CH A P . W e noticed three boats hauled up on the shore to the nortliward of
the landing-place, resembling the drawing in Perouse's Voyage, but
the natives did not attempt to launch them.
Roggewein and Perouse were of opinion that these people lived
together in communities, a whole village inhabiting one extensive
hut, and that property was in common. The former idea was probably-
suggested by the very capacious dwellings ivhich are scattered over the
island ; and the conjecture may be correct, though it is certain that
there are a far greater number of small huts, sufficient to contain one
family only ; but with regard to the supposition that property is common,
it seems very doubtful whether the land would be so carefully
divided by rows of stones if that were the case. Some circumstances
which occurred at the landing-place, during our visit, certainly favoured
the presumption of its being so. One of the natives offered an image
for sale, and being disappointed in the price he expected, refused to
part with it ; but a bystander, less scrupulous, snatched it from him
■«'ithout ceremony, and parted with it for the original offer without a
word of remonstrance from his countryman. Others again threw their
property into the boats, without demanding any immediate return ;
taking for granted, it may be presumed, that they w-ould reap their
reward when a distribution of the property obtained should take place.
But this state of society is so unnatural that, however appearances may
sanction the belief, I am disposed to doubt it. One strong fact in support
of ray opinion was the unceremonious manner in which the apparent
proprietor of a piece of ground planted with potatoes drove
away the mob, who, with very little consideration for the owner, were
taking the crop out of the earth to barter with our party.
The Island, though situated nearer the Continent of America than
any other of the Archipelago to which it belongs, has been less frequently
visited ; and unfortunately for its inhabitants, some of those
visits have rather tended to retard than to advance its prosperity, or
improve its moral condition ; and they afford a striking example of the
necessity of an extensive intercourse with mankind, before a limited
community can emerge from barbarism to a state of civilization. One
consolation for this privation is their exemption from those complaints
by which some of the ill-fated natives of these seas have so dreadfully CHAP.
suffered. . _ ,
The gigantic busts which excited the surprise of the first visiters Nov.
to the island, have suffered so much, either from the effects of time, or
maltreatment of the natives, that the existence of any of them at present
is questionable. At first they were dispersed generally over
the whole island: when Cook visited it there were but two on the
western side near the landing-place: Kotzebue found only a square
pedestal in the same place: and now a few heaps of rubbish only, occupy
a spot where it is doubtful whether one of them was erected or
not. Y^hen it is considered how great must have been the labour bestowed
upon these images before they were hewn from the quarries
with the rude stone implements of the Indians, and before such huge
masses of rock could be transported to, and erected on, so many parts
of the island, it is nearly positive that they were actuated by religious
motives in their construction ; and yet, if it were so, why were these
objects of adoration suffered to go to decay by succeeding generations ?
Is it that the religious forms of tlie islanders have changed, or that the
aborigines have died off and been succeeded by a new race ?—Pitcairn
Island affords a curious example of a race of men settling upon an
island, erecting stone images upon its heights, and either becoming extinct
or having abandoned it; and some circumstances connected with
Easter Island occur, independent of that above alluded to, in favour of
the presumption that the same thing may also have taken place there.
The most remarkable of these facts is that the present generation are
so nearly allied in language and customs to many islands in the South
Sea, as to leave no doubt of their having migrated from some of them,
—and yet in none of these places are there images of such extraordinary
dimensions, or indeed in any way resembling them. The Easter
Islanders have, besides, small wooden deities similar to those used by
the inhabitants of the other islands just mentioned.
That there had been recent migrations from some of the islands to
the westward, about Roggewein’s time, may be inferred from the natives
having recognised the animals on board his ship, and from their having
i tattooed upon their arms and breasts ; whereas there was not a
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