162 EASTER ISLAND. 



minute dissection. At this point I wish to employ the comparison 

 solely for the purpose of anticipating one particular of criticism. 



From correspondence I am aware that Captain Friederici holds the 

 opinion that Pere Roussel's dictionary, basic to this work, has recorded 

 a Rapanui speech contaminated through the sojourn of the Easter 

 Islanders in Mangareva. We have a record bearing on this point ; we 

 cite Roussel's pious editor, Pere Ildefonse Alazard : 



Envoye" en Oceanie en 1854, il evangelisa d'abord les Marquises, puis en 1866 

 l'lle-de-Paques jusqu'en i87i,heure de l'abandon de Tile par le mission. II se 

 reiugia aux Gambier avec une colonie de ses neophytes, dont il continua a tre 

 le pasteur bien aime jusqu'a sa mort arrived le 25 Janvier 1898. C'est le seul 

 homme, pensons-nous, qui ait pu composer et qui ait effectivement compose" 

 un vocabulaire Rapanui. 



A second passage, after detailing the horrors of the labor trade, shows 

 that the refugee party comprised most of the population : 



L'eloignement extreme, l'isolement complet de la petite He, rendant inutile 

 toute protestation, Mgr. Jaussen, vicaire apostolique de Tahiti, enjoignit au 

 missionnaire, qui tait le R. P. Hippolyte Roussel, d'abandonner Rapanui et de 

 se rfugier aux iles Gambier en emmenant avec lui tous les neophytes qui vou- 

 draient le suivre. Malgre" les efforts de l'aventurier pour retenir le gros de la 

 population dont il avait besoin, presque tous les naturels monterent a bord de 

 la go61ette qui devait les porter aux Gambier. Le commandant du navire 

 prtexta que son bateau ne pouvait embarquer tant de monde, et 175 indigenes 

 furent brutalement ramens a terre ou ils resterent a la merci d'un maitre qui 

 les traita en consequence. Impossible de depeindre la douleur du missionnaire 

 en se voyant ainsi violemment separe" de ses ouailles pour lesquelles il eut donn 

 jusqu'a la derniere goutte de son sang. 



Pere Roussel served five years in Rapanui, enough to give him a good 

 foundation in the speech. A prior service of a dozen years in the Mar- 

 quesas equipped him to recognize contamination from that northern 

 source; twenty-seven years in Mangareva is surely sufficient time in 

 which to teach the pious lexicographer to distinguish Rapanui from 

 Mangarevan. It should be borne in mind that this dictionary was pre- 

 pared primarily for the use of his fellow servants at the altar, and they 

 already comprehended the Mangarevan. Our figures speak as forcibly 

 against this contamination idea. The number of vocables common to 

 Rapanui and Mangareva is 65 1 , of which no more than 80 are restricted 

 to Mangareva, 99 occur in Mangareva and one other language, 188 in 

 Mangareva and two other languages, 284 in Mangareva and three other 

 languages. If a Mangarevan word finds community with the Paumotu, 

 with the Marquesas, with Tahiti, we scarcely need to consider its pres- 

 ence in Rapanui a contamination which Pere Roussel overlooked or was 

 unable to recognize. At best this could apply to but 80 vocables for 

 which alone we have not support elsewhere in the province. Yet even 



