1778 Capt. Cook Antique Maps of Maleku, Tanna Vanuatu & New Caledonia, Cook 1774

Cartographer : Captain James Cook

  • Title : Port Sandwich A Mallicollo; Havre de Balade dans L Nle. Caledonie; Port Resolution dans L Isle de Tanna
  • Size: 11in x 8 1/2in (280mm x 215mm)
  • Ref #:  32168
  • Date : 1778
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique map of three maps on the one sheet, the first of Port Sandwich, Malakula Island, Vanuatu. The second is the Bay of Balade, in the city of Pouebo, north-east of New Caledonia and the third of Port Resolution on the Island of Tanna, Vanuatu all visited and mapped by Captain James Cook in 1774, in HMS Resolution & Adventure, during his 2nd Voyage of Discovery to the South Seas. They were engraved by Robert Benard - after Thomas Bowen - 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.

Cooks Journal (1774)......
Jul. 2 Sat. Sights Vatoa (Fiji Group). Only sighting made of the Fiji Group.
3 Sun. Sights small island, puts boat ashore. No anchorage. Names it Turtle Island.
4 Mon. Off Vuata Vatoa Reef. Sends boat for turtles. None found.
17 Sun. Approaching New Hebrides - Bougainville’s “Great Cyclades”. Sights Aurora Island (Bougainville, 1768) (Maewo).
18 Mon. Rounds north of Maewo in gale.
19 Tue. Off Isle of Lepers (Omba). Passes between Maewo and Omba in gale.
20 Wed. Finds no anchorage at Maewo, crosses Patteson Passage towards Pentecost Isle (Raga).
21 Thu. Passes to west of Pentecost and sights Ambrim, Paama and Epi.
22 Fri. Approaches Mallicollo (Malekula). Anchors in Port Sandwich (Sasun Say). Visited by canoes. Shot at with arrows. Lands, faced by “4 or 500 men arm’d with Bows and Arrows, Clubs and Spears”. Peace made, gifts exchanged.
23 Sat. Goes ashore. Visits house. Walks around harbour, returns to ship and sails.
24 Sun. Passes Maskelyne Islands, off Epi and Mai.
25 Mon. Towards Shepherd Isles, off Makura. Mataso, Monument Rock (Wot).
26 Tue. Off Hinchinbrook (Nguna), Montagu (Emau) and Sandwich (Efate) Islands. Heads SE.
27 Wed. Sights Eromanga.
29 Fri. Off Eromanga.
30 Sat. Sights Tana/Tanna (Ipari).

Aug. 1 Mon. Off north tip of Eromanga.
2 Tue. Sails part way down west coast and returns.
3 Wed. Sails down east coast. Puts out boat for anchorage.
4 Thu. Anchors at Traitors’ Head (Polenia Bay). Goes ashore. Gifts. Fired at with arrows, shot fired back, returns to ship, sails. Passes Cook Bay.
5 Fri. Heads for Tanna, sights volcanoes, sends boat for anchorage and anchors at Port Resolution. Sights Erronan (Futuna).
6 Sat. Goes ashore, threatened, makes friends with Paowang and visits his house over next few days.
7 Sun. Volcano erupts-Mt. Yasur. Begins to provision ship, obtain wood.
16 Tue. Walks to other side of island, sights Annatom (Aneityum).
19 Fri. Native is shot by marine, William Wedgeborough, later punished.
20 Sat. Sails, heads east towards Erronan (Futuna).
21 Sun. Off Immer (Aniwa).
22 Mon. Heads back around S. tip of Tanna.
23 Tue. Off W. coast of Sandwich Isle (Efate), heading NW towards and passing Malekula, Rock Point.
24 Wed. Through Bougainville Passage, past St. Bartholomew Isle (Malo), sails up E. coast of Espiritu Santo, sights Cape Quiros and Sakau Island.
25 Thu. Into Bay of St. Philip and St. James (Quiros, 1606) and Port of Vera Cruz.
See an extract of Cook\'s Journal for this period.
26 Fri. Tacks into Bay.
27 Sat. Standing off, sends Gilbert and Cooper ashore in boat, they land near river (= Quiros’ R. Jordan). Rounds Cape Cumberland.
29 Mon. Heads down west coast of Espiritu Santo, tacking to and fro.
31 Wed. Off Cape Lisburne - heads SW.

Sep. 4 Sun. Sights Cape Colnett (New Caledonia).
5 Mon. Enters reef (Amoss Passage) between Cook Reef and Balade Reef, anchors off Observatory Isle (Pudiu), visited by inhabitants.
5 Tue. Goes ashore with armed boats, rows along coast, returns to ship. Visited by natives, meets Chief, Teeabooma. Wales and Pickersgill land on Isle, Cook goes to help. Observatory set up for eclipse of Sun.
7 Wed. Eclipse, cloudy at first, observations made. Returns to ship, goes ashore again and returns. Simon Monk, ship’s butcher, dies after fall down fore-hatchway previous night.
8 Thu. Goes ashore. Excursion to west. The Forsters and Cook are ill with eating poisoned fish, liver and roe (Toadfish).
9 Fri. Exchanges presents with Teeabooma but still indisposed.
10 Sat. Forster ashore botanising.
12 Mon. Cutter is damaged when Gilbert and Pickersgill are returning from a visit to the north-west of island. Repairs made.
13 Tue. Takes possession of island in name of King George III, naming it New Caledonia. Sails back through reef and heads NW. along coast, outside Cook Reef, passes Great False Passage.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 11in x 8 1/2in (280mm x 215mm)
Plate size: - 11in x 8 1/2in (280mm x 215mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Small repair to top margin
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None

Background: 
Port Sandwich in Mallicollo
Cook had reached Mallicolo (Maleku) 17 July 1774 and made a careful survey of the islands which was completed 1 September 1774, he named the islands the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).

Harbour of Balade in New Caledonia
Cook discovered the island group of New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774, which he named New Caledonia. The Resolution remained in New Caledonia 5 to 13 September, 1774. Balade was in the north of the island.

Port Resolution in the Isle of Tanna
Cook had reached, Vanuatu (New Hebrides) 17 July 1774 and made a careful survey of the islands which was completed 1 September 1774. Naming the islands the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). In August Cook visited Tanna, an island in Tafea Province, and landed in an inlet on the south eastern tip of the island that he named Port Resolution.

Thomas Bowen (1767-1790) was an engraver and son of Emanuel Bowen, map and print seller, engraver to George II and to Louis XV of France who worked in London from 1714 producing some the best and most attractive maps of the 18th century. He had plans for completing a major County Atlas but, finding the task beyond his means, joined with Thomas Kitchin to publish The Large English Atlas. Many of the maps were issued individually from 1749 onwards and the whole atlas was not finally completed until 1760. With one or two exceptions they were the largest maps of the counties to appear up to that time (27 x 20) and were unusual in that blank areas around each map are filled with historical and topographical detail which makes fascinating and amusing reading. The atlas was reissued later in reduced size. Apart from his county maps and atlases of different parts of the world he also issued (with John Owen) a book of road maps based, as was usual at that time, on Ogilby but again incorporating his own style of historical and heraldic detail. Thomas helped his father during his lifetime and produced many fine maps in his own right after his fathers death.

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.

$125.00