Tonga. Natche, Ceremony in Honour of King’s Son. Cook c1784
$110.00
The Natche, a Ceremony in Honour of the King's Son, in Tongataboo – a grand and reverent ceremony.
Original copperplate engraving after the drawing by the Admiralty-appointed official artist on the voyage, John Webber (1751-1793). This engraving is part of a series of 78 plates, based on Webber's drawings to include indigenous people, artifacts and views. It was published for Anderson’s “Complete History of Captain Cook's First, Second and Third Voyages” published in London published by Alexander Hogg circa 1784.
Cook called Tonga the Friendly Islands because of his reception there in May 1777 on his third Pacific voyage. The archipelago of Tonga consists of 171 islands, with only 45 inhabited. There are four island groups: the mostly low-lying Tongatapu group (named by Cook, Tongataboo), the volcanic and coral Ha'apai group, the flat coral islands of the Vava'u group, and the volcanic Niuas group in the far north.
On his third voyage of discovery (1776-1780), Cook left England and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope, and Adventure Bay (for provisions) in Tasmania. He continued to the Pacific via New Zealand and the Cook Islands, and on to the Tongan Islands.
Page size is approximately 23cm x 28cm, with age discolouration to extremities of page but otherwise in good condition.
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