THE LANDING AT MALLICOLO, ONE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES. [Plate LX from Hawkesworth's account of the voyages of Capt. James Cook]

London: Wm. Strahan, 1777. 1st printing. Engraving by William Hodges. An original copper engraving from a painting by William Hodges,Taken from Hawkesworth's 1773 account of the voyages of Capt. James Cook, Joseph Banks, and Capt John Byron. Hodges (1744-1797) joined Cook's second expedition to the South Pacific (1772-1775) as a draughstman. Cook visited Vanuatu in July of 1774. In his judgment the islanders - the Malekulans - were 'the most ugly and ill-proportioned people' he ever saw. Hawkesworth commented that they wore no clothes, except a piece of cloth or leaf by which the men tied their penis to their belly. They had wooly, short-cropped hair, thick lips, and very dark complexions, and the septum was perforated by a sharp stone. When Hodges painted 'The Landing at Mallicolo' (the original of which hangs in the National Martime Museum) he adopted what has been described as 'the transitional mode of history painting, using the mitigated realism popularized by Benjamin West'. Cook's men are shown in contemporary dress and the islanders are painted to accord with the ethnographic reports, but in poses and with gestures whose origin appears to lie in classical statuary, thus making them tall and dignified of bearing - a clear contrast with Cook's description of them as being 'ape-like'. This is plate LX appearing opposite page 129. The margins show staining. There is some faint staining to the image, and several small closed tears (not affecting image). The margins are untrimmed. Measuring 29 x 49 cms, with three folds, as issued. Uncoloured.