Easter Island has a romantic and perhaps, a tragic history of contact with the outside world.

There is great controversy about the origin of the population of the island, which is supposed to have numbered at one point 4,000 people. Archaeological studies have suggested that they were present on the island for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. It is known that there were originally two races; a "long-ear" and "short-ear" race. The "long-ears", so called because of the custom of elongating their ears to shoulder level, lost a tribal war which took place 400 years ago, and were almost extinguished.

The island was discovered for the western world by a Dutch Admiral Jacob Roggeveen, who arrived on the island on Easter day 1722. A number of ships have visited the island since that time, notably Captain Cook in 1774 and the French explorer La Perouse in 1786. The population was decimated by tribal warfare and plagues, so that when Chile officially took possession of the island in 1888, it counted only 172 souls. The Chilean Government has done much to improve the native’s welfare. Sheep farming has been established and the island is presently administered by the Chilean Navy.

We still have a very limited knowledge of the island's pre-history. From one source of information which is folk-tradition we get very little data, and even these seem to be not entirely reliable. It is doubtless that there have been inhabitants here, at least for some time or some centuries, before Hotu Matua's Polynesian immigration, as tradition says, but I doubt whether we can believe that those first immigrants were people of gigantic appearance, with blue eyes and red hair. Such details of the tradition may have their origin in posterior legends and are likely to refer to the so-called hanau eepe whom we shall mention when we deal with the second period of the historical age.

It is quite possible that the first immigrants were working already in stone-masonry and sculpture, because some of the ahu's or burial places, as that in Vinapu, show several stages of construction, and when the large ahu of Tongariki, situated between Rano Raraku and the; coast, was in May, 1960 completely destroyed by a huge tidal wave which came from the Chilean coast, stone images of more archaic type and not of gigantic dimensions as those of Rano Raraku appeared from underneath.

The most secure and surprising facts regarding this pre-historical age, are those which we owe to the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl. During his archaeological expedition, which lasted from November, 1955 to April, 1956, he commissioned Mr. Carlyle Smith, a North American archaeologist from Kansas U., to make excavations with a group of natives in some of the 26 ditches which are still visible on

the slope of the Poike promontory. Test pits were made, remains of ashes and charcoal were found on an upper and lower level. Samples of carbons were submitted to the Mosse Laboratorium in Copenhagen for radio-carbon dating. Samples from the lower level yielded the date of approximately the end of the 4th Christian century. We therefore know that primitive inhabitants were here in those early times.

Thor Heyerdahl had also the foresight to collect samples of earth with pollen and these yielded data of much more importance. We have still to wait for the final and complete results of the examination of pollen samples. They will be published in a second or third volume of Heyerdahl's great work "Archaeology of Easter Island", but I can already give some details. In a letter I got from him two years ago he says: "-One other thing which I have not told you: The studies of our pollen borings from Rano Kau and Rano Raraku are still in process in Stockholm and we know that Easter Island had a forest when man first went ashore, Rano Raraku was covered by palms and a coniferous tree, so far unknown in the Pacific, grew on Easter Island together with many other species that later became extinct. The South American Polygonum was brought by the first settlers and shortly after, the first evidence of soot particles from smoke from fire appears."

Carlyle Smith whom I have already mentioned, says in a letter written to a friend of mine in Santiago: "Sensational things have been shaping up under Professor Selling's microscope. Easter Island had a lowland forest rich in species like Seaward Hawaii formerly. More than 40 hitherto unknown local species, most of them trees, were found. Lianas (creepers) were hanging from the trees, and Rano Raraku was covered by palms. Then came the South American water plant Polygonum, then soot and ashes from forest fires, finally the present barren condition."

We see that, thanks to Heyerdahl's expedition, radio carbon dating and the examination of pollen throw more light into the dim past of the island's pre-historical age and that there has been one or perhaps have been several immigrations during that age.

We now go to the:

Although our knowledge of its events is mainly based on folk-traditions, which, as everywhere in the world are subject to embellishments and exaggerations by exuberant popular fantasy, we meet now more secure and concrete facts,

Three different periods can be distinguished in this historical age,

The first period is that of colonization and begins with a Polynesian immigration conducted by Hotu Matua. According to an ancient tradition this immigration was the consequence of a cataclysm which occurred in the Pacific Ocean area, within the so-called Polynesian triangle. Land was submerged, people perished and King Hotu Matua emigrated from his homeland Hiva to this island which was called Te pito o te Henua - The Navel (Centre) of the Earth.

Folklore, always and everywhere, imaginatively attribute this destruction of land to Uoke, a mythical powerful being who submerged lands using a gigantic crowbar. This is a rather grotesque product of naive imagination, but I firmly believe that it has a historical background as popular legends and traditions have always a kernel of historical facts. I may add here that legend says that Easter Island was a much bigger land than it is now and that it has not disappeared altogether because Uoke's crow-bar broke into pieces on the northern coast near La Perouse Bay, And I know you will be interested to learn that only the other day the leper Gabriel Beri Beri, whom you all know, told me that he had heard as a child from some very old people that there was a coal mine between Rano Kao and Motu Nui Island.

Hotu Matua's immigration came from Hiva, most likely from northwest, perhaps approximately from the direction of the Marquesas group It is significant that three of the Marquesas Islands still bear the name of Hiva: Nuku Hiva, Fatu Hiva and Hiva Oa; but strange as it may seem, we find the name of Hiva also in the original, ancient name of the small islet of Sala y Gomez, about 200 miles from here to the east. Its name was Matu Motiro Hiva, which probably means "islet in front of Hiva."

We do not know whether Hotu Matua and his followers who arrived here in two very large primitive vessels, found any people or vegetation, but with absolute certainty we know that they dedicated themselves to colonization and that in this first period of the island's historical age, land was extensively cultivated; we know that because a long time afterwards, when the first European navigators arrived in the 18th Century, the island still presented aspects of abundant agricultural production, Karl Friedrich Behrens, a German, who came in April, 1722 with the Dutch navigator and discoverer of Easter Island, Jacob Roggeween, says in his report that the natives offered bananas, sugar cane, tubers (which must have been yam, taro and sweet potatoes) and nuts (probably sandal wood nuts, because there were very few coco-palms); that the whole island was well cultivated and that there was abundant production. Regarding tuners, special mention has to be made of yams, in fact of 42 varieties of yam. It is important to know that ethno-botanists unanimously assert that it has its origin in the west, whereas sweet potatoes, called "kumara" here as well as in Peru by Kelchua natives, has been introduced from the South American continent. From both sides, from the west, as the late Sir Peter Buck believed, and from the east, as Thor Heyerdahl says, have immigrations come to Easter Island.

The Polynesians who came with Hotu Matua also brought poultry. We still can see the chicken houses built with stones in different places of the island, some of them intact. Each family seems to have had a chicken house, hare moa, Karl Friedrich Behrens says that the natives offered hens in exchange of clothes, mirrors and other gifts, and that one day, after some natives had been killed by the crew of the Dutch ship, they brought some 500 hens and pullets, which proves that there was abundant poultry raising in ancient times.

With the purpose of colonizing the island, Hotu Matua distributed land among his sons and the families who had come with him. From these families descended different tribes and clans, the noblest tribe being that of the Miree whose ancestry goes back to Hotu Matua's eldest son Tuu Maheke. They had the title of "Ariki" which means "noble or person who belongs to the family of the kings" The kings of the island, who lived in Anakena, were called "Ariki henua", Arikis of the land.

More important than anything else would be to know, at least approximately, at what time, in which century, Hotu Matua's immigration took place, or we can say when Easter Island's historical age began. We would fix an approximate accurate date, if we had a reliable list of Hotu Matua's successors. Unfortunately, it does not exist. Mrs. Routledge says: "There are various lists of the succession of chiefs, counted from the first immigrant Hotu Matua. The oldest lists are those given by Bishop Jaussen and by Admiral Sapelin which contain some 30 names. Thomson gives one with 57. In our day there was admittedly much uncertainty about the sequence, but the number was said to be 30, and two independent lists were obtained." (M. of E.I., 241).

I am inclined to believe that Thomson's list contains names of Ariki who were members of the families of kings, but not real successors of Hotu Matua, and that these were some 30. If this is so, we could safely guess that Hotu Matua's Polynesian immigration took place not much more or even much less than about 500 years before the end of the historical age in 1864 because the reign of some Arikis was very short.

In this period of colonization wood carving began. Tuu Ko Tho, an Ariki who came with Hotu Matua, saw one day on his way to the other, the eastern coast of the island, some aku aku in human appearance with emaciated bodies and protruding ribs. Aku aku means supernatural beings, probably also spirits of the dead. He took pieces of toromiro wood and made statues to represent the apparition. These carvings, called moai kava kava (which means statues with ribs) have their root in the strong belief in the presence of aku aku all over the island.

Several other wooden figures of various descriptions have been made in ancient times. Although present day natives believe still to some extent in aku aku, this craft of wood carving survives now only for bartering.

It is noteworthy; finally, that Hotu Matua found it necessary to search for drinking water. Although ancient natives needed much less water because they used no pans for cooking nor had to wash clothes, people who were living at a distance of the crater lakes of Rano Kao and Rano Raraku, must have run out of water when there was no rain for some weeks, as there were no natural wells or {streams on this island, Hotu Matua was successful in excavating water pits in places where there is underground filtration from the crater lakes. According to tradition, shortly before his death, on the top of Rano Kau he sent someone to fetch water from a pit excavated by him, and. we can imagine that it was a real satisfaction for the dying king and leader of his people to see that the urgent problem of fresh water had been solved.

We therefore can say: The work of colonization was successful in this first period; the Polynesian immigrants and their descendants had, if not plentiful, at least sufficient food and water, which for a primitive people is the principal, one might say nearly the only necessity of daily life.

After Hotu Matua's death, who at his last moments went to a narrow cliff near Rano Kau crater and looking towards Hiva, called to the spirits Kulhi, Kuaha, and Opa Kako of his homeland,a very important event is recorded by tradition: The immigration of another people, usually, but wrongly called "Long Ears". This event marks the beginning of the

Which can be considered as Easter Island’s "golden age", the period of astonishing megalithic artistic activities.

Different versions exist about the so-called Long Ears and their arrival. My source of information was Arturo Teao, who during his long isolation in the leprosarium heard the legends and traditions of old patients. His version of the legends makes five significant points: (1) the new immigrants arrived on this island without women; (2) nobody knew the land they came from; (3) when the original inhabitants saw them, they were surprised at their unusually broad appearance and gave them the name of hanau eepe; ‘hanau’ is the term for a human race, or ethnic group; ‘eepe’ means: broad, bulky, stocky, corpulent. From then on the original inhabitants called themselves hanau momoko; the term momoko is a duplication of the word 'moko' which means 'lizard' and is used for slender or something which ends in a sharp point; (4) the new immigrants had a stronger pronunciation of the letter 'r', and must have come therefore with another language; (5) finally they had the custom of distending the lobe of the ear so that it hung down to the shoulder. The term "Long Ears" is therefore a misnomer: The hanau eepe were people of broad, bulky bodies who also had long ears.

Many of the original hanau momoko people adopted the custom of distending the ears, so that in later times, when the hanau eepe, as we shall see, were exterminated, European visitors saw many natives with long ears.

Mrs. Routledge says that the custom of distending the lohe of the ear is much more Melanesian than Polynesian but it seems to be equally possible that the hanau eepe arrived from a region where there existed Inca influence. The Inca, noblemen of Peru, called "children of the sun", had a similar fashion of distending ear-lobes. There is, moreover, a tradition that the hanau eepe built the monumental burial places, the so-called ahu. The most perfect of these construction, which is on the coast of Vinapu, shows some resemblance to ancient Peruvian constructions, I believe there is no doubt that the hanau eepe people introduced here the custom of burying the dead in ahus; Otherwise we could not understand why Hotu Matua, the great leader of his people, was not buried in a great lasting monument, but in a simple heap of stones, a cairn, near the coast of Akahanga.

The third period of the historical age

A period which is characterized by advancing decadence.

The natives of those times are not alone responsible for this moral decadence, its cruelties and destructiveness. Some visitors who came in the 18th century and especially some of those who came to the island in the 19th century must share the responsibility with them.

When in 1722 the natives for the first time came in contact with people of European civilization, they became victims of atrocities. Karl Friedrich Behrens says in his report, when the first group of sailors went ashore, a compact crowd of natives surrounded them - quite natural because it was something so new, so unusual to see people from another world - and out of curiosity - quite natural too ~ tried to touch the fire-arms of the visitors, things they had never seen. Unfortunately the sailors fired their guns at the islanders, and several were killed. From 1805 to 1862, the island was visited on several other occasions by sailors, some of them riff-raff of the sea, who committed brutalities in very much the same way they committed brutalities in other islands of Polynesia.

No wonder that the examples of visitors from the outside world contributed to the moral decadence in this disgraceful final period of continuous fighting’s and wars among clans and tribes. The first missionary priests were told by their neophytes that there was no peace before the advent of Christianism and that victors in wars treated their defeated enemies and their families with horrible cruelty. The victims were not only beaten and conducted into slavish captivity, but on some occasions even cut into pieces or burned slowly to death or buried alive.

The victors destroyed also their enemies' burial places, pulled down the stone images from the platforms on the ahus, and devastated the plantations. There was anarchy and misery all over the island. As a consequence there was also cannibalism which seems not to have existed in Hotu Matua's time. According to a tradition, the custom of eating human flesh was introduced in King Tuu Ko Tho's time, not the Ariki Tuu Tho who came with Hotu Matua and made the first moae kava kava, but a king with the same name who was living in the second part of the 18th century, at a time when a bloody war - probably soon after 1776 - between the north-western and south-eastern tribes ravaged the island. (We have the genealogy of a woman, Merian Neru, who descends from that King Tau Ko Tho, and we can calculate quite safely that her ancestor was born approximately in 1740: Her father's great great grandfather).

Unfortunately the successors of Hotu Matua who were living as Ariki Henua in Anakena, had no political power. There is no doubt, as Father Roussel says, that Hotu Matua ruled over the island, but his successors had lost their authority and were respected only as sacred persons, tapu, with the possession of mana, a supernatural power for the benefit of the crops and abundance of food. As sacred persons they were living in isolation near beautiful Anakena beach.

Political power had passed into the hands of the so-called birdmen and their warriors, the matatoa. The chiefs of several tribes gathered every year in September at Orongo, between the rim of Rano Kau Crater and the cliff in front of Motunui islet, where the manutara birds were nesting. With the chiefs there were also priests, and rites were performed connected with the cult of God Makemake, who for the benefit of the island had brought the first seabirds from Motu Motiro Hiva. Servants of the chiefs waited on Motunui for the first egg of the bird. The chief whose servant found it received the name bird-man. He was tapu, had to remain in strict seclusion for a year in a house on the slope of Rano Raraku, and it seems very probable that he was considered as a representative or perhaps reincarnation of God- Makemake.

In ancient times the bird cult had doubtless pure religious character, but it degenerated during the period of decadence. The birdman's party, the matatoa, took over political power, called ao, and persecuted members of other tribes.

The historical age of the island's past came at last to a sad end, when the natives, between 1859 and 1862, became victims of Peruvian slave-raiders, who arrived here on several occasions. Natives were kidnapped, by ruse and by force, carried away to islands off the Peruvian coast and sold as slaves for the work of guano exploitation which at that time was a prosperous business. It has been estimated that not less than 900 natives were carried into slavery, among them Arikis and maori kohau rongorongo, men who were masters of writing and reading the signs of the famous wooden tablets. Most of the kidnapped natives died in captivity, about 100 were repatriated, but only 15 of them arrived alive on the island, and these 15 survivors came back with contagious smallpox disease which soon spread over the island and decimated the population.

Thanks to Divine Providence this last period with all its horrors, sufferings and degeneration ended with the arrival of missionaries: Brother Eugene Eyraud, who first arrived on the 3rd January in 1864, and later Fathers Roussel and Zumbohm, who came in 1866 and dedicated themselves for some years, at the beginning of the modern and Christian age, not only to the spiritual ministry, but also to promoting the material welfare of their neophytes, the parents, grand-parents and great—grandparents of our island's present day population.

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