A larger View (by another Artist) of that celebrated Natural Curiosity, the Perforated Rock, in T...

This engraving by Gerald Sibelius is a view after sketches made by Sydney Parkinson, the Scottish-born artist on board Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific from 1769-1772. Parkinson was the first European artist to visit this part of the world, and made nearly one thousand drawings during his travels, largely of the flora and fauna indigenous to places encountered as well as some portraits and landscape views. He contracted dysentery and died at sea on the return voyage.

This view depicts a ‘celebrated natural curiosity’, the arched rock in Tolaga Bay, on the East Coast of New Zealand. Parkinson commented on the unusual rock formation in his journal, which was published posthumously, writing:

"Most of the rocks, which are many on the sea shore, are composed of a sandy stone, through which the surf had worn several passages. One of them, in particular, was very romantic it had the appearance of a large arch which led from the sea-side into the vallies [sic], and through it ran a stream of water. The whole formed a very uncommon view, peculiarly striking to a curious spectator". (Sydney Parkinson, <em>A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas</em>, London: Calaban Books, 1984, p. 99)

Included in the engraving are four figures, one group of two Europeans and an indigenous guide (possibly intended to represent Tupaia) and a single Māori figure wearing a kaitaka and holding a long spear.