Captain Cook Was Much Indebted For Now Falling In With This Island, To The Superior Means He Possessed Of Ascertaining His Longitude.

Byron, Carteret, and Bouganville, all missed it, although they took their departure from no greater a distance than the islands of Juan Fernandez.

Most of the writers who mention Easter Island, agree pretty well together as to its latitude, but the Spanish accounts are not less than thirty leagues erroneous as to its longitude. - E.

[2] See this in vol. XI. p. 95 of this collection; but the description afterwards given is much more satisfactory. - E.

[3] "He was of the middle size, about five feet eight inches high, and remarkably hairy on the breast, and all over the body. His colour was a chesnut brown, his beard strong, but clipped short, and of a black colour, as was also the hair of his head, which was likewise cut short. His ears were very long, almost hanging on his shoulders, and his legs punctured in compartments after a taste which we had observed no where else. He had only a belt round his middle, from whence a kind of net-work descended before, too thin to conceal any thing from the sight. A string was tied about his neck, and a flat bone, something shaped like a tongue, and about four inches long, was fastened to it, and hung down on the breast. This he told us, was a porpoise's bone (eavee toharra) expressing it exactly by the same words which an Otaheitean would have made use of. Mahine, who had already expressed his impatience to go ashore, was much pleased to find that the inhabitants spoke a language so similar to his own, and attempted to converse with our new visitor several times, but was interrupted by the questions which many other persons in the ship put to him." - G.F.

[4] "Almost all of them were naked, some having only a belt round the middle, from whence a small bit of cloth, six or eight inches long, or a little net, hang down before. A very few of them had a cloak which reached to the knees, made of cloth, resembling that of Otaheite in the texture, and stitched or quilted with thread to make it the more lasting. Most of these cloaks were painted yellow with the turmeric root." - G.F.

[5] "After staying among the natives for some time on the beach, we began to walk into the country. The whole ground was covered with roots and stones of all sizes, which seemed to have been exposed to a great fire, where they had acquired a black colour and porous appearance. Two or three shrivelled species of grasses grew up among these stones, and in a slight degree softened the desolate appearance of the country. About fifteen yards from the landing place, we saw a perpendicular wall of square hewn stones, about a foot and a half or two feet long, and one foot broad.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 252 of 461
Words from 130556 to 131056 of 239428