| Brief Description |
This print is a steel engraving, coloured, on paper titled, "Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent, on Behalf of the British Crown, A.D. 1770 Under the Name of New South Wales From the Great Historical Painting by Gilfillan, in the Possession of the Royal Society of Victoria."
A party of naval officers, with Cook to the fore, stands beneath the British flag, an honour party of marines to the right firing a volley under the direction of an Officer of Marines, a small band of sailors behind them playing a range of instruments; three aborigines in right foreground crouch on the ground holding their ears in fear; two explorers in left foreground are reading and writing, and a working group of sailors at left background are setting up camp, butchering a goat and moving stores guarded by a marine; the Union Jack is raised on a wooded knoll, and behind all, a three-masted sailing ship rides at anchor in a bay.
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