THE ELLIS DRAWINGS: AN ETHNOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 10, Issue 2, 1 October 1977, Page 20

THE ELLIS DRAWINGS: AN ETHNOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT

Janet Davidson

The pictorial record of the voyages of Cook and other explorers provides ethnologists and prehistorians with extraordinarily valuable evidence of the people of the Pacific, their artefacts and customs, and the landscapes within which they lived. As more such material has been studied and published, appreciation has grown of the conventions within which the artists worked, the differences between original drawings and engravings, the differences between the work of one artist and another, or between different versions by the same artist. Thus the pictorial record has come to be more critically appreciated. Any new or previously little known collection, no matter how sketchy, is likely to add in some way to this record, supplementing existing material and perhaps giving new insights into previously known works. This is certainly true of this collection of drawings by William Ellis from Cook’s third voyage.

The collection is of ethnological importance in several different respects. A group of landscapes varies from rather sketchy outlines to quite detailed pictures of islands seen from the sea; the best of these provide important views of man-modified landscapes, particularly in the vegetation patterns they depict. Although there are only two drawings of isolated items of material culture —a Hawaiian cloak and a fan, probably from the Cook Islands—there are a number of drawings of canoes, objects which obviously intrigued Ellis. These vary in quality, but add to the existing record of canoes in different areas. A third major group of drawings consists of portraits of people, named and unnamed. Like his contemporaries, Ellis was not particularly successful in capturing Polynesian features; the importance of the portraits, therefore, lies largely in details of hairstyle and beard, costume, headdress and ornament. Several portraits of named individuals are naturally of special interest. A final intriguing aspect of the collection is that several scenes and portraits are very similar to well-known illustrations by Webber and in some cases confirm or throw further light on details in the latter.

Among the most interesting of the landscapes are two views of Mangaia from the sea (ff. 4 (see plate III) and sa). These are of historical interest since they probably come close to representing the first view of any of the Cook Islands by Europeans. To the ethnologist, the details of vegetation are important. The makatea or raised coral perimeter of the island is heavily wooded, whereas the interior is much more open, having been cleared and cultivated for centuries. A canoe with two men in the foreground provides ethnological detail of a different kind, and reflects both Ellis’s interest in canoes and his difficulty in capturing their occupants in a natural attitude. This scene gains additional value from

the description by Ellis himself in his account of the voyage 1 and descriptions by other members of the expedition. 2 A view of Eua in the Tonga Group (folio 12) is similarly important for its details of vegetation; two joining views of Nomuka (ff. 13a, 14a) depict the quite different coastline and vegetation of a low coral island, particularly the coconut palms rising above the level of the undergrowth. Another scene at Nomuka (folio Ba, see plate V) shows a similar view of the trading station to that well known from Webber’s illustration. 3 It is interesting to note that whereas Ellis shows some identical detail (such as a cooper with a barrel) his scene contains fewer people, less formally grouped, and shows minor but significant differences in the construction of a smaller Tongan house at the side of the large main house.

Ellis drew canoes, with or without people in them, everywhere he went. Some of his drawings are sketchy and at least one, almost certainly a Hawaiian canoe, is wrongly attributed to Tahiti (folio 21a, cf. 47a). None the less, his is a valuable record, not only of the larger double canoes of Tahiti and the ‘royal canoes’ of Tonga, but of the smaller everyday fishing canoes of the various island groups. A carefully executed sepia ink and wash drawing of three different views of small Tongan canoes (folio 18, see plate IV) suggests that he took the trouble to study in some detail a canoe on the beach, as well as sketching canoes as they came within range of the ships.

Most of the portraits are head or head and shoulder views; some are very detailed (notably those of North-west Coast Americans), others provide only frustrating glimpses of ornaments sketchily indicated, although hairstyle and beard are usually carefully depicted. Several fullfigure studies and one or two others are of great importance. To the ethnologist perhaps the most important item in the collection is a portrait of a seated Hawaiian man in profile, displaying a fully tattooed left arm and hand (folio 45, see plate VI). The shoulder tattoo exactly parallels that depicted by Webber; 4 the detail of the lower arm and hand supplies what was missing or obscure in known illustrations of Hawaiian tattooing by Webber. 5

A sketch of the head and shoulders of a Tongan wearing elaborate headdress and small necklace (folio 9b) is of great interest. The page reference to Ellis’s published account, in what is presumed to be Ellis’s hand, in the top right hand corner, suggests that this may be Fatafehi Paulaho, the 36th Tui Tonga. If so, this drawing presents some remarkable differences from the engraving of Webber’s portrait of the same subject, 6 both in feature and in the nature of the headdress. Ellis’s drawing shows an older man than Webber’s and moreover comes closer than most of his portraits to depicting typically Polynesian features. Webber’s portrait has been criticized for not bearing any resemblance to a forty-year-old man of great corpulence; 7 does Ellis’s sketch come

closer to a portrait of Fatafehi Paulaho and if so, is his version of the feathered bonnet more accurate than that in the engraving from Webber?

There are only a few full-figure portraits. A back view of a naked Maori warrior brandishing a patu (folio 2) is a careful figure study and depicts the hairstyle already well known from the work of Parkinson in particular. A view of a Tahitian priest in mourning costume (folio 19a) is very similar to the illustration in Ellis’s published account. 8 Of much greater interest are two portraits of Tahitian girls. One (folio 24) is very similar to the well-known drawing by Webber of a Tahitian girl bringing presents 9 and supports the correctness of the crinoline effect. The other, of a Tahitian girl dancing (folio 25, see plate I), is important in two respects. It illustrates a different position of the arms than other Cook voyage pictures of Tahitian dancing and it gives a different, simpler and indeed more comprehensive version of the costume worn by women for dancing. It is an important addition to the record by Parkinson and Webber of dancing and dance costume in Tahiti; 10 it is also a charming picture, irrespective of its ethnographic importance.

In a brief appraisal it is possible to mention only a few individual items. In conclusion, however, it may be said that many of the drawings are of considerable interest and some are of real importance to the ethnologist.

NOTES 1 Ellis, William. An authentic narrative of a voyage performed by Captain Cook and Captain Clerke, in His Majesty’s Ships Resolution and Discovery . . . 2 vols. London, 1782, v. 1, pp. 33-4. 2 Cook, James. The journals . . .; 111, The voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780. Edited by J. C. Beaglehole. 2 parts. Cambridge, 1967, p. 78. This work subsequently referred to as Journals 111. 3 Cook, James and James King. A voyage to the Pacific Ocean .. . Performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Discovery. In the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780 . . . 3 vols. and folio of plates. London, 1784, plate 13. Also in Murray-Oliver, A. Captain Cook’s Artists in the Pacific 1769-1779. Christchurch, 1969, plate 103. 4 Journals 111, plate 59a. 5 Cf. Emory, Kenneth P., ‘Hawaian tattooing’, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Honolulu, Hawaii, Occasional papers, 18 (17), 1946, pp. 235-70. 6 Cook and King, op. cit., plate 18; Murray-O liver, op. cit., plate 106. 7 Journals 111, p. 117, f.n. 3. 8 Ellis, op. cit., v. 1, facing p. 130. 9 Cook and King, op. cit., plate 27. 10 Oliver, Douglas L. Ancient Tahitian society. 3 vols. Honolulu, 1974, p. 333.