THIS TABLET IS ERECTED NEAR SELKIRK’S LOOKOUT
BY COMMODORE POWELL AND THE OFFICERS
OF H. M. S. “TOPAZ” A. D., 1868.

Although Defoe’s tale is not wholly true, and some of the descriptions are incorrect, yet the story was suggested by the adventures of the marooned mariner, and the terrors of loneliness, solitude and fear which overwhelmed Robinson Crusoe were the same as those undergone by Alexander Selkirk.

Pascua, or Easter, Island is situated considerably farther out in the ocean than Juan Fernandez, and farther north. It was so named by a Dutch navigator, who landed on the island on Easter morning, in 1722. He carried back with him to Amsterdam the first record of its strange monuments. The greatest length of this island is eleven miles, and its greatest breadth is four miles. Yet here on this little speck in the ocean, an island no larger than Manhattan Island, where the sun is warm both summer and winter, and the climate is enervating, at one time lived a strange and marvellous people. None of the inhabitants of the island at the time of its discovery knew anything about the monuments or the race that built them. The traditions which were handed down from father to son shed no light on that subject. Some claim that they were a race of giants, evidently inspired by the gods whom they worshipped. Others claim they were a race that antedated the flood. There is also a theory, based on these monuments and those on other islands of the Polynesian Islands, that this entire group were once a part of a continent now submerged.

These people hauled mammoth stones from quarries that face the sea, carved on them faces and cut with rude implements upon all the four sides the story they wanted to tell. These stones were transported to chosen sites and set up with engineering accuracy, until almost the whole island became a gallery of monumental sculpture. Then came a new era; the race of builders disappeared, and no one is now able to decipher the hieroglyphics. In all there are over five hundred of these carved statues, colossal heads and other samples of the art of these prehistoric people. Except in a few cases the monuments face the sea, and to the east, and they range in size from a mammoth monolith seventy feet in height to a pigmy the size of a small boy. Some of them weigh several tons and were transported from quarries distant as much as eight miles. How this was done without the aid of mechanical devices is a mystery.

Besides the statues there are several immense platforms constructed of large cut stones piled together, as if they had been shaped to conform to the plan of an architect, and all are set with true edges without cement and plaster. These platforms are about thirty feet high, and from two hundred to three hundred feet in length. After a fashion they look like immense banquet tables or council platforms. Around or upon these tables the prehistoric chiefs may have sat in stone seats and deliberated or made plans to conquer enemies.

On this island there are some peaks which rise as high as twelve hundred feet above the surface of the sea, and there are walls of stone formed from lava which for scores of centuries have lain there, and small lakes formed in natural cups and bowls which were probably once the open mouths of volcanoes. There are the remains of what was once a house of stone. As the tumbled blocks now lie they mark out a structure one hundred feet long, twenty feet wide, with walls five feet thick. Some of the slabs are marked with geometrical figures and with representations of animals and birds. These suggest a gigantic species, larger than any that exist to-day. In fact all their representations of life suggest a heroic mould. But the peculiar feature of this house is that the ceiling was not more than five feet high, which would seem to render it unsuited for a dwelling place. It might have been intended for a storehouse of some sort. At the present time there are only a few hundred people living on the island who are of the Sawaiori race, and resemble very strongly the natives of Tahiti.

CHAPTER IV
THE CITY OF SAINT JAMES

“We will call this city Santiago (Saint James), for he has guided us thus far,” said Pedro de Valdivia, as he staked out the level ground surrounding a lofty rock into square blocks, one of which was given to each of his followers.