1774 Hawkesworth / Benard View of the HMS Dolphin in Tahiti

This is Robert Benard's view of the ship HMS Dolphin under attack off Tahiti, which appeared in the 1774 French translation of the book, An Account of the Voyages…, published the previous year by John Hawkesworth. Wallis was likely the first European to discover Tahiti (Spanish and Portuguese mariners might have reached it earlier) and, despite this incident, came to regard the island and those around it highly.

A Closer Look

This view depicts the HMS Dolphin in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, which the ship reached in late June 1767. Initially, Wallis and his crew hoped Tahiti (which they renamed 'King George III Island') was the long-sought Southern Continent. After anchoring, Wallis retired to his cabin, suffering from illness like much of his crew. After the British attempted to force the Tahitians to trade with them, the Tahitians rode out on canoes to attack the Dolphin with stones. The British responded with canon fire and the fracas ended with the Tahitians agreeing to trade. Staying for roughly a month, the British developed good relations with the Tahitians, especially Queen Purea (Oborea).

Wallis' Pacific Voyage

Less well-known than some of his contemporaries, Captain Samuel Wallis (1728 - 1795) was nonetheless an important figure in late 18th century European exploration of the Pacific. Between 1766 and 1768, as commander of the HMS Dolphin, Wallis undertook a voyage of circumnavigation in accordance with Philip Carteret on the HMS Swallow (the Dolphin had already circumnavigated the world once under the command of John Byron). Wallis and Carteret were separated during a storm in the Straits of Magellan, but both continued with and completed their voyages, making important discoveries of islands in the South and Southwestern Pacific, which were deeply influential on later voyages, especially the first voyage of James Cook. However, neither Carteret or Wallis discovered the southern continent, and disease decimated the crews of both ships.

Publication History and Census

This view was engraved by Robert Benard as Plate 1 in Volume II of Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté Britannique, actuellement regnante, pour faire des découvertes dans l'hémisphère méridional, a 1774 French translation of the book An Account of the Voyages… published the previous year by John Hawkesworth. The view is only independently cataloged in the holdings of the National Library of Australia. Hawkesworth's entire text is more widely distributed in institutional holdings, though somewhat less so in the French translation.