This engraving comes from the official account of Cook's second voyage, 'A Voyage towards the South Pole', published by Strahan and Cadell in 1777 (vol. II, pl. 60)
Captain James Cook (1728-79) made three separate voyages to the Pacific (first in the 'Endeavour', second with 'Resolution' and 'Adventure', and finally with 'Resolution and 'Discovery'). He did more than any other voyager to explore it and the Southern Ocean, not only encountering Pacific cultures for the first time but also assembling the first large-scale collections of Pacific objectsbrought back to Europe. He was killed on Hawaii in 1779. Hodges (1744-97) was the draughtsman and painter on Cook's second expedition,1772-75, and was subsequently employed by the Admiralty to work up drawings for engraving and produce finished oil paintings from it.

Cook reached Vanuatu in July of 1774. Shortly after he had anchored at Malekula on 22 July, islanders came out to trade in their canoes and four came aboard. Both Cook and Forster commented upon their appearance: they wore no clothes, except a piece of cloth or leaf by which they tied the penis up to the belly. They had wooly short-cropped hair, thick lips, and very dark complexions, and the septum was perforated by a curved stone. Hodges made several studies of the islanders who came aboard. They were 'easily persuaded to sit for their portraits and seemed to have an idea of the representations'. Here Cook hands his musket to another officer as he steps ashore to receive a palm frond being offered; for, as he noted, 'Their sign of Friendship is a green branch, and sprinkling water with the hand over the head'.

When Hodges painted 'The Landing at Mallicolo' (BHC1904), which is the basis of this print, he adopted the transitional mode of history painting of mitigated realism, popularized by Benjamin West. Cook's men are shown in their contemporary dress and the islanders are painted to accord with the ethnographic reports. However,particularly in the case of the islanders, the poses and gestures derive from classical sources, making them tall and dignified . This is at variance with the published account as regards the Malekulans, whom Cook describes as 'ape-like', the most ugly, ill-proportioned people I ever saw' and 'a rather diminutive race; with long heads, flat faces and monkey countenances.' George Forster left a more sympathetic impression: 'The features of these people, though remarkably irregular and ugly, yet are full of great sprightliness, and express a quick comprehension.' See Cook, Journals, [ed. Beaglehole] vol. II, 461-62 and Joppien and Smith, 'The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages', vol. 2 (1985), pp. 70, 92, 224-25

PAI4083 is another copy.
Mounted in album with PAI4078-PAI4081, PAI4083-PAI4214.; Page 128.; No. 60.