THE AUSTEAL AND LOW ISLANDS 
519 
the high latitude, the bread-fruit does not flourish. The 
population does not exceed 1000; it was at one time 
very much larger, but of late has apparently been 
stationary. Eapa or Oparo is an outlier to the S.E.—a 
very picturesque island about 7 miles long, with remark¬ 
able needle-like peaks 2000 feet high. The crater of an 
extinct volcano forms a good and fairly roomy harbour; 
the climate is delightful, and it is said that, in spite of its 
unprotected situation, the island is at almost all seasons 
free from dangerous surf. Coal, or rather lignite, exists. 
The population, at one time over 6000, sank to 110 a 
few years ago, but it is now over 200. There seems 
little doubt that Easter Island—which is known as Great 
Eapa—was peopled from here. Little known before, the 
island became important in 1867 as a coaling-station for 
the steamers of a Panama-Australia line. It was 
perhaps in consequence of this that it was visited by a 
French frigate in the same year, the captain of which, 
it is related, bought the island from the king for a gallon 
of rum and a suit of clothes. The most remarkable 
feature of Eapa is the existence of very curious buildings 
on the summits of the highest hills. Their exact nature 
seems to be uncertain, whether forts or morais —-the 
Polynesian monuments to their illustrious dead. There 
are terraces and walls constructed of well-shaped blocks, 
weighing as much as two tons, and joined accurately by 
cement. Whatever may have been their use or meaning, 
they are evidently akin to the raised terraces in Easter 
Island. 
The Paumotu, Tuamotu, or Low Archipelago forms a 
cluster of about eighty islands, of which about sixty are 
inhabited. Originally discovered by Quiros, they have 
apparently been peopled from the Marquesas. They are 
scattered over a vast area, the major axis of which is 
