Un Homme de L’Isle Sandwich Dansant.

Title

Un Homme de L’Isle Sandwich Dansant.

Description

Illustration shows a dancing Hawaiian. The scene was sketched by John Webber, a talented young artist who accompanied Captain James Cook on his third voyage to the Pacific in 1776-1780, and engraved by the master engraver Robert Benard in Paris.

ca. 1784

Artist

Benard (1734-1777)

Robert Bénard (1734 in Paris – 1777) was an 18th-century French engraver. Specialized in the technique of engraving, Robert Bénard is mainly famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates (at least 1,800) to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & d'Alembert from 1751. Later, publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke reused many of his productions to illustrate the works of his catalog.

Historical Description

t was probably Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands who came to Hawaii between the second and sixth centuries. A second wave of Polynesian settlers followed from Tahiti around the 11th century. Thanks to sophisticated navigation technology, the seafarers were able to overcome the enormous distance of around 5,500 kilometers from the Marquesas with large outrigger canoes. They navigated for the stars, for currents and swell, for cloud formation and migration, but also for flocks of birds, schools of fish, driftwood and other parts of plants. The arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook in 1778 was the first documented contact by a European explorer with Hawaii. Cook named the archipelago "Sandwich Islands" in honor of its sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who published the location of the islands and gave the local name as Owyhee. The form "Owyhee" or "Owhyhee" is preserved in the names of certain places in the American part of the Pacific Northwest, including Owyhee County and Owyhee Mountains in Idaho. It is very likely that Spanish explorers came to the Hawaiian Islands in the 16th century, two hundred years before Cook's first documented visit in 1778. Ruy López de Villalobos commanded a fleet of six ships that left Acapulco in 1542 in the Philippines. Spanish sailor named Juan Gaetano on board as a navigator. For two and a half centuries, Spanish galleons crossed the Pacific from Mexico on a route that ran south of Hawaii on their way to Manila. The exact route has been kept secret in order to protect the Spanish trade monopoly from competing powers. Hawaii thus remained independent. Despite these controversial claims, Cook is generally considered the first European to land in Hawaii after visiting the Hawaiian Islands twice. After Cook's visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Hawaiian Islands attracted many European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers, who found the islands to be a convenient harbor and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen in the design of the flag of Hawaiʻi, which bears the Union Jack in the top-left corner.