Captain James Cook (1728-1779) made three separate voyages to the Pacific (with the ships Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure, and Discovery) and did more than any other voyager to explore the Pacific and Southern Ocean. Cook not only encountered Pacific cultures for the first time, but also assembled the first large-scale collections of Pacific objects to be brought back to Europe. He was killed in Hawaii in 1779.

This engraving is after a drawing by John Webber from John Hawkesworth's account (1773) of the voyages of Captain James Cook, Joseph Banks and Captain John Byron.

Cook travelled to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) between January 24-30, 1777.

First contact with the natives was made on 28 January, 1777. ‘They were quite naked and wore no ornaments except the large punctures or ridges raised on the skin, some in straight and others in curved lines … they were of common stature but rather slender; their skin was black and also their hair which was as woolly as any Native of Guinea, but they were not distinguished by remarkable thick lips nor flat noses, on the contrary their features were far from disagreeable; they had pretty good eyes and their teeth were tolerable even but very dirty; most of them had their hair and beards anointed with red ointment and some had their faces painted with the same composition.’ Cook, Journals III

Loosely bound in album with PAI3893, PAI3895-PAI3936.; Plate No.6.