42 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



really is in this cove. I explored inland for some distance, 

 but, finding that fighting one's way through the thick under- 

 growth was not conducive to reflections about Captain Cook, 

 I soon returned to the beach. A few English fruit-trees and 

 some willow-trees are growing wild, commingled with the 

 native scrub, no doubt planted in days gone by by some 

 whaler who had appropriated the cove for a time. 



In addition to having anchors down, Cook held his ship 

 in position by hawsers fastened to the trees on shore, and 

 during westerly gales we read that occasionally these hawsers 

 parted. The ocean swell does not reach this cove, and the 

 breaking of a few ropes is easily understood when one realises 

 how hard it sometimes blows here. Westerly winds would 

 be off shore. 



It is worthy of cote that the " Tory," the first ship of the 

 New Zealand Company, bringing from England surveyors 

 and pioneers, knowing of no other harbour in this part of 

 New Zealand, made for Ship Cove, anchoring there in 

 August, 1839. From here the "Tory" sailed into the channel 

 named after her, and, getting a whaler as pilot, proceeded to 

 look for a site for a settlement. Where the City of Wellington 

 now stands was the place chosen. 



Captain Cook, during his three voyages, occupied Ship 

 Cove for exactly a hundred days. On the two occasions 

 when Captain Furneaux, in the "Adventure," was separated 

 from Cook he occupied it alone altogether sixty-five days. 



Cannibal Cove is the next bay to the north of Ship Cove, 

 and is where Cook and his boat's crew realised the grim fact 

 that the New-Zealanders were cannibals. The place is occu- 

 pied by a settler now, and is under cultivation, and the native 

 bush has been made to give place to grass. 



The most historic Motuara Island lies abreast of Ship 

 Cove, and about two miles from it. On the highest part of 

 the island is the spot where Lieutenant Cook erected a post 

 and took possession of New Zealand in the name and for the 

 use of His Majesty King George III. This ceremony took 

 place on the 31st January, 1770. A bottle of wine was drunk, 

 and the inlet dignified with the name of Queen Charlotte 

 Sound. A native chief who had accompanied Cook to the top 

 of the island was very pleased to receive the empty bottle as 

 a present. From the shape of the surface of the ground at 

 this spot, I could see that a considerable amount of digging 

 has taken place, but whether it is as Cook left it I cannot say. 

 Somebody may have been digging since, looking for relics. 

 It is hardly necessary to say that the post has rotted away 

 long ago. 



Beyond the south-west end of Motuara Island, and only 

 separated from it by a few feet, stands an isolated rocky 



