Captain James Cook, assisted by young William Bligh (later of H.M.S. Bounty fame), performed this first charting of the Sandwich Islands. Strahan and Cadell of London, England, published it in the first textual edition of Cook's Third Voyage in 1784.

This charting is highly prized among collectors for its aesthetic appeal and rarity. It also served as the foundation for all the maps that were charted after it.

The map's inset depicts Kealakekua Bay where the great Captain Cook met his untimely death on February 14, 1779.