40 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



discovered in the far-distant and recently-explored Neckar 

 Island they have a link connecting the great Tahitian pyramid 

 described by Cook with the colossal statues of south-eastern 

 Polynesia. Amongst the Neckar Island relics was a morie 

 fish, found lying on a stone altar, and grotesque human figures 

 with immense ears, also carved out of stone.* 



For the construction of the Easter Island monuments a 

 large number of workers labouring during a comparatively 

 short time, or a smaller number of workers and a longer time, 

 is necessary ; as the little badly-watered island is inadequate 

 for the maintenance of a large population, it is more probable 

 the remains testified to time than to a great number of inhabi- 

 tants. To whichever view we may incline, it seems certain 

 that the workmen who quarried and fashioned stone for the 

 various structures must have been supplied from without with 

 implements, or with material for their manufacture, and that 

 this supply could only have been maintained by a people well 

 acquainted with the arts of shipbuilding and navigation. In 

 seeking these people, and from whence they derived their sup- 

 plies, we naturally turn to the nearest possible and probable 

 source. In Peru and Mexico ancient monuments of the Poly- 

 nesian type are found, and both countries abound in metals of 

 every description. Prom hence, then, it seems probable the 

 architects of Easter Island may have been derived, and may 

 have received what they required ; but the Peruvians and 

 Mexicans were not seafaring people, nor was there such a 

 people anywhere in the New Worldf previous to its invasion 

 by Europeans. The Peruvian hulsu, the highest type of vessel 

 found on the shores of the American Continent, though well 

 adapted for the transportation of merchandise from place to 

 place along the coast at certain seasons, would have been a 

 sorry craft wherein to undertake voyages of discovery, or for 

 the colonising of a region like the Pacific. 



If Easter Island during the period of its prosperity was in 

 communication with any civilized nation of the New World, 

 the inhabitants of that time must have completely disappeared 

 before the ancestors of the present natives took possession, 

 otherwise there would have been, in the productions of the 

 little island, some evidence of their existence when Europeans 

 discovered it. 



Westward of the Carolines are the numerous groups con- 

 stituting what is called the Malay Archipelago or Bast Indian 

 Islands. In all of these groups the metals abound, and their 

 present inhabitants are skilful mariners, who were capable of 

 making long voyages before they came in contact with Euro- 



* "Polynesian Journal," vol. iii. 



t " Conquest of Mexico " ; " Conquest of Peru." Prescott. 



