An offering before Capt Cook in the Sandwich Islands

This engraving shows a ceremony acknowledging Captain Cook as an incarnation of the God Lono. Webber drew the original on the spot in January 1779 when Cook arrived in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) on his third Pacific voyage.

The British Admiralty appointed John Webber as the artist on Captain James Cook's third expedition (1776-1780). The engraving is part of a series of 78 plates, based on some of Webber's many drawings from the voyage, by various engravers. They were first printed as part of an Atlas volume accompanying the journals of the expedition commanders, titled A voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken, by the command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the northern hemisphere, etc.

The engravings were made, with Webber's assistance, from his original sketches and watercolours, and subjects include Indigenous people, artifacts and views from the Pacific Islands, North America, Alaska and Siberia.