Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND
THE STORY OF AN EXPEDITION
PREFACE
As I sit down to write this preface there rises before me, not theother side of this London street, but the beautiful view over theharbour of St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, as seen from theBritish Consulate. It was a hot afternoon, but in that shadyroom 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 drowningof the tea in Las Palmas Harbour. When I had finished, shesaid quietly, “You are going to publish all this I suppose?”I hesitated, for the idea was new. “No,” I replied, “we hadnot thought of doing so; of course, if we have any success atEaster Island we shall make it known, but this is all in the day’swork.” “I think,” she said, “that there are many who leadquiet stay-at-home lives who would be interested.” Timeshave changed since 1913, there are now few who have not hadadventures, either in their own persons, or through those dearto them, compared with which ours were but pleasant play;but I still find that many of those who are good enough to careto hear what we did in those three years ask for personal details.After a lecture given to a learned society, which it had been anhonour to be asked to address, I was accosted by a lady, invitedfor the occasion, with the remark, “I was disappointed in whatyou told us. You never said what you had to eat.” This, andmany similar experiences, are the apology for the trivialities ofthis work.
No attempt has been made to write any sort of a guide bookto the varied places touched at by the yacht, neither space norknowledge permitted; all that has been done either by penor pencil