Captain Cook's SecondVoyage 1772-1775
Cook perceived the people of Easter Island to have affinities to peoples he had encountered in the western part of the Pacific, and thought perhaps they had common ancestry. "It is extraordinary that the same nation should have spread themselves over all the isles in this vast ocean, from New Zealand to this island, which is almost one-fourth part of the circumference of the globe. Many of them have now no other knowledge of each other, than what is preserved by antiquated tradition; and they have, by length of time, become, as it were, different nations, each having adopted some peculiar custom, or habit…"	"Man of Easter Island" from James Cook's A Voyage towards the South Pole and Round the World, Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure.
This striking portrait displays ear piercings in which flexible rings were sometimes worn. Cook notes that the islanders’ "chief ear ornaments are the white down of feathers, and rings…"
Cook: Page 14 of 16. The second voyage.	back   next