392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



in a part of the southern ocean far removed from that in which the 

 gaunt cliffs of Easter Island confront the unceasing assault of the 

 waves. It is surrounded by vast ocean depths which occur in the 

 expanse of 2,500 miles of ocean separating the island from the 

 American coast on the east and from the nearest land 1,750 miles 

 to the west, namely the Gambler Islands, Easter Island is a vol- 

 canic island, and a lofty one, like the Marquesas and Hawaii, in 

 contrast with atolls and coral islands which are low-lying. If one 

 could denude such islands of their dense coverlet of mango-scrub, 

 breadfruit trees, bamboo and cocoa palms, drain the springs, and 

 cover them with a growth of yellow herbage — then such an islet as 

 Hivaoa of the Marquesas will come to resemble Easter Island. 



It is the bareness of Easter Island, the result of its colder climate 

 and exposure to the four winds of heaven, which has given birth 

 to these misconceptions. The idea of Polynesia does not fall in with 

 a barren rocky landscape, monotonous pampa, or a pale sun inces- 

 santly obscured by rain-clouds. 



These talkative Pascuans,* like naughy laughing children, whose 

 language and appearance is Polynesian without a shadow of doubt, 

 can no longer be denied those ancestors who carved the ntotorious 

 statutes, engraved the puzzling symbols of rongorongo and set up 

 round the island's coast all those innumerable monuments (actually 

 184). 



At what date was Easter Island first settled ? There are excellent 

 reasons for believing that it was between the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries of the Christian era. We have certain traditions relating 

 to the peopling of Hawaii and New Zealand. The Polynesians es- 

 tablished themselves there at the end of their migrations between 

 the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Considering the remoteness 

 of Easter Island, it is reasonable to suppose that it was peopled 

 about the same time. The approximate date of the colonization of 

 this island is, however, based upon the list of the Pascuan kings. 

 This list has been narrated to several observers; the most complete 

 is that of Thompson ^ who obtained it from an informant who was 

 a survivor of the pagan period. One may assume a length of 12 

 years for the reigns of each of the 57 kings in the list. Maurata, 

 the last Pascuan who was certainly regarded as a king, died in 

 1864, as a result of the Peruvian slave raids. Calculation gives us 

 exactly the beginning of the thirteenth century. 



* We may well adopt the English equivalent to avoid the clumsy "Easter Islanders." — 

 Translator. 



^ A paymaster of the American Navy, and the author of a short archeological account 

 which, considering that it was based merely upon a visit of 8 days, is remarkably infom^a- 

 tive and full. (Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1889, pp. 447-552, 1891.) 



