The people of Easter Island were possibly inspired to invent the
Rongorongo script after seeing the writing used by the Spanish
when they annexed the island in 1770. The Easter Islanders were
apparently impressed by the mana or power of the Spaniards'
writing. Rongorongo was used until the 1860s, after which
knowledge of the script was lost. Nowadays most Easter Islanders
write in Spanish using the Latin alphabet though a few try to
write their own language, Rapanui, also with the Latin alphabet.
Since missionaries started visiting Easter Island in the 1860s,
they have taken an interest in the mysterious Rongorongo
symbols. A number of attempts have been made to decipher them,
none of which have been completely successful, though in his
book Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script, Steven Roger Fischer,
Director of the Institute of Polynesian Languages and
Literatures in Auckland, New Zealand, claims to have unlocked
its mysteries. Two other scripts were once used on Easter
Island: Ta'u and Mama, but little is k