Gigantism
Note that the Scriptures emphasize that Nimrod, son of Cush, was a giant and attribute this reality to the descendants of Ham, as a significant characteristic of Hamite nations: the Philistines, the Rephaim, the Anakim, the Canaanites, etc.
Chapter 8:22 of the Book of Jubilees mentions that Ham's original inheritance extended to the southwest of the Great Sea. Knowing that Gihon is the Great Sea, which refers to the Atlantic Ocean, and that the only continent west of the Atlantic Ocean is the Americas, the text would then implies that Ham is the true patriarch of the Americas.
Ham received the second portion, beyond the Gihon towards the south to the right of the Garden, and it extends towards the south and it extends to all the mountains of fire, and it extends towards the west to the sea of ‘atel and it extends towards the west until it reaches the sea of Ma’uk which was that sea into which everything that is not destroyed descends. |The Book of Jubilees, Chap 8:22| |
However, chapter 9:1 indicates that his first son Cush, father of Nimrod the Giant, would have inherited the first portion on the EAST side. This part corresponds to the southern region of the Americas.
Ham divided among his sons, and the first portion came out for Cush towards the east, and to the west of him for Mizraim, and to the west of him for Put, and to the west of him on the sea for Canaan. |
Ferdinand Magellan, became fascinated with the archipelago of present-day Indonesia, known as the “Spice Islands” due to its production of highly coveted spices. On September 20, 1519, he left the Iberian Peninsula with five ships, heading for the Canary Islands, where they resupplied before crossing the Atlantic and circumnavigating the southern tip of South America. After a much needed rest, they resumed their journey, sailing along the coast until they thought to have discovered a route to the South Sea (which they would later name the Pacific). They sailed into it, but gave up after two weeks. In fact, this was the estuary of the Río de la Plata. They then sailed back out to sea and down the coast to San Julián Bay, where they encountered a tribe of very tall people whom they called Patagones, a term of uncertain etymology that would later give its name to the entire region, Patagonia.
Antonio de Lombardía, Magellan's personal cartographer and translator, later published an account of the voyage entitled “Account of the First Voyage Around the World” upon his return in 1522. He wrote:
"One day, when we least expected it, a man of gigantic stature approached us. He was on the beach, almost naked, singing and dancing while throwing sand on his head. The commander sent one of the sailors ashore with orders to make the same gestures to show friendship and peace. This was so well understood that the giant allowed himself to be calmly led to a small island where the commander had landed. I was also there with a few others. Upon seeing us, he expressed much admiration and, raising a finger upward, he likely wanted to indicate that he thought we had descended from the sky.... This man was so tall that we could barely reach his waist with our heads. He was well-formed, with a broad face dyed red, eyes circled in yellow, and two heart-shaped spots on his cheeks. His sparse hair appeared bleached with some powder. His outfit, or rather his cloak, was made from sewn-together animal skins, a common animal in the region, as we later found out."
Ten years later, Anthony Kivet, one of the sailors in the crew of the privateer Thomas Cavendish, who had been left behind in Patagonia due to illness, claimed to have seen bodies of patagones almost four meters tall. By the end of the century, these descriptions were echoed by the account of English pilot William Adams, known for reaching Japan and becoming an advisor to the shogun. Adams recounts that his crew had an altercation with the natives of Tierra del Fuego and confirmed that they were extraordinarily tall.
One hundred years later, in The World Encompassed (London, 1628), the first detailed account of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation, the author, Drake’s nephew of the same name, wrote:
Magellane was not altogether deceived, in naming them Giants; for they generally differ from the common sort of men, both in stature, bignes, and strength of body, as also in the hideousnesse of their voice: but yet they are nothing so monstrous, or giantlike as they were reported; there being some English men, as tall, as the highest of any that we could see, but peradventure, the Spaniards did not thinke, that ever any English man would come thither, to reprove them; and thereupon might presume the more boldly to lie: the name Pentagones, Five cubits viz. 7. Foote and halfe, describing the full height (if not some what more) of the highest of them. But this is certaine, that the Spanish cruelties there used [referring to Magellan’s hostage taking], have made them more monstrous, in minde and manners, then they are in body; and more inhospitable, to deale with any strangers, that shall come thereafter. Magellan reduced the height of the Patagonians from ten feet to seven and a half feet but was obviously more intent on discrediting the Spanish and blaming them for the “monstrosity” of the giants. Ironically, though, he was really confirming the basic facts behind the myth.
This is further evidence that many facts were already being concealed since the early centuries.