[100] For the convenience of the reader I might repeat the statement that Easter Island, in 27° S. latitude, is, as regards human inhabitants, the farthest prolongation eastwards of Polynesia, and is situated 2374 miles from the west coast of South America, and 1326 miles from Pitcairn Island, the nearest land. Cook, being ill himself at the time, sent a party of officers to explore Easter Island thoroughly. They had not proceeded far on their journey before a middle-aged man, tatued from head to foot, and his face painted with a white pigment, appeared with a spear in his hand, on which he hoisted a piece of white cloth as an emblem of peace. He then drove away a crowd of natives that followed, and constituted himself a guide. The surface of the island appeared to be a barren, dried, hard clay covered with stones, except where the natives had cleared the ground and made plantations of sweet potatoes or had planted banana groves. On the highest part of the south end of the island the soil was a fine red earth and more fruitful, bearing a longer grass, and was not strewn with stones. But the most remarkable feature in this somewhat desolate island, which has an area of about 45 square miles, were the statues of stone and ruins of masonry. These were mainly on the east side of the island and near the sea. Here the officers of the _Resolution_ met with three platforms of stonework, and on each had stood four large stone statues, mostly, however, now lying prone on the ground and some broken. Each statue[101] had on its head a large cylindrical stone of red colour, wrought into a perfectly circular form. One of these stone statues was 27 feet long and 8 feet across the breadth of the shoulders, yet there were others larger than this still standing, one of them so big that its shade at two in the afternoon was sufficient to shelter the whole party of twenty persons from the rays of the sun. [101] Some of these figures are outside the British Museum. Throughout the whole island there was scarcely any supply of really fresh, sweet water. In fact this landing party only met with one such pool or well, and this was very dirty, owing to the habit of the natives going there to drink and at the same time washing themselves all over. If a numerous party came up for this purpose the first arrival leapt right into the middle of the hole, drank, washed himself without the least ceremony, and then gave up his place to another, so that the lastcomer had a very filthy liquid to quench his thirst. But for the most part the wells or watering places were brackish or even salt. The natives seemed to drink the salt water without any reluctance.