In 1722, on Easter Sunday, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to visit the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui. He named it Easter Island. Decades later, concerned that the British intended to establish a Pacific base, the Spanish ordered an expedition to the South Pacific from Peru. Felipe González de Ahedo (1702-92) landed on Easter Island in November 1770 and claimed it for the Spanish crown. These English translations of the first-hand accounts from these two expeditions were prepared by the antiquarian and bibliophile Bolton Corney (1784-1870) and published for the Hakluyt Society in 1908. The reports of the first European impressions of the enormous moai make clear their wonder at the mysterious monolithic statues, and their incredulity that the island inhabitants had the means to carve and move such structures. This illustrated work will be of interest to historians of early exploration in the Pacific.
