hewn stones, and from three to twelve*feet high.:: The statues
themselves are gigantic. One of them which had fallen
measured twenty-seven feet in length, and this was thought
to be surpassed by others. They represent the half of the
human figure ; the features are rudely but not badly formed,
the ears are prodigious, and the head is surmounted by a
cylindrical cap, not unlike the ornament of some Egyptian
busts. They are formed of lavas, some of a soft and friable
kind; but others so hard, that it is scarcely possible to conceive
that they can have been wrought by any tools of which
the present natives are in possession; Captain Cook, indeed,
asserts that the present inhabitants have most certainly had
no hand in them, for they do not even repair the foundations
of: those which have fallen into ruin. La Pérouse remarked
that they are very ancient, and many of them nearly destroyed
by time. Neither he nor Cook perceived that they were objects
of worship with the present inhabitants. But i f these »statues
are relics of some former nation, what has befallen the people
to whom they are to be ascribed? It seems that they are
still used as morais, or burial-places. There are also cylindrical
heaps of Stones as monuments of the dead; the meaning
of which a native of the island explained to M. De Langle,
by first laying himself down upon the ground and afterwards
lifting his hands towards heaven, with soro e reference to burial
and a future state.
Captain Cook thought the population of this-island did not
exceed 900 persons, but La Pérouse supposed it to amount
to 2000. :
Captain Beechey gave a favourable account of these
islanders. He says they are a fine race of people, especially
the women .'/they have oval countenances, regular features, a
high and smooth forehead, fine teeth, their eyes are black, and
rather deeply sehf ■ Their complexion is clearer than that of
the Malays, and their bodies well made./ This writer conjectures
that the colossal statues were . erected by a former
race of people, who have now disappeared, and he alludes in
support of this conjecture to the fact that be had seen similar
statues on some islands in the Pacific that were destitute of
inhabitants. This opinion seems hardly to be reconciled with
the statements of earlier voyagers, who say that the statues
of Easter Island were held in veneration by the people whom
they found in the country.
Section IX .—Islands o f Samoa or Samoa*
The Archipelago of Samoa, called bÿ Bougainville “ Iles des
Navigateurs,” : js à considembiedgróupé of islands reaching
nearly lOdileagues from-east to west, between theflatitudes of
J3> and Mb801iS.? This «groupe contains several large
islands, -some of which are' elevated lands of volcanic origin.
Opoun, Leonè, and Sanfoue are lofty and woody : Maouna
is a fertile island : O’iolava is; nearly forty miles long, and
Pola, which is the most westerly» of the; groupe, is one of the
most beautiful islands of the Paéifiû Ocean; It is a hundred
mitesîin eircuiuferebcer Its form fe:fchatpl.rftniiiBm^&e.T»iie^
and its elevation is compared by Kotzebue to* that M Tenerife
These islands are supposed by Buineÿ to have been discovered
by Roggewein, who called them Baumann’s Isles
from the name of the captain of the shipvTienhoven. ‘ The
description given of them bÿ Roggewein is so remote from
the truth, that it seems doubtful whether he dould have been
at the Ilamoan islands; ^ Bougainville was the first whoj g ^ e
any clear account of them, but we derive more;exact information
from his countryman La PérottsOj who lost on the Isle of
Maouna some of his best officers.
The people are of the TVTalaio-Polynesian family, b u t of
what subdivision we have not yet learned. La Pérouse says :
“ at first we discovered no affinityrbttweea thteir language
and those of the Society and Friendly Isles,. of which we had
vocabularies, but On further examination-wse found that they
spoke a similar dialect. One fact which may serve for some
proof of it, and which confirms the opinion of tbe: English
on the origin of these people, that a young Manifest
servant, born in the province of Tagayanin the north of