SHIP COVE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 429, 12 September 1849, Page 4

SHIP COVE.

The woodland beauties of Ship Cove are scarcely surpassed in any part of New Zealand. High hills clothed with varied foliage slope down to a small plafn ending in a beach, through the middle of which a beautiful stream of water flows into the sea. At a cable's length from the shore a vessel rides at anchor in ten fathoms water. The whole of Queen Charlotte's Sound has the unusual fault of being too deep, as we found this evening when we were overtaken midway by a furious blast from the south-east ; and, after trying many places in vain, we were obliged to run back the distance which we had gained, and anchor for the night in Ship Cove, where our previous 'examination had assured us of shelter.

On Sunday, May 7, many of the natives assembled for Divine service in my little cabin, which, though not fitted up like the Hatch for this purpose, will hold a congregation of sixteen. Most of the party were baptized men, who had seen me at Mr. Hadfield's station at Waikanae. When this and the English service with my crew were completed, I set out in the schooner's boat to visit the other villages in the Sound as f»r as Te Wera-a-Waitohi, leaving the vessel to follow on the next day. Our little boat sailed briskly along with a fair wind and tide, and by lying close into the shore gave me an opportunity of ascertaining the position of the native villages, which were ftwer than I expected, and very scantily peopled. We passed in succession a series of Cook's well known names, Shag Cove, West Bay, and Grass Cove, and came at sunset to a beautiful bay, neatly opposite to the southern passage called Tory Channel, where the principal native teacher of the Sound ha! fixed his abode in a most inconvenient position, with none of his people. His taste, however, was more commendable than his pastoral care, ior a more b< auiiful spot, for a man accustomed to cultivate hilly ground, could scarcely be found. In this bay shoals of black fish and porpoises were enjoying their evening gambols, their dark bodies contrasting strangely with the red light reflected from the sunset on the calm water from which they spiung into the air and fell back again, tracing all imaginable curves with their awkward bodies in their descent. It never happened to me to see so many fish out of water befoie. These monsters ot the dpep were not very pleasant neighbours, for their great amusement seemed to be to jump as near the boat as they could without touching it, and then make their bow and dive under its bottom. More than once I thought that they would overturn the boat ; and haviug no musical genius, I could not hope that they would honour me as their forefathers did Arion, by conveying me to shore. Joseph, the native teacher, whom I found at home in bis solitary cottage, gladly consented to accompany me to the main body of his people at Te Wera-a-Waitohi ; and as it was then dusk, I was glad of his pilotage through this unknown labyrinth of bays and coves. We went on under a bright moon which soon rose upon u>, and reached (he arm of the Sound at the end of which the village is placed. Gradually the land closed in upon us, till we were gliding along a canal of water so land locked and still, that the great difficulty would he for vessels to go in or out without the assistance ot steam. No such difficulty affecting our little boat, we shot along with a silvery wake of phosphoric light, vying in brightness with the moonlight beyond the shadow of the hill under which we were rowing; and about 8 p.m. we arrived at the little village at the extreme south-ea&t corner of the Sound. The usual native welcome of shaking of hands, shouts, and a multitude of questions, were scarcely at an end, when steaming pumpkins, the food most easily procured, (this being Sundiy evening,) shewed that these villagers knew how to strike the mean between two duties, and to practise hospitality without infringing needlessly upon the sanctity of the Lord's day. Our evening service followed, with Scripture reading and catechising, an exercise in which the natives delight, and which commands their attention even after their usual hours of retiring to sleep. When our services were ended, Noble, the owner of the house, with the usual native politeness, vacated it (or the use of me and my party, though my suite consisted only of Henry Mauhara and another native man. We should have been glad of more companions, for the ni^ht was frosty and the house large ; and two tired men are not a sufficient watch to secure a gcod fire during the night. At sunrise on the Bth of May, after morning ablutions in the clear stream which waters the little plain of Te Wera-a-Wauohi, I took a view of the place which had seemed so picturesque the night before ; but in candour it must be confessed, that the native villages, like Melrose Abbey, look best by the pale moonlight. A few straggling houses, and a small palisade or pah, are all the dwellings at present on 'he spot which must become the site of an English town. The little pi tin is already in cultivation and seems to have borne an abundant wheat crop to its native owners. But they are quite willing to give it up, reserving only a small part for themselves, that they may have the benefit of living among us. They expressed their willingness to retire to the other arms of the Sound for their cultivation, and leave all the arable land round the towu ior the English settlers.