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.
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