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Rare engraving of Arched Rock, Tolaga Bay, on New Zealand’s north-east coast of the North Island. Cook visited the area in 1769. The view shows a Maori man in a cloak, holding a long spear in the centre foreground, and two … Read Full Description
$A 175
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Rare engraving of Arched Rock, Tolaga Bay, on New Zealand’s north-east coast of the North Island. Cook visited the area in 1769. The view shows a Maori man in a cloak, holding a long spear in the centre foreground, and two Europeans with another cloaked Maori at the left. The view is from Cook’s Cove looking through to Tolaga Bay. Through the arched hole in the rock, a stretch of water (Tolaga Bay), with a two-sailed waka is visible.
From the official British Admiralty sanctioned edition of the accounts of Cook’s first voyage and the first and most superior issue of this engraving.
Sporing, the artist, has depicted the Endeavours’ pinnance, which was moving about the bay on the same day in the process of wooding and watering the ship. The discovery of the view was recorded; ‘We saw an extraordinary natural curiosity. In pursuing a valley bounded on each side by steep hills we on a sudden saw a most noble arch or Cavern through the face of a rock leading directly to the sea, so that through it we had not only a view of the bay and hills on the other side but an opportunity of imagining a ship or any other grand object opposite it. It was certainly the most magnificent surprize. I have ever met with so much is pure nature superior to art in these cases‘ Banks, Jornal I, 419, 419, 24 October 1769
From Hawkesworth, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere,… London 1773.
James Cook (1728 - 1779)
Cook was the most important navigator of the Age of Enlightenment, a period that saw the mystery of the Southland resolved, the discovery of New Zealand, Hawaii, numerous Pacific Islands and confirmation that a Northwest Passage did not exist. Cook was born in Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish labourer and apprenticeship for three years under John Walker, a Quaker coal-shipper of Whitby. In 1755 Walker offered him a command, but instead Cook joined HMS Eagle and within a month was master's mate. After two years on the Channel service, he was promoted master of the Pembroke, and in 1758 crossed the Atlantic in her and took part in the siege of Louisburg and the survey of the St Lawrence River that led to the capture of Quebec. Returning to England in 1762 he married Elizabeth Batts (1742-1832?) of Shadwell, whom he was to rarely see in the ensuing years at sea. Cook then famously commanded three voyages that ended with his death on the island of Hawaii on 14 February 1779.
View other items by James Cook
Herman Diedrich Spöring (1730 - 1771)
Spöring joined Captain Cook's first voyage on the Endeavour on 23 July 1768. He was initially employed as Official Secretary, but took over the duties of landscape artist Alexander Buchan after he died in 1769. Spöring also completed many botanical and zoological drawings to for Joseph Banks, whom he had befriended at the British Museum prior to sailing. Spöring possibly studied medicine at the University of Åbo (1748-1753) and surgery at the University of Stockholm. He was also a talented watchmaker which proved useful on the Endeavour where he was able to repair delicate sailing instruments.
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