1778 Capt Cook Antique Print Weapons & Musical Instruments Vanuatu Islands, 1774

Publisher : Captain James Cook

Description:
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique print of 6 different types of arms and musical instruments, from the Islands of Malakula (Mallicolo) & Tanna in the Vanuatu group of Islands in the South Pacific, visited by Captain James Cook during his 2nd Voyage of Discovery in the South Seas in September 1774, was engraved by Robert Benard - after William Hodges - and was published in the 1778 French edition of Capt. James Cooks 2nd Voyage of Discovery to the South Seas A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World. Performed in His Majestys ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775..... Paris : Hotel de Thou ......1778

The six objects engraved are;
1. Arc - Bow
2. Pierres qui seportent dans le nes - Stone used as a support
3. Syrinx ou roseaux quiserment un instrument - Multi tune flute
4. Massue - Club with rope attachment
5. peinte d un parl - Arrow head
6. Dart enier - Spear

Cook Journal July, 1774
Arrival at The New Hebrides
On 17th Cook saw land bearing SW and later on decided this was the Australia Del Espiritu Santo of Quiros or what M. D. Bougainville calls the Great Cyclades. The island was Maewo. The next day its northern end was rounded in a gale and the ship sailed south between it and the island called by Bougainville the Isle of Lepers - Omba.
On 20th they crossed Patteson Passage with a view of geting to the South to explore the lands which lies there, and sailed down the west coast of Pentecost Isle (Raga). To the south they saw the island of Ambrin and behind it Paama and Epi. On 22nd, approaching Mallicollo (Malekula) we perceived a creek which had the appearence of a good harbour. Cook sent Lieutt [Richard] Pickersgill and the Master [Joseph Gilbert] in two Armd boats to Sound and look for Anchorage. The following day a good many [natives] came round us, some came in Canoes and others swam off\\\'... four I took into the Cabbin and made them various presents. Later, after some misunder-standing some natives began to Shoot Arrows... a Musquet discharged in the air and a four pounder over their heads sent them all off in the utmost confusion; those in the Cabbin leaped out of the Windows... About 9 o\\\'Clock we landed in the face of about 4 or 500 Men who were assembled on the Shore, armd with Bows and Arrows, clubs and Spears, but they made not the least opposission, on the contrary one Man gave his Arms to a nother and Met us in the water with a green branch in his hand, which [he] exchanged for the one I held in my hand. Just before departing Cook remarked they have not so much as a name for a Dog, consequently can have none, for which reason we left them a Dog and a Bitch.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 10in x 8in (255mm x 205mm)
Plate size: - 9 1/2in x 7 1/4in (240mm x 185mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
Malakula Island also spelled Malekula, is the second-largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, in the Pacific Ocean region of Melanesia.
Discovered by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós in 1606 and visited by Captain Cook in 1774.

Vanuatu officially the Republic of Vanuatu is a Pacific island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 kilometres east of northern Australia, 540 kilometres northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island in 1606. Since the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies had been unified under the king of Spain in 1580 (following the vacancy of the Portuguese throne, which lasted for sixty years, until 1640, when the Portuguese monarchy was restored), Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies, and named it La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.
The Vanuatu group of islands first had contact with Europeans in 1606, when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queiros, sailing for the Spanish Crown, arrived on the largest island and called the group of islands La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo or The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit, believing he had arrived in Terra Australis or Australia. The Spanish established a short-lived settlement at Big Bay on the north side of the island. The name Espiritu Santo remains to this day.
Europeans did not return until 1768, when Louis Antoine de Bougainville rediscovered the islands on 22 May, naming them the Great Cyclades. In 1774, Captain Cook named the islands the New Hebrides, a name that would last until independence in 1980.

William Hodges RA 1744 – 1797 was an English painter. He was a member of James Cooks second voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, including Table Bay, Tahiti, Easter Island, and the Antarctic.
Between 1772 and 1775 Hodges accompanied James Cook to the Pacific as the expeditions artist. Many of his sketches and wash paintings were adapted as engravings in the original published edition of Cooks journals from the voyage.
Most of the large-scale landscape oil paintings from his Pacific travels for which Hodges is best known were finished after his return to London; he received a salary from the Admiralty for the purposes of completing them. These paintings depicted a stronger light and shadow than had been usual in European landscape tradition. Contemporary art critics complained that his use of light and colour contrasts gave his paintings a rough and unfinished appearance.
Hodges also produced many valuable portrait sketches of Pacific islanders and scenes from the voyage involving members of the expedition..

Robert Bénard 1734 – 1777 was an 18th-century French engraver.
Specialized in the technique of engraving, Robert Ménard is mainly famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates (at least 1,800) to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & d\'Alembert from 1751.
Later, publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke reused many of his productions to illustrate the works of his catalog.

$105.00