Message #207050

[Jennifer Murdoch]

TE PITO TE HENUA, OR EASTER ISLAND.
By Paymaster WILLIAM J. THOMPSON, U. S. Navy.

THE DISCOVERY OF EASTER ISLAND.

The honor of the discovery of Easter Island is contested by several of the earlier voyagers in the Pacific. Spanish writers claim that the island was sighted by Mendana in 1566, but the account is by no means authenticated, and the records preserved are not sufficiently accurate to determine the exact track sailed over by that ancient mariner. Captain Davis is credited by Capt. William Dampier with being the first to sight the island, and Lionel Wafer, who cruised with that bold navigator, on board of the Batchelor's Delight, gives the following account of the discovery in the year 1687: