1784 Anderson Antique Print Coastal Views of French Polynesia & Tonga Isles - Cook 1st Voyage 1769

Cartographer : Captain James Cook

  • Title : Views: Sir Charles Saunders Island : latitude 172̊8 south, longitude 1502 4 west of London; Osnaburg Island : latitude 175 1 south, long. 1470̊0 west; Boscawens Island : latitude 1550 south, long. 1743̊0; Adml. Keppels Island : latitude 1555 south, longitude 1743̊3 west of London; Wallis Island : latitude 13118 south, longitude 1762̊0 west of London.
  • Ref #:  16078
  • Size: 13 1/2in x 9 1/2in (345mm x 240mm)
  • Date : 1784
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique print of five topographical views - perspectives taken from the deck of Captain Cooks Ship The Endeavour, during his 1st Voyage of Discovery in 1769 - of five coastal profiles of islands in or around the Tonga Islands group was published in George Andersons 1784 edition of A Collection of voyages round the world : performed by royal authority : containing a complete historical account of Captain Cooks first, second, third and last voyages, undertaken for making new discoveries, &c. ... published by Alexander Hogg, London 1784.

The five coastal topographical views from The Endeavour in order of title;
1. Sir Charles Saunder - Maiao in the Windward Islands of the Society Islands (French Polynesia)
2. Isle Osnabrug - Mehetia in the Society Islands (French Polynesia) in the vicinity of Wallis Island.
3. Isle Boscawen - Niuatoputapu.
4. Isle de l Admiral Keppel - Tafahi.
5. Wallis Island in the Wallis and Futuna Island group.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - 
Colors used: - 
General color appearance: - 
Paper size: - 13 1/2in x 9 1/2in (345mm x 240mm)
Plate size: - 13 1/2in x 9 1/2in (345mm x 240mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
Mai ao is an 8.8 km2 island formation located 78 km southwest of Mo orea and one of the Windward Islands (French: Iles du Vent) in French Polynesia.

Mehetia or Meetia is a volcanic island in the Windward Islands, in the east of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. This island is a very young active stratovolcano 110 kilometres east of the Taiarapu Peninsula of Tahiti. It belongs to the Teahitia-Mehetia hotspot.

Niuatoputapu is a high island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean, its highest point being at 157 m. Its name means sacred island. Older European names for the island are Traitors island or Keppel island.

Tafahi is a small island in the north of the Tonga archipelago, in fact closer to Savaii (Sāmoa) than the main islands of Tonga. It is only 9 km north-northeast away from Niuatoputapu

Wallis is a Polynesian island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the French overseas collectivity of Wallis and Futuna. It lies north of Tonga, northeast of Fiji, east-northeast of the Hoorn islands, east of Fijis Rotuma, southeast of Tuvalu, southwest of Tokelau and west of Samoa.

Cooks First voyage (1768–71)
In 1766, the Admiralty engaged Cook to command a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the voyage was to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun for the benefit of a Royal Society inquiry into a means of determining longitude. Cook, at the age of 39, was promoted to lieutenant to grant him sufficient status to take the command. For its part the Royal Society agreed that Cook would receive a one hundred guinea gratuity in addition to his Naval pay.
The expedition sailed aboard HMS Endeavour, departing England on 26 August 1768. Cook and his crew rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific to arrive at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations of the Venus Transit were made. However, the result of the observations was not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders which were additional instructions from the Admiralty for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of Terra Australis. Cook then sailed to New Zealand and mapped the complete coastline, making only some minor errors. He then voyaged west, reaching the south-eastern coast of Australia on 19 April 1770, and in doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline.
On 23 April he made his first recorded direct observation of indigenous Australians at Brush Island near Bawley Point, noting in his journal: “...and were so near the Shore as to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach they appear\\\'d to be of a very dark or black Colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the Clothes they might have on I know not. On 29 April Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as the Kurnell Peninsula. Cook originally christened the area as \\\"Stingray Bay\\\", but later he crossed this out and named it Botany Bay after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an aboriginal tribe known as the Gweagal.
After his departure from Botany Bay he continued northwards. He stopped at Bustard Bay (now known as Seventeen Seventy or 1770) at 8 o’clock on 23 May 1770. On 24 May Cook and Banks and others went ashore. Continuing north, on 11 June a mishap occurred when HMS Endeavour ran aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef, and then nursed into a river mouth on 18 June 1770. The ship was badly damaged and his voyage was delayed almost seven weeks while repairs were carried out on the beach (near the docks of modern Cooktown, Queensland, at the mouth of the Endeavour River). The voyage then continued, sailing through Torres Strait and on 22 August Cook landed on Possession Island, where he claimed the entire coastline that he had just explored as British territory. He returned to England via Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia), where many in his crew succumbed to malaria, and then the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at the island of Saint Helena on 12 July 1771.
Cook\\\'s journals were published upon his return, and he became something of a hero among the scientific community. Among the general public, however, the aristocratic botanist Joseph Banks was a greater hero. Banks even attempted to take command of Cooks second voyage, but removed himself from the voyage before it began, and Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster were taken on as scientists for the voyage. Cooks son George was born five days before he left for his second voyage.

$65.00