_Sequel of the Passage from New Zealand to Easter Island, and
Transactions there, with an Account of an Expedition to discover the Inland
Part of the Country, and a Description of some of the surprising gigantic
Statues found in the Island._
At eight o'clock in the morning, on the 11th, land was seen, from the mast-
head, bearing west, and at noon from the deck, extending from W. 3/4 N. to
W. by S., about twelve leagues distant.[1] I made no doubt that this was
Davis's Land, or Easter Island; as its appearance from this situation,
corresponded very well with Wafer's account; and we expected to have seen
the low sandy isle that Davis fell in with, which would have been a
confirmation; but in this we were disappointed. At seven o'clock in the
evening, the island bore from north 62° W., to north 87° W., about five
leagues distant; in which situation, we sounded without finding ground with
a line of an hundred and forty fathoms. Here we spent the night, having
alternately light airs and calms, till ten o'clock the next morning, when a
breeze sprung up at W.S.W. With this we stretched in for the land; and by
the help of our glass, discovered people, and some of those Colossean
statues or idols mentioned in the account of Roggewein's voyage.[2] At four
o'clock p.m. we were half a league S.S.E. and N.N.W. of the N.E. point of
the island; and, on sounding, found thirty-five fathoms, a dark sandy
bottom. I now tacked, and endeavoured to get into what appeared to be a
bay, on the west side of the point or S.E. side of the island; but before
this could be accomplished, night came upon us, and we stood on and off,
under the land, till the next morning; having sounding from seventy-five to
an hundred and ten fathoms, the same bottom as before.
On the 13th, about eight o'clock in the morning, the wind, which had been
variable most part of the night, fixed at S.E., and blew in squalls,
accompanied with rain; but it was not long before the weather became fair.
As the wind now blew right to the S.E. shore, which does not afford that
shelter I at first thought, I resolved to look for anchorage on the west
and N.W. sides of the island. With this view I bore up round the south
point, off which lie two small islets, the one nearest the point high and
peaked, and the other low and flattish. After getting round the point, and
coming before a sandy beach, we found soundings thirty and forty fathoms,
sandy ground, and about one mile from the shore. Here a canoe, conducted by
two men, came off to us. They brought with them a bunch of plantains, which
they sent into the ship by a rope, and then they returned ashore. This gave
us a good opinion of the islanders, and inspired us with hopes of getting
some refreshments, which we were in great want of.
I continued to range along the coast, till we opened the northern point of
the isle, without seeing a better anchoring-place than the one we had
passed. We therefore tacked, and plied back to it; and, in the mean time,
sent away the master in a boat to sound the coast. He returned about five
o'clock in the evening; and soon after we came to an anchor in thirty-six
fathoms water, before the sandy beach above mentioned. As the master drew
near the shore with the boat, one of the natives swam off to her, and
insisted on coming a-board the ship, where he remained two nights and a
day. The first thing he did after coming a-board, was to measure the length
of the ship, by fathoming her from the tafferel to the stern, and as he
counted the fathoms, we observed that he called the numbers by the same
names that they do at Otaheite; nevertheless his language was in a manner
wholly unintelligible to all of us.[3]
Having anchored too near the edge of a bank, a fresh breeze from the land,
about three o'clock the next morning, drove us off it; on which the anchor
was heaved up, and sail made to regain the bank again. While the ship was
plying in, I went ashore, accompanied by some of the gentlemen, to see what
the island was likely to afford us. We landed at the sandy beach, where
some hundreds of the natives were assembled, and who were so impatient to
see us, that many of them swam off to meet the boats. Not one of them had
so much as a stick or weapon of any sort in their hands. After distributing
a few trinkets amongst them, we made signs for something to eat, on which
they brought down a few potatoes, plantains, and sugar canes, and exchanged
them for nails, looking-glasses, and pieces of cloth.[4]
We presently discovered that they were as expert thieves and as tricking in
their exchanges, as any people we had yet met with. It was with some
difficulty we could keep the hats on our heads; but hardly possible to keep
any thing in our pockets, not even what themselves had sold us; for they
would watch every opportunity to snatch it from us, so that we sometimes
bought the same thing two or three times over, and after all did not get
it.
Before I sailed from England, I was informed that a Spanish ship had
visited this isle in 1769. Some signs of it were seen among the people now
about us; one man had a pretty good broad-brimmed European hat on, another
had a grego jacket, and another a red silk handkerchief. They also seemed
to know the use of a musquet, and to stand in much awe of it; but this they
probably learnt from Roggewein, who, if we are to believe the authors of
that voyage, left them sufficient tokens.
Near the place where we landed, were some of those statues before
mentioned, which I shall describe in another place. The country appeared
barren and without wood; there were, nevertheless, several plantations of
potatoes, plantains, and sugar-canes; we also saw some fowls, and found a
well of brackish water. As these were articles we were in want of, and as
the natives seemed not unwilling to part with them, I resolved to stay a
day or two. With this view I repaired on board, and brought the ship to an
anchor in thirty-two fathoms water; the bottom a fine dark sand. Our
station was about a mile from the nearest shore, the south point of a small
bay, in the bottom of which is the sandy beach before mentioned, being
E.S.E., distant one mile and a-half. The two rocky islets lying off the
south point of the island, were just shut behind a point to the north of
them; they bore south 3/4 west, four miles distant; and the other extreme
of the island bore north 25° E., distant about six miles. But the best mark
for this anchoring-place is the beach, because it is the only one on this
side of the island. In the afternoon, we got on board a few casks of water,
and opened a trade with the natives for such things as they had to dispose
of. Some of the gentlemen also made an excursion into the country to see
what it produced; and returned again in the evening, with the loss only of
a hat, which one of the natives snatched off the head of one of the
party.[5]
Early next morning, I sent Lieutenants Pickersgill and Edgecumbe with a
party of men, accompanied by several of the gentlemen, to examine the
country. As I was not sufficiently recovered from my late illness to make
one of the party, I was obliged to content myself with remaining at the
landing-place among the natives. We had, at one time, a pretty brisk trade
with them for potatoes, which we observed they dug up out of an adjoining
plantation; but this traffic, which was very advantageous to us, was soon
put a stop to by the owner (as we supposed) of the plantation coming down,
and driving all the people out of it. By this we concluded, that he had
been robbed of his property, and that they were not less scrupulous of
stealing from one another, than from us, on whom they practised every
little fraud they could think of, and generally with success; for we no
sooner detected them in one, than they found out another. About seven
o'clock in the evening, the party I had sent into the country returned,
after having been over the greatest part of the island.
They left the beach about nine o'clock in the morning, and took a path
which led across to the S.E. side of the island, followed by a great crowd
of the natives, who pressed much upon them. But they had not proceeded far,
before a middle-aged man, punctured from head to foot, and his face painted
with a sort of white pigment, appeared with a spear in his hand, and walked
along-side of them, making signs to his countrymen to keep at a distance,
and not to molest our people. When he had pretty well effected this, he
hoisted a piece of white cloth on his spear, placed himself in the front,
and led the way, with his ensign of peace, as they understood it to be. For
the greatest part of the distance across, the ground had but a barren
appearance, being a dry hard clay, and every where covered with stones; but
notwithstanding this, there were several large tracts planted with
potatoes; and some plantain walks, but they saw no fruit on any of the
trees. Towards the highest part of the south end of the island, the soil,
which was a fine red earth, seemed much better, bore a longer grass, and
was not covered with stones as in the other parts; but here they saw
neither house nor plantation.
On the east side, near the sea, they met with three platforms of stone-
work, or rather the ruins of them. On each had stood four of those large
statues, but they were all fallen down from two of them, and also one from
the third; all except one were broken by the fall, or in some measure
defaced. Mr Wales measured this one, and found it to be fifteen feet in
length, and six feet broad over the shoulders, Each statue had on its head
a large cylindric stone of a red colour, wrought perfectly round. The one
they measured, which was not by far the largest, was fifty-two inches high,
and sixty-six in diameter. In some, the upper corner of the cylinder was
taken off in a sort of concave quarter-round, but in others the cylinder
was entire.
From this place they followed the direction of the coast to the N.E., the
man with the flag still leading the way. For about three miles they found
the country very barren, and in some places stript of the soil to the bare
rock, which seemed to be a poor sort of iron ore. Beyond this, they came to
the most fertile part of the island they saw, it being interspersed with
plantations of potatoes, sugar-canes, and plantain trees, and these not so
much encumbered with stones as those which they had seen before; but they
could find no water except what the natives twice or thrice brought them,
which, though brackish and stinking, was rendered acceptable, by the
extremity of their thirst. They also passed some huts, the owners of which
met them with roasted potatoes and sugar-canes, and, placing themselves a-
head of the foremost party (for they marched in a line in order to have the
benefit of the path), gave one to each man as he passed by. They observed
the same method in distributing the water which they brought; and were
particularly careful that the foremost did not drink too much, lest none
should be left for the hindmost. But at the very time these were relieving
the thirsty and hungry, there were not wanting others who endeavoured to
steal from them the very things which had been given them. At last, to
prevent worse consequences, they were obliged to fire a load of small shot
at one who was so audacious as to snatch from one of the men the bag which
contained every thing they carried with them. The shot hit him on the back,
on which he dropped the bag, ran a little way, and then fell; but he
afterwards got up and walked, and what became of him they knew not, nor
whether he was much wounded. As this affair occasioned some delay, and drew
the natives together, they presently saw the man who had hitherto led the
way and one or two more, coming running towards them; but instead of
stopping when they came up, they continued to run round them, repeating, in
a kind manner, a few words, until our people set forwards again. Then their
old guide hoisted his flag, leading the way as before, and none ever
attempted to steal from them the whole day afterwards. As they passed
along, they observed on a hill a number of people collected together, some
of whom had spears in their hands; but on their being called to by their
countrymen, they dispersed, except a few, amongst whom was one seemingly of
some note. He was a stout well-made man, with a fine open countenance, his
face was painted, his body punctured, and he wore a better _Ha hou_,
or cloth, than the rest. He saluted them as he came up, by stretching out
his arms, with both hands clenched, lifting them over his head, opening
them wide, and then letting them fall gradually down to his sides. To this
man, whom they understood to be chief of the island, their other friend
gave his white flag, and he gave him another, who carried it before them
the remainder of the day.
Towards the eastern end of the island, they met with a well whose water was
perfectly fresh, being considerably above the level of the sea; but it was
dirty, owing to the filthiness or cleanliness (call it which you will) of
the natives, who never go to drink without washing themselves all over as
soon as they have done; and if ever so many of them are together, the first
leaps right into the middle of the hole, drinks, and washes himself without
the least ceremony; after which another takes his place and does the same.
They observed that this side of the island was full of those gigantic
statues so often mentioned; some placed in groupes on platforms of masonry,
others single, fixed only in the earth, and that not deep; and these latter
are, in general, much larger than the others. Having measured one, which
had fallen down, they found it very near twenty-seven feet long, and
upwards of eight feet over the breast or shoulders; and yet this appeared
considerably short of the size of one they saw standing; its shade, a
little past two o'clock, being sufficient to shelter all the party,
consisting of near thirty persons, from the rays of the sun. Here they
stopped to dine; after which they repaired to a hill, from whence they saw
all the east and north shores of the isle, on which they could not see
either bay or creek fit even for a boat to land in; nor the least signs of
fresh water. What the natives brought them here was real salt water; but
they observed that some of them drank pretty plentifully of it, so far will
necessity and custom get the better of nature! On this account they were
obliged to return to the last-mentioned well, where, after having quenched
their thirst, they directed their route across the island towards the ship,
as it was now four o'clock.
In a small hollow, on the highest part of the island, they met with several
such cylinders as are placed on the heads of the statues. Some of these
appeared larger than any they had seen before; but it was now too late to
stop to measure any of them. Mr Wales, from whom I had this information, is
of opinion that there had been a quarry here, whence these stones had
formerly been dug; and that it would have been no difficult matter to roll
them down the hill after they were formed. I think this a very reasonable
conjecture, and have no doubt that it has been so.
On the declivity of the mountain towards the west, they met with another
well, but the water was a very strong mineral, had a thick green scum on
the top, and stunk intolerably. Necessity, however, obliged some to drink
of it; but it soon made them so sick, that they threw it up the same way
that it went down.
In all this excursion, as well as the one made the preceding day, only two
or three shrubs were seen. The leaf and seed of one (called by the natives
_Torromedo_) were not much unlike those of the common vetch; but the
pod was more like that of a tamarind in its size and shape. The seeds have
a disagreeable bitter taste; and the natives, when they saw our people chew
them, made signs to spit them out; from whence it was concluded that they
think them poisonous. The wood is of a reddish colour, and pretty hard and
heavy, but very crooked, small, and short, not exceeding six or seven feet
in height. At the S.W. corner of the island, they found another small
shrub, whose wood was white and brittle, and in some measure, as also its
leaf, resembling the ash. They also saw in several places the Otaheitean
cloth plant, but it was poor and weak, and not above two and a half feet
high at most.
They saw not an animal of any sort, and but very few birds; nor indeed any
thing which can induce ships that are not in the utmost distress, to touch
at this island.
This account of the excursion I had from Mr Pickersgill and Mr Wales, men
on whose veracity I could depend; and therefore I determined to leave the
island the next morning, since nothing was to be obtained that could make
it worth my while to stay longer; for the water which we had sent on board,
was not much better than if it had been taken up out of the sea.[6]
We had a calm till ten o'clock in the morning of the 16th, when a breeze
sprung up at west, accompanied with heavy showers of rain, which lasted
about an hour. The weather then clearing up, we got under sail, stood to
sea, and kept plying to and fro, while an officer was sent on shore with
two boats, to purchase such refreshments as the natives might have brought
down; for I judged this would be the case, as they knew nothing of our
sailing. The event proved that I was not mistaken; for the boats made two
trips before night, when we hoisted them in, and made sail to the N.W.,
with a light breeze at N.N.E.
[1] "The joy which this fortunate event spread on every countenance,
is scarcely to be described. We had been one hundred and three days
out of sight of land; and the rigorous weather to the south, the
fatigues of continual attendance during storms, or amidst dangerous
masses of ice, the sudden changes of climate, and the long continuance
of a noxious diet, all together had emaciated and worn out our crew.
The expectation of a speedy end to their sufferings, and the hope of
finding the land stocked with abundance of fowls and planted with
fruits, according to the accounts of the Dutch navigator, now filled
them with uncommon alacrity and cheerfulness."--G.F.
Captain Cook was much indebted for now falling in with this island, to
the superior means he possessed of ascertaining his longitude. Byron,
Carteret, and Bouganville, all missed it, although they took their
departure from no greater a distance than the islands of Juan
Fernandez. Most of the writers who mention Easter Island, agree pretty
well together as to its latitude, but the Spanish accounts are not less
than thirty leagues erroneous as to its longitude.--E.
[2] See this in vol. XI. p. 95 of this collection; but the description
afterwards given is much more satisfactory.--E.
[3] "He was of the middle size, about five feet eight inches high, and
remarkably hairy on the breast, and all over the body. His colour was
a chesnut brown, his beard strong, but clipped short, and of a black
colour, as was also the hair of his head, which was likewise cut
short. His ears were very long, almost hanging on his shoulders, and
his legs punctured in compartments after a taste which we had observed
no where else. He had only a belt round his middle, from whence a kind
of net-work descended before, too thin to conceal any thing from the
sight. A string was tied about his neck, and a flat bone, something
shaped like a tongue, and about four inches long, was fastened to it,
and hung down on the breast. This he told us, was a porpoise's bone
(eavee toharra) expressing it exactly by the same words which an
Otaheitean would have made use of. Mahine, who had already expressed
his impatience to go ashore, was much pleased to find that the
inhabitants spoke a language so similar to his own, and attempted to
converse with our new visitor several times, but was interrupted by
the questions which many other persons in the ship put to him."--G.F.
[4] "Almost all of them were naked, some having only a belt round the
middle, from whence a small bit of cloth, six or eight inches long, or
a little net, hang down before. A very few of them had a cloak which
reached to the knees, made of cloth, resembling that of Otaheite in
the texture, and stitched or quilted with thread to make it the more
lasting. Most of these cloaks were painted yellow with the turmeric
root."--G.F.
[5] "After staying among the natives for some time on the beach, we
began to walk into the country. The whole ground was covered with
roots and stones of all sizes, which seemed to have been exposed to a
great fire, where they had acquired a black colour and porous
appearance. Two or three shrivelled species of grasses grew up among
these stones, and in a slight degree softened the desolate appearance
of the country. About fifteen yards from the landing place, we saw a
perpendicular wall of square hewn stones, about a foot and a half or
two feet long, and one foot broad. Its greatest height was about seven
or eight feet, but it gradually sloped on both sides, and its length
might be about twenty yards. A remarkable circumstance was the
junction of these stones, which were laid after the most excellent
rules of art, fitting in such a manner as to make a durable piece of
architecture. The stone itself, of which they are cut, is not of great
hardness, being a blackish brown cavernous and brittle stony lava. The
ground rose from the water side upwards; so that another wall,
parallel to the first, about twelve yards from it, and facing the
country, was not above two or three feet high. The whole area between
the two walls was filled up with soil and covered over with grass.
About fifty yards farther to the south, there was another elevated
area, of which the surface was paved with square stones exactly
similar to those which formed the walls. In the midst of this area,
there was a pillar consisting of a single stone, which represented a
human figure to the waist, about twenty feet high, and upwards of five
feet wide. The workmanship of this figure was rude, and spoke the arts
in their infancy. The eyes, nose, and mouth, were scarcely marked on a
lumpish ill-shaped head; and the ears, which were excessively long,
quite in the fashion of the country, were better executed than any
other part, though a European artist would have been ashamed of them.
The neck was clumsy and short, and the shoulders and arms very
slightly represented. On the top of the head a huge round cylinder of
stone was placed upright, being above five feet in diameter and in
height. This cap, which resembled the head-dress of some Egyptian
divinity, consisted of a different stone from the rest of the pillar,
being of a more reddish colour; and had a hole on each side, as if it
had been made round by turning. The cap, together with the head, made
one half of the whole pillar which appeared above ground. We did not
observe that the natives paid any worship to these pillars, yet they
seemed to hold them in some kind of veneration, as they sometimes
expressed a dislike when we walked over the paved area or pedestals,
or examined the stones of which it consisted. A few of the natives
accompanied us farther on into the country, where we had seen some
bushes at a distance, which we hoped would afford us something new.
Our road was intolerably rugged, over heaps of volcanic stones, which
rolled away under our feet, and against which we continually hurt
ourselves. The natives who were accustomed to this desolate ground,
skipped nimbly from stone to stone without the least difficulty. In
our way we saw several black rats running about, which it seems are
common to every island in the South Sea. Being arrived at the
shrubbery which we had in view, we found it was nothing but a small
plantation of the paper mulberry, of which here, as well as at
Otaheite, they make their cloth. Its stems were from two to four feet
high, and planted in rows, among very large rocks, where the rains had
washed a little soil together. In the neighbourhood of these we saw
some bushes of the _hibiscus populneus_, Linn, which is common also in
the Society Isles, where it is one of the numerous plants made use of
to dye yellow; and likewise a _mimosa_, which is the only shrub that
affords the natives sticks for their clubs and patoo-patoos, and wood
sufficient to patch up a canoe. We found the face of the country more
barren and ruinous the farther we advanced. The small number of
inhabitants, who met us at the landing-place, seemed to have been the
bulk of the nation, since we met no other people on our walk; and yet
for these few we did not see above ten or twelve huts, though the view
commanded a great part of the island. One of the sightliest of these
was situated on a little hillock, about half a mile from the sea,
which we ascended. Its construction was such as evinced the poverty
and wretched condition of its owners. The natives told us they passed
the night in these huts; and we easily conceived their situation to be
uncomfortable, especially as we saw so very few of them, that they
must be crammed full, unless the generality of the people lie in the
open air, and leave these wretched dwellings to their chiefs, or make
use of them only in bad weather. Besides these huts, we observed some
heaps of stones piled up into little hillocks, which had one steep
perpendicular side, where a hole went under ground. The space within
could be but very small, and yet it is very probable that these
cavities served to give shelter to the people during night. They may,
however, communicate with natural caverns, which are very common in
the lava currents of volcanic countries. We should have been glad to
have ascertained this circumstance, but the natives always denied us
admittance into these places."--G.F.
[6] "Captain Cook had not been very fortunate in trading with the
people. They seemed indeed to be so destitute as to have no provisions
to spare. A few matted baskets full of sweet potatoes, some sugar-
canes, bunches of bananas, and two or three small fowls ready dressed,
were the whole purchase which he had made for a few iron tools, and
some Otaheite cloth. He had presented the people with beads, but they
always threw them away with contempt, as far as ever they could.
Whatever else they saw about us, they were desirous of possessing,
though they had nothing to give in return.--G.F.