Map engraved by Robert Benard. Published in Antoine Francois Prevost's Histoire Generale des Voyages, 1747-80. A dramatic view of romantic Tahiti, the main part of which is circular with high mountains in the center.
High ridges radiate from the center like spokes of a wheel.
In the southeast is a narrow isthmus leading to a circular peninsula. Tahiti is the largest and most important of the French islands in the South Pacific, having approximately 100,000 inhabitants. It is located mid-way between South America and Australia. In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook stopped at Tahiti for three months to conduct astronomical observations and to refit his ship. While there he prepared charts of the island, one of which is the basis for the present map.