1774 View of Huaheine with La Maison de Dieu and a Small Altar Covered with Offerings
DESCRIPTION
A shrine on Huaheine with its altar of offerings appears in this excerpted plate from the French edition of John Hawkesworth's account of the voyages of Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook.
In it, a great spreading tree with spiky fronds dominates the left half of the view with a figure resting at its foot. At right, a long roofed shelter on posts stands beside a small slatted altar heaped with offerings, and hills and water stretch into the distance. The caption reads "Vue de l'isle d'Huaheine avec la Maison de Dieu, et un petit autel couvert d'offrandes," or "View of the island of Huaheine with La Maison de Dieu, and a small altar covered with offerings."
Hawkesworth's Voyages
In 1773 John Hawkesworth published, at the Admiralty's commission, a compiled account of the British voyages of John Byron, Samuel Wallis, Philip Carteret, and James Cook's first voyage, which together opened the South Pacific to European readers. It was translated into French the following year as Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté britannique (Paris: Saillant et Nyon and Panckoucke, 1774), with its plates re-engraved under the direction of Robert Bénard and others. Wallis's Dolphin reached Tahiti in 1767, the first European ship known to have done so, and Cook's Endeavour followed in 1769.
CONDITION
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