their things on shore, and erected a forge, and built a pinnace, repairing also every thing that was out of order, in which work they were detained till the 23d of November. Sailing from this place on the 26th, they fell in with the coast of South America again in lat. 47° 20' S. whence they proceeded along shore till they came to lat. 48° S. finding a steep beach all along. On the 27th of November they came to a harbour, into which Candish first entered, giving it the name of Port Desire, from that of his ship.[46] Near this harbour they found an island or two well stocked with seals, and another in which there were vast numbers of grey gulls.[47] [Footnote 46: As laid down in modern maps, the latitude of Port Desire is only 47° 15' S.] [Footnote 47: Probably penguins.--E.] This haven of Port Desire was found very favourable for careening and graving of ships, as the tide there ebbed and flowed considerably. At this place the savages wounded two of the Englishmen with their arrows, which were made of canes or reeds, tipt with sharpened flints. These savage natives of the country round Port Desire were exceedingly wild and rude, and as it would seem of a gigantic race, as the measure of one of their foot marks was eighteen inches long.[48] This agrees well with the assertion of Magellan, though some pains have been taken to represent that as fabulous. Magellan called this country Patagonia, and its inhabitants Patagons, meaning to signify that they were five cubits, or _seven feet and a half high_. Hence, as the Portuguese are not commonly very tall, we need not wonder if they styled them giants. If we take the usual proportion of the human foot, as between a fifth and a sixth part of the height of the whole body, the account given by Magellan agrees very exactly with this fact afforded us by Mr Candish; and it will be seen in the sequel, that this is not falsified by any of our subsequent navigators. When any of these savages die, he is buried in a grave constructed of stones near the sea-side, all his darts being fastened about his tomb, and his treasure, consisting of shells, laid under his head. [Footnote 48: Without meaning to impugn the received opinion, that the Patagons are beyond the ordinary size of man, it may be permitted to say, that the evidence, in the text, the only one here adduced, is altogether inconclusive; and the subsequent reflections are evidently those of Harris, not of Candish.--E.]