The Complete Journal of Captain Cornelis Bouman, Master of the ship Theinhoven, Forming Part of the Fleet of Jacob Roggeveen, from 31 March to 13 April 1722 During Their Stay Around Easter Island

Abstract

<p>It was only at the Rapa Nui Rendezvous held at Laramie, Wyoming in August 1993 that I found out that--up to now-the journal of Captain Bouman's stay around Easter Island had never been completely translated into English. After having written "Some Details of the Journal of Jacob Roggeveen on the Discovery of Easter Island" for <em>RNJ</em> VoI.4(3), the editors wanted more, so I wrote "Some Details from the Journal of Captain Bouman on the Discovery of Easter Island" (<em>RNJ</em> Vol.4 (4). I thought that, for the serious students of Bouman, a complete translation would be available in some library but, as far as I know, this is not the case. Because Roggeveen' s journal disappeared for over a century and Bouman's for nearly two centuries and during that time only apocryphal sources were available, a tremendous confusion arose about their journey. I tried to evaluate all the different narratives in my article "Roggeveen and Bouman, an Inventory of all the Narratives" in <em>RNJ</em>, Vol. 7(4).</p>