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Polynesia. The Hidden Paradise
Sezione 1
Sezione 2
Easter Island, Lands of the Island
Jacob Roggeveen. 1721
PLAY ME
On August 1th 1721,
I was leading an expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company,
a privileged company of Dutch merchants and foreign investors. The area in which the company operated was West Africa and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and the eastern part of New Guinea. Its intent was to eliminate competition, particularly from Spain and Portugal,
between the various trading centres run by merchants. I was sent on a vessel, the Theinhoven, under the command of Captain Cornelius Bouman, with the aim of reaching the Terra Australis. With a fleet of three ships, and a crew of two hundred and twenty-three men, we first sailed for the Falkland Islands,
before tackling the Pacific and arriving near Valdivia, Chile. The expedition left Chile and moved towards the Pacific. It so happened that, on 5 April 1722, we would finally sight land. There was great joy among the men, for they all hoped that this place might herald the coast of the unknown continent,
the so-called Terra Australis. But we had not yet arrived there; we had discovered an even smaller land, which we called Easter Island, having arrived on Easter Sunday.
Sezione 3
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