Home      Early witnesses    Contents      Previous page      Next page

Easter Island: Early Witnesses

William Thomson


528

and it was specified that he should walk continually without stopping to eat, or to rest by day or night, until the tour of the island Was completed. Retainers were selected to carry food to be eaten on the route, and Oroi started upon his journey, accompanied for the first few miles by his affianced bride, who promised upon parting, to permit her thoughts to dwell upon nothing but him until his return. The inconstant female eloped with her other lover, Machaa, on the same evening. Oroi did not hear this news until he had arrived at the farther end of the island; then he returned directly to his borne, where he prepared a great feast to which be summoned all the warriors of his clan. The indignity that had been put upon him was related, and all present registered a vow that they would never rest until Hotu-Matua and his entire family had been put to death.
   It appears that Machaa was a man of prudence, and seeing that a desperate conflict was imminent, he embarked with six chosen followers and his bride, in a large double canoe, and with plenty of provisions sailed in the night for some more genial clime. The great spirit "Meke-Meke" is supposed to have appeared to him and made it known that a large uninhabited island could be found by steering towards the setting sun. The land was sighted after they had been out two months, and the canoe was beached on the south side of the island. On the second day after their arrival they found a turtle on the beach near Anekena, and one of the men was killed by a blow of its flipper in trying to turn it over. Two months after they had landed on the island, the two canoes with Hotu-Matua and his followers, three hundred in number, arrived.
   The desertion of Machaa did not appease the wrath of Oroi, and war to the death was carried on until Hotu-Matua, after being defeated in three great battles, was driven to the last extremity. Discouraged by his misfortune, and convinced that his ultimate capture and death were certain, he determined to flee from the island of Marae-toe-hau, and accordingly had two large canoes, 90 feet long and 6 feet deep, provisioned and prepared for a long voyage. In the night, and on the eve of another battle, they sailed away, with the understanding that the setting sun was to be their compass. It appears that the intended flight of Hotu-Matua was discovered by Oroi at the last moment, and that energetic individual smuggled himself on board of one of the canoes, disguised as a servant. After arriving upon the island, he hid himself among the rocks at Orongo, and continued to seek his revenge by murdering every unprotected person who came in his way. This interesting state of affairs continued for several years, but Oroi was finally captured in a net thrown by Hotu-Matua and was pounded to death. The tradition continues by a sudden jump into the following extraordinary condition of affairs: Many years after the death of Hotu-Matua, the island was about equally divided between his descendants and the "long-eared race," and between them

528


Home      Early witnesses    Contents      Previous page      Next page