THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND [Illustration] THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND THE STORY OF AN EXPEDITION BY MRS. SCORESBY ROUTLEDGE HONOURS MOD. HIST. OXFORD; M.A. DUBLIN JOINT AUTHOR OF “WITH A PREHISTORIC PEOPLE: THE AKIKUYU OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA” PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY AND SOLD BY SIFTON, PRAED & CO. LTD., 67 ST. JAMES’S ST. LONDON, S.W.1 TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER TO WHOM THE LETTERS WERE WRITTEN WHICH HAVE FORMED A LARGE PORTION OF THE MATERIAL FOR THIS BOOK, BUT WHO WAS NO LONGER HERE TO WELCOME OUR RETURN PREFACE As I sit down to write this preface there rises before me, not the other side of this London street, but the beautiful view over the harbour of St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, as seen from the British Consulate. It was a hot afternoon, but in that shady room I had found a fellow-woman and sympathetic listener. To her I had been recounting, rather mercilessly as it seemed, the story of our experiences in the yacht, including the drowning of the tea in Las Palmas Harbour. When I had finished, she said quietly, “You are going to publish all this I suppose?” I hesitated, for the idea was new. “No,” I replied, “we had not thought of doing so; of course, if we have any success at Easter Island we shall make it known, but this is all in the day’s work.” “I think,” she said, “that there are many who lead quiet stay-at-home lives who would be interested.” Times have changed since 1913, there are now few who have not had adventures, either in their own persons, or through those dear to them, compared with which ours were but pleasant play; but I still find that many of those who are good enough to care to hear what we did in those three years ask for personal details. After a lecture given to a learned society, which it had been an honour to be asked to address, I was accosted by a lady, invited for the occasion, with the remark, “I was disappointed in what you told us. You never said what you had to eat.” This, and many similar experiences, are the apology for the trivialities of this work.