Island of Mystery

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 26

Island of Mystery

The Riddle of the Pacific

(WRITTEN (or THE SUN by ARP AD SZIGETVARY)

a WO thousand miles and more from the South American mainland, far out in the Pacific, lies Easter Island. The most mysterious island on the face of this globe, this tiny speck of isolated land has defied the archaeological and ethnological learning of the world’s greatest savants from the date of its discovery in 1772 by the Netherland admiral, Roggereen, right down to the present day. Here, leagues of miles from the nearest inhabited land, and that itself another isolated speck —Pitcairn Island, familiar to many of the newer arrivals in New Zealand —are wharves, houses, and statues built of stone, some of which is nowhere procurable In the Pacific Islands. Instead of ringbolts on tbe whares there are carved lions’ heads in the old Roman style, through the mouths of which ship’s hawsers were passed. There are no lions, or even traces of them, in Oceania, or in Australasia or South America, for that matter, the only animal approaching in likeness being a very poor imitation, the puma. The massive stone houses, though not illustrative of any spectacular architectural beauty, are marvels of the mason’s art. Enormous stone slabs dove-tailed together, and without mortar, served as the building material of these ancient houses, some of which are 100 feet long by 20 feet wide, with walls no less than five feet thick. Their more or less uniform height of five feet might be taken as proof that the builders were of small stature, although undoubtedly possessed of great physical strength. The walls are covered both inside and out with carvings of animals, most of which have been dismissed as visionary. But surely even if they are fantastic, some groundwork must have been there as a foundation for the imagination to be enlarged upon. Colossal stone statues, all facing inland, practically encircle the island. Few are now left standing, as unfortunately through the sacrilegious depredations of modern iniquitous hands and the apathy of the Chilean Government these astounding monuments of a vanished race have suffered. For not a trace of the actual original people remains. Their work is

there, but of themselves nothing but complete oblivion. Whence they came, whither they departed, no one knows, or is ever likely to. How did the ancient inhabitants bring the huge blocks of stone from the quarry to the selected positions? To have worked them and carried them by man-power would have required more men than the present area of the island could possibly support. Is this islaud all that remains of a Pacilic Atlantis? What extinct and untraceable race of men was instrumental in the erection of these age-defying archaelogical and sculptured mysteries? These, and a host of other perplexing questions, have not been answered to-day, and seem likely never to be answered. The island seems almost a fantastic machiavelian dream, but cold facts prove to us the contrary. Cook visited the islaud iu 1771, with La Perouse close ou his heels in 1776. Many of La Perouse’s illustrations are extant, as tlie earliest pictures we have of Easter Island. Even those early Intrepid explorers could not glean any information of an older populace. Internecine strife among the 2,000-odd inhabitants who were there when Europeans first came was chronic, but was not disastrous as to the number of fatalities. However, in 1863, a Peruvian ship paid a flying visit, and carried off the greater portion of the people to work as slaves on the China guano islands, reducing the population to a mere handful. In 1888 Chile took possession, and established a convict settlement, which was soon abandoned. In recent history the island was inhabited by a few shepherds ' and their flocks. But more recently still Chile, in an inspired moment devised an excellent scheme for getting rid of her troublesome Communists. She packed the worst of them aboard a cruiser, and dumped them all on Easter Island. Here they have been left severely alone except for the occasional visit of a man-o’-war with supplies. They can set up in actual prac tice their much-vauuted system of communal government, murder each other, or do whatever they like. They can’t hurt anyone except themselves It is only to be hoped that they do not damage the archaelogical remains, which, unique as they are, should be guarded and preserved for all time.