Island of Secrets

Easter Island is an interesting place, and this book is a pretty tidy summary of events up to around 1975, when it was published. To be honest, I don't know how much of the information in here is now superseded, but with the way it is presented, it doesn't really matter, as it sets out to summarise each visit by Europeans and what they learned from their visit - right or wrong.

While translated it has been translated to English, it reads excellently, so I assume the original does too.

It covers visits to Easter Island by the Dutch (1722), the Spanish (1770) and the British (1774), all very short visits where they learned little. It next covers visits by the French (1786), then the Russians (1804), then the return of the British (1825) again learning little but all distributing gifts and receiving fruit and vegetables while losing much else to the light fingered locals.

Intermingled through these visits are minor facts the visitors learn and explanations recorded of the language and behaviour of the people encountered. Some expeditions saw no females at all, and saw few people, others were visited by many. They were mostly peaceful encounters, but on occasion a handful of natives were killed by the visitors. There was worse to come.

There are then some chapters outlining folk stories, legends and origin stories from the island.

In 1863 we next we come to Brother Eyraud, a Frenchman who volunteered to come to the island and found a mission to help the natives. The chapter explains his long and troubled experiences with the natives, and his relative successes before his death (natural causes) in 1868. As is often the case ,after the missionaries came the traders and exploiters. In the case of Easter Island they were one in the same as they arrived, annexed land and set about enslaving the islanders and trapping them in indentured labour contracts to pay off debts for goods taken. Many Easter Islanders were taken to other islands as slave labour, but these people generally died within a short period of time when taken from their homes and worked - they had a very sedentary lifestyle on Easter Island and had no history of physical work!

In 1888 Chile officially annexed Easter Island and a new exploiter took over restricting access to land and water and so the islanders were again forced into indentured labour.

It was only after this period commenced that scholars began taking interest in the vanishing (vanished?) culture. This was a messy era to describe other than to say many visited, many took away relics, small statues and carved tablets what preserved the ancient script of hieroglyphics. The large statues for which the island is so well known have always fascinated, but luckily due to their immense size they have not be plundered (much). There were many expeditions and archaeological visits some staying long periods, and making interesting discoveries. Americans, the British, a French/Belgian, and then the Viking of the Pacific - Thor Heyerdahl, of course. By this time Heyerdahl had completed his raft journey and came to Easter Island to excavate and solve mysteries. Not always the most well thought of man, for this non-academic approach, I have a bit of a soft spot for him.

Each chapter reveal the new findings, presented them well and in relatively simple terms.

At the end is a chapter describing the three contrasting theories of the origins of Eater Islands inhabitants. Even now Wikipedia states that expert opinions vary. I am sure modern science has taken the history further since this book was published, but for me it was an enjoyable read, and I learned plenty of new information, however I wouldn't use this as the only source of data.

4.5 stars.