Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/77

Rh shall proceed to a description of Basilio Huaylas, of enormous stature, who was brought from the city of lea to Lima, in the month of May 1792, to be exhibited as a spectacle to the inhabitants.

Before, however, we touch on the subject of this giant, whom we have seen, it will not be foreign to our purpose to cite the following extract of a letter from Santa Fé de Bogota, relative to another prodigy of the same description. "His Excellency the Viceroy of this kingdom (New Granada) has embarked for Spain a labourer in the mines, named Pedro Cano, aged twenty-one years, who, until the age of fifteen years, grew moderately, but who has, since that epoch, attained the gigantic stature of seven feet, five inches, three lines and a half, Spanish measure. Such was the poverty of this Indian in his primitive condition, that he had never worn shoes; but on his arrival at Santa Fé, decency required that he should be furnished with a pair, which measured half a yard in length."

To proceed to Basilio Huaylas. This Indian, a native of the province of Castro- Virreyna, aged twenty-four years, is pretty nearly of the same stature with the giant Pedro Cano. His height is seven Castillian feet, two inches, and a few lines. His limbs are out of all due proportion: from the waist upward they are monstrous. The head occupies about one-third; the shoulders have a breadth of five-sixths of an ell; and the arms are so long, that when our giant stands erect, the points of the fingers touch the knees. From the waist downward, the limbs are of smaller proportions. The right leg is an inch shorter than the left; a defect which is said to have arisen from a blow which Huaylas received in his. fancy