EASTER WAIHU or RAPA NUI, the easternmost inhabited of the Poly nesian group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, long. 109° 17' W.; lat. 27° 6' S., 1,400 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcairn Is land, and 2,000 miles east of Chile, to which it was annexed in 1888 and since made a penal settlement. Its area, triangular in shape, is 42 square miles and contains craters of three extinct volcanoes, one nearly 2,000 feet high. At one time wooded, decayed tree trunks of considerable size are still found, but only a few bush plants now thrive from 10 to 12 feet high. The soil is fertile and different kinds of tropical fruits are grown, including sweet potatoes, bananas and sugar cane. A fair number of cattle, sheep, goats and fowl are reared by the natives who number about 150. The climate with one wet and one dry season is healthful; the water supply consists of some brackish springs and pools inside the volcanic craters. As the °Unsolved mystery of the Pacific," the importance of the island is archaeological. In its confined area no less than 550 statues, some of them of colossal size, cut out of gray trachitic lava are found; as well as cyclopean platforms of masonry 50 feet high, and from 200 to 300 feet long; stone houses over 100 feet long with walls 6 feet thick built like forts. and tablets curiously inscribed with hiero glyphics. Of the statues, 40 are standing inside the crater of one of the volcanoes, as many more outside, at the foot of the slope, where they were placed read for removal to the different platforms. These statues represent various stages of formation, some finished, others nearly completed, and others just com menced. In size they range from three and four feet to nearly 80 feet in length. The
largest found in an unfinished state measures 70 feet in length, smallest three feet. What race of men carved these statues and for what purpose is still a matter of speculation. Easter Island is supposed to be the remnant of a greater land which was overwhelmed by the sea after some great earthquake and volcanic eruption, investigation showing some of the largest statues buried to the neck in ashes and scoriae. Recent scientific analysis and de duction places the race of sculptor-builders as of a proto-Samoan character, inhabiting the land when the seismic catastrophe overwhelmed them probably less than 1,000 years ago, or at a period approximating with the Norman Con quest of England. Alvara Mendafia, according to Spanish geographers, was the first of modern navigators to discover the island in 1566; it is marked Davis Island on some maps from Ed ward Davis, buccaneer and adventurer, who re ported it in 1686; but the Dutch Admiral Jacob Roggeveen sighted it in 1722 on Easter Day and in commemoration gave the island its present name. The natives then numbered about 3,000 and according to their traditions came from Oparo, one of the Austral group. In 1864 the island was almost depopulated by Peruvians who kidnapped and transported the bulk of the inhabitants to work the guano dig gings on the Chincha Islands.1,eConsult Sand berg, H. 0., 'Easter Island, the Mystery of the Pacific); Pan-American Union Bulletin, Vol. XXXV, pp. 897-910 (Washington 1912) ; Churchill, W., 'Easter Island, the Rapanin Speech and the Peopling of Southeast Poly nesia' (Washington 1912).