Description
Rare engraving from the French edition of the accounts of Cook’s second voyage, published (1778) the year after the English edition (1777).
The title in the English versions was: Man of New Caledonia.
Cook discovered the island group of New Caledonia on 4 September 1774, which he named New Caledonia. The Resolution remained in New Caledonia from 5 to 13 September, 1774.
‘Some of them have a kind of Concave cylindrical stiff black caps, these seemed to be a great ornament among them, and we thought anly worn by men of note or Wariors, a large sheet of our strong paper, when ever they got one, was generally applied to this use’. Cook, Journal II, 540, 2 September 1774.
The attachment to the hat is described as ‘A becket, or a piece of cord made of cocoa-nut bark, used in throwing their lances.’ Foster II, 385, 1777.
References; 1222, p.223, Joppien 2.137A, ill.p.238 (English edition)
From Cook,Voyage dans L’Hémisphère Austral, et Autour du Monde, fait sur les vaisseaux du Roi, L’Aventure, & La Résolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774 & 1775.
