They have also rats, which it seems they eat; for I saw a man with some dead ones in his hand, and he seemed unwilling to part with them, giving me to understand they were for food.  Of land-birds there were hardly any, and sea-birds but few; these were men-of-war, tropic, and egg-birds, noddies, tern, &c.  The coast seemed not to abound with fish, at least we could catch none with hook and line, and it was but very little we saw among the natives.

Such is the produce of Easter Island, or Davis’s Land, which is situated in latitude 27 deg. 5’ 30” S., longitude 109 deg. 46’ 20” W. It is about ten or twelve leagues in circuit, hath a hilly and stony surface, and an iron-bound shore.  The hills are of such a height as to be seen fifteen or sixteen leagues.  Off the south end, are two rocky islets, lying near the shore.  The north and east points of the island rise directly from the sea to a considerable height; between them and the S.E. side, the shore forms an open bay, in which I believe the Dutch anchored.  We anchored, as hath been already mentioned, on the west side of the island, three miles to the north of the south point, with the sandy beach bearing E.S.S.  This is a very good road with easterly winds, but a dangerous one with westerly; as the other on the S.E. side must be with easterly winds.

For this, and other bad accommodations already mentioned, nothing but necessity will induce any one to touch at this isle, unless it can be done without going much out of the way; in which case, touching here may be advantageous, as the people willingly and readily part with such refreshments as they have, and at an easy rate.  We certainly received great benefit from the little we got; but few ships can come here without being in want of water, and this want cannot be here supplied.  The little we took on board, could not be made use of, it being only salt water which had filtered through a stony beach into a stone well; this the natives had made for the purpose, a little to the southward of the sandy beach so often mentioned, and the water ebbed and flowed into it with the tide.

The inhabitants of this island do not seem to exceed six or seven hundred souls, and above two-thirds of those we saw were males.  They either have but few females amongst them, or else many were restrained from making their appearance during our stay, for though we saw nothing to induce us to believe the men were of a jealous disposition, or the women afraid to appear in public, something of this kind was probably the case.

In colour, features, and language, they bear such an affinity to the people of the more western isles, that no one will doubt they have had the same origin.  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,