Some iconoclastic thoughts about those Polynesian rat bones at Anakena

In April 1777. when Captain Cook was sailing northeastward from New Zealand on his third Pacific voyage. he came upon isolated. uninhabited Palmerston Island, an atoll. Which he had discovered and named on his previous voyage. Being urgently in need of fodder for the cattle in his two ships, he sent four boats ashore to see what they could get. When they returned with plenty of 'scurvy grass', young coconuts and pandanus palms, Cook decided to remain at the island for a couple of days to get a good supply of coconuts for his men.