The island was visited in 1722 by 134 crew members led by the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen. He called the island, which was already inhabited, Easter Island, because “it was discovered and found by us on Easter Day.”
Jan Boersema, environmental and religious scientist and one of the organizers of the Easter Island conference, says that the Easter Islanders received the Dutch warmly. The crew was generously offered food, according to the travel reports. Despite that friendly welcome it went wrong. Some Dutch soldiers panicked because the residents were “attacked everywhere.” On the orders of a ‘second mate’ (second mate) they started firing. Ten were killed.
In 2005 Hinkinus Nijenhuis, then the Dutch ambassador to Chile, visited the island. During that visit, he mentioned the shooting. Once back in Santiago, he wrote a letter describing the incident and also apologizing. It is unknown how the Easter Islanders reacted to the letter at the time.