The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-23

Hawaiian seeds, from winch 10
grow plants and vegetables, have been
distributed among the two hundred
and odd residents of Easter Island,
having been sent there by Gerrit ?.
Wilder and distributed by the officers
of the British cruiser Flora, which was
in this port some time ago. The Flora
has been cruising among the South Sea
islands, doing patrol duty in the un-
frequented parts of the sea, as is the
custom with British naval vessels.
The arrival of the Flora at Easter
Island was an event, the cruiser hay-
ing been the first vessel to touch there
for thirty months. The cruiser also
visited Pitcairn Island.
A description of these lonely places
and of the primitive people living
their lives in these isolated spots is
given in the letter below, written to
Mr.. Wilder by Captain Nugent, R. n.
The letter is an interesting one. Cap
tain Nugent writes:
"The collection of vegetable and
other seeds you kindly gave me for
Easter Island and Pitcairn Island,
have been handed over to the head man
in each island. l gave all the tree
and palm seeds to the head man of
Easter Island, who promised me to do
his best to plant them. He was extreme
ly grateful for the vegetable seeds, as
was also the magistrate at Pitcairn.
Sat the latter island they have a
great variety of trees, and [ did not
think it necessary to give them any
there, as they have communication with
Tahiti and can easily procure plants
from there The vegetable seeds will
be, however, very useful as they need
ed new stock badly. | also gave to
each island a quantity of seed pota-
toes, as their stock was getting very
small and had run out. Easter Island
has a population of 265 souls,
some of pure bred kanakas similar to
the Hawaiians, others almost white,
descendants of English, Germans,
French, Russian and Chilean sailors,
who have lived at the island at vari-
Gus times There was only one Euro
pean, an old French sailor, who had been
there for twenty-five years. These peo
pie are very much cut off from the
outside world. At the time of our ar
rival. they had had no communication
for over two years, except for one
sailing ship which stopped for a few
hours about ten months ago. The peo-
pie had only few rags of clothes left,
many of the men and nearly all of the
children were absolutely naked, and
many of the women had to remain in
doors owing to the want of clothes.
They had no oil, matches, candles,
or needles, thread or any of which we
should call necessaries, but in spite of
that were remarkably healthy, the only
sick person being man suffering with
asthma.
81 was much taken with the people
who were a fine lot, and though they
were in dire want, they never asked
for anything; and when given clothes
always produced chickens or vegetables,
or whatever they had in the way of
| curios in exchange. Needless to say, all
| the old clothes we had and other neces-
saries were given to them and all their
| immediate wants were supplied.
"This island which is about seven
miles long is covered with long grass
and supports a flock of 10000 sheep,
300 head of cattle, and about 200
| horses and is also overrun with domes-
tic fowls run wild, and the Chilean par
tridges The latter afford good shoot
ing and are fine plump little birds.
"There are idols on this island, many
of which are of large size, one we
| measured being seventy-nine feet long,
and very interesting. There are about
400 scattered about but most of them
have fallen down. How they transport
| ed them from one end of the island to
| the other is a problem which has
puzzled all those who have visited the
place.
"The island belongs to the Chilean
| government, which seems to take no in
| terest in it beyond sending a man-o :
war to visit it once in two or three
| years; and as it is so far away from
| anywhere. it does not pay to send
/ a ship there to collect the wool. which b
| has been stored there for the last three
years awaiting transportation.
| There are unfortunately no shelter
| ed anchorages, and a ship has to move
! Immediately the wind shifts around.
''They are endeavoring to plant trees
on this island. and 5000 have been
set out, but each tree has to have a
high wall built around it to protect it
from the sheep. However. a certain
| part of this island IS kept from the
! animals. and I have no doubt your
seeds viii develop. Unfortunately. the
/ Chilean who owns the island was
/ away, ard the man left in charge was
] native of tbs island, but the old
| Frenchman seemed TO take an intelli-
gent interest in the seeds. and I have
/ no doubt something viii come Of it.
CATER leaving Easter Island we Wis
! tied Ducie Island. which Is an unin-
hablted coral atoll with some extent
of sand, which is covered with scrub
brush. On this island I planted a
| small cocoanut tree which had been