Engraved illustration of a Papuan outrigger by first fleet officer Captain John Hunter, originally printed for inclusion in his Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1792).

Engraved illustration of a Papuan outrigger by first fleet officer Captain John Hunter, originally printed for inclusion in his Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1792).

Hunter sailed with Arthur Phillip and undertook, amongst other tasks, essential map-making of the coast of New South Wales and Norfolk Island. As captain of the Sirius, Hunter was sent from Botany Bay to the Cape to replenish supplies in late 1788 and Hunter sailed through Papuan waters. In his Historical Journal of 1793, Hunter records interactions with natives of the Duke of York islands (New Britain), where his mariners were attacked while filling casks onshore: 'some of the stones, which they threw, came with the force of a shot from a gun among the sailors.' Hunter returned with grape-shot and created a scene of terror that induced a temporary accord.