The Easter Island Reports of Lt. Colin M. Dundas, 1870-71

The H.MS. Topaze sighted Easter Island on 31 October 1868. Sailing from Callao, it was to search for other islands rumored to be in the area and to conduct a survey of Easter Island (Van Tilburg 1992:38). On board was a Lt. Colin M Dundas, who made various notes about the island and recorded his impressions. Dundas' descriptions are not as well known as those of Linton Palmer. Upon his return to Great Britain, Lt. Dundas presented a paper at Edinburgh, for the Society of Antiquities of Scotland His little-known report presented here, annotated by the editors of RNJ.