In the early 18th century, a Dutch explorer named Admiral Jacob Rogovine was sailing across

the vast blue expanse of the South Pacific Ocean. He had been on the sea for 17 days, searching

the southern ocean for a mythical continent known as Terra Australis. And when he saw a small

island on the horizon, his heart must have skipped a beat, as Rogovine recounts in his diary.

There was a great rejoicing among the people, and everyone hoped that this low land might prove to

be a foretoken of the unknown southern continent. But as those ships approached, it became clear that

this was no vast continent, only a small island, a dot of land in the middle of the ocean.

Nevertheless, Rogovine was curious, and he ordered his three ships to prepare for landing.

It was Easter Day, 1722. As the Dutch got closer, it became clear that the island ahead of them

was inhabited. They saw smoke rising from the villages along the coast, but it was a seemingly

barren land. We originally, from a further distance, considered Easter Island to be sandy. The

reasons for that is that we counted as sand, that with a gruff, hay, or other scorched and burnt

vegetation, because its wasted appearance could give no other impression than a singular poverty

in barrenness. As they sailed closer, the island's inhabitants came out on canoes to meet them,

greeting them with friendly astonishment. This was much like other islands that Rogovine had visited

before, but when he got ashore, what he found on this island amazed him. Along the beaches,

lined up in rows with their backs to the sea, was a line of stone statues.

They were carved from black volcanic stone, some of them standing ten meters high,

wearing crowns of red sandstone. But Rogovine and his men couldn't understand how these statues

had got there. Stone images at first caused us to be struck with astonishment, because we couldn't

comprehend how it was possible that these people, who were devoid of heavy, thick timber for making

any machines, as well as strong ropes, nevertheless had been able to erect such images which were

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