This engraving, after a drawing by artist William Hodges, comes from the official account of Cook's second voyage, 'A Voyage towards the South Pole', published by Strahan and Cadell in 1777.

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.

William Hodges (1744 - 1797) joined Cook's second expedition to the South Pacific as a draughtsman 1772-75 and was employed by the Admiralty in finishing his drawings.

Cook traveled to Tanna between August 6-20, 1774. As recorded in Hawkesworth's account: "The lost drawing by Hodges on which this engraving was based may have been the one referred to as 'no 70' by Cook in his Journal (Adm 55/108), which illustrated his text: 'here was a straggling Village, the houses of which need no other description than to compare them to a roof of a thatched house taking of the walls and place on the ground they are oblong, some are open at ends and others are partly closed'."

This is the second of two such engravings.

Mounted in album with PAI4078-PAI4090, PAI4092-PAI4214.; Page 137.; Plate No. XXIX.