Monuments in Easter Island.

Rare engraving from the official British Admiralty sanctioned edition of the accounts of Cook’s second voyage. All other later copies made of this image by other publishers were unauthorised, usually smaller and inferior in quality.

Unusual view of the famous stone monuments of Easter Island.

Cook visited the island 8 October 1773 to 16 March 1774.

‘Starting out in the morning from the anchorage at Hangaroa they crossed the isthmus to the eastern side of the island, where overturned perhaps by an Earthquake. One of the standing ones had lost its hat. These pillars stand on a kind of pedestal or stone elevation’ (Foster 468-74)

Reference; Beddie 1381-46, p.268, Joppien pl.66, p.76

From, Cook, A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World, performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, In the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775.

Second Voyage: 1772-1775 Ships: Resolution & Adventure Rank:Commander

Cook was promoted commander and given charge of a second expedition, in the two ships, Resolution and Adventure which was under the command of Captain Tobias Furneaux.

On this second voyage Cook was to circumnavigate the world in high southern latitudes and producing a chart of the Southern Hemisphere which extended the knowledge of Antarctica. He attempted another search for the Great Southern Continent (November 1773), crossing the Antarctic Circle on 20th December 1773. However, the ice and cold soon forced him to turn north again and he made another search in the central Pacific for the Great Southern Continent. On 17 January 1774 he turned south again, crossing the Antarctic Circle for the second time and then again for a third time 26 January 1774.

On his return he was made a member of the Royal Society, receiving a Copley Medal for achievement and was promoted to post-captain of Greenwich Hospital.