On his second landing in New Zealand in April 1773, Cook finally received a toki at the first contact between a Māori family and the crew of the Resolution at Dusky Bay (Tamatea). As Georg Forster, the naturalist on Cook’s second circumnavigation, reported in his travel chronicle “Voyage around the World,” they “... presented the captain with a piece of green nephritic stone, … which was formed into the blade of a hatchet.”
Cook regarded the blade “hard and tough.” In exchange for the nephrite blade and other “South Sea curiosities,” the Māori family was primarily interested in iron tools. Bark bast from Tahiti (Tahitian: tapa), which Cook and his crew had previously traded there, was also valued in New Zealand as a return gift. Most of the nephrite blades obtained during Cook’s five visits to New Zealand between 1770 and 1777 were facilitated by a high-ranking ariki named Te Wahanga in Queen Charlotte Sound (Māori: Tōtaranui) in November 1773. The nephrite blade in the Herrnhut collection is considered to be from these encounters.