It varies from Cook's written account in which he stated that two boats had been dispatched to cut some wood, to be confronted by four or five hundred people from the local community when they landed. Although they were armed with bows and arrows they allowed Cook to advance alone. Cook, his feet in the water, is shown handing his musket to an officer to accept the green palm branch signifying peace from an islander, also with a foot in the water.

The Malekulans are depicted wearing the 'yelau', a form of loincloth, tied up to a belt worn about the waist. Cook wrote that 'their signs of Friendship is a green branch and sprinkling water with the hand over the head'. Cook and his men are shown in contemporary dress and the islanders are painted to accord with the ethnographic reports. The artist continues to use poses and gestures whose ultimate origin lies in classical statuary, particularly in the case of the islanders who have been depicted as tall with a dignified bearing, which is at variance with his journal entry in which Cook described them in derogatory terms.