Easter Island people... the narrative may be wrong

[Nerb]

Something either changed in their environment abruptly, or perhaps the Europeans only got half the story.

"Visitors" perhaps who raped the land for resources and buggered off?

Ships need repairing and shelters built with wood plus as many supplies as possible for an ocean voyage via a trolly-dash could have tipped the scales and pushed things into a new and unsurvivable situation for the natives once the friendly but meglomanic visitors had departed.