Easter Island - Indus Valley Scripts:

The Loss of Rongorongo:

In December 1862, Peruvian slave raiders struck Easter Island. Violent abductions continued for several months, resulting in the capturing or killing around 1500 men and women, about half of the island's population. The art of writing was effectively extinguished at this time when the Peruvian slave-raiders carried off all professionals of writing in 1862 (3).

The subsequent disappearance of the old wooden tablets is probably due to their sacred character as the natives hid them from the European immigrants, presumably because the missionaries considered the ceremonial documents as idolatrous objects. The natives repeatedly asserted that the missionaries had prohibited them from reading the tablets, and even had induced them to burn these objects as devil's work. The Swede De Greno, who arrived about 1870 at Easter island, said the following:

“...soon after the Catholic Mission was established on the Island, the missionaries persuaded many of the people to consume by fire all the blocks (tablets) in their possession, telling them that they were but heathen records and that the possession of them would have a tendency to attach them to their heathenism and prevent their thorough conversion to the new religion and the consequent saving of their souls..”.

Also Mrs. Routledge, the renowned explorer of Easter island, was told by a native that he possessed a great number of tablets, all of which he had thrown away on the advice of the missionaries, and afterwards another man had built a boat of them. (2)