318 EASTER ISLAND. 



The President donated a series of photographs (25) of the hieroglyphic 

 inscriptions on the blocks found on Easter Island. A letter was read on the 

 subject of these hieroglyphics from Mr. Croft as follows: 



"Papeete, Tahiti, April 30th, 1874. 



" Dear Sir : Your very complimentary letter, of February 4th, was received 

 by me at a moment when I was prostrated by a severe illness ; but I availed my- 

 self of the first hours of convalescence, con amore, to attend to your very natu- 

 ral, and indeed, somewhat anticipated requests. Being informed by Monseig- 

 neur Axieri that it would be impossible for him to let you have one of the blocks, 

 I have spared no exertions to obtain for you two good sets of photographs of all 

 of them, in accordance with your desire. 



"The Bishop, owing in part to his desire to ameliorate your disappointment 

 in not being able to see and handle one of the coveted articles, and partly owing 

 to his own innate good nature, has done all he could to assist me, lending me 

 the blocks (some of them twice over) to be taken to the photographer, and also 

 loaning me the manuscript chart of Easter Island, and a lithographic view of 

 some of the statues, (or rather 'busts') together with other assistance. 



"Mr. De Greno, a Swede, now residing in Papeete, who was passenger in a 

 ship which was sunk at Easter Island, having been run in there in a sinking 

 condition, and who was obliged to stay there some months until taken off by a 

 brig calling there on her way here from Valparaiso, and who takes an interest 

 in everything referring to that island, has kindly lent me part of a Harper's 

 Weekly of April 26th, 1873, from which I have had photographed a portion of 

 an engraving of a scene in Easter Island. I should advise you to obtain a copy 

 of the said Weekly, and see the whole picture, and read the account accompany- 

 ing it. I have submitted it to the examination of a number of Easter Island 

 natives, and they inform me that it is a very true representation of the actual 

 state of things, both with reference to the ' statues, ' and to the dress, dances, 

 and appearance of their people at home. Mr. De Greno also substantiates 

 their statement. 



" I have numbered and otherwise classified the 'photos, ' (ordering the pho- 

 tographer to preserve the margins for that purpose) so that I think you will be 

 enabled, from the directions written by me on them and in the letter accom- 

 panying them, to arrange them properly. One of the blocks is more than a 

 yard long, and I was obliged to have the 'photo' taken in six sections) three 

 on each side in order to have the characters sufficiently large and distinct to 

 enable you to read them. 



' ' The blocks are of different sizes and shapes. I will explain why they are so. 

 Many long ages ago, (according to the account the natives of Easter Island, 

 now living in Tahiti, give me) the population of that island had grown to be 

 very great, numbering some thousands; and as the island is small, being only 

 about twenty miles long, they found it was necessary, on account of having to 

 depend entirely on their own resources, to cultivate every spot of land that 

 was capable of cultivation. For this reason they destroyed all the trees, and 

 planted sweet potatoes, yams, etc., where those trees had grown. From that 

 time to this, they have never had a tree more than say two inches in thickness, 

 and that of a soft, quick-growing kind, which they were obliged to use before its 

 wood had time to harden. Owing to this circumstance, after they had con- 

 sumed all the wood from their ancient forests, they were obliged to pick up the 

 driftwood cast on their shores by the ocean, and collect, from whatever other 

 source they could, any kind of hard wood they could procure in order to record 

 whatever they wished to record. This accounts for the varieties of wood, the 

 singular shapes, and the variable thickness of the blocks. 



