The Endeavour, on the 5th of December, was in the most imminent hazard
of being wrecked. At four o'clock in the morning of that day our
voyagers weighed, with a light breeze; but it being variable with
frequent calms, they made little way. From that time till the
afternoon they kept turning out of the bay, and about ten at night
were suddenly becalmed, so that the ship could neither wear nor
exactly keep her station. The tide or current setting strong, she
drove toward land so fast; that before any measures could be taken for
her security, she was within a cable's length of the breakers. Though
our people had thirteen fathom water, the ground was so foul, that
they did not dare to drop their anchor. In this crisis the pinnace
being immediately hoisted out to take the ship in tow, and the men
sensible of their danger, exerted themselves to the utmost, a faint
breeze sprang up off the land, and our navigators perceived, with
unspeakable joy, that the vessel made headway. So near was she to the
shore, that Tupia, who was ignorant of the hair's breadth escape the
company had experienced, was at this very time conversing with the
Indians upon the beach, whose voices were distinctly heard,
notwithstanding the roar of the breakers. Mr. Cook and his friends now
thought that all danger was over; but about an hour afterwards, just
as the man in the chains had cried 'seventeen fathom,' the ship
struck. The shock threw them into the utmost consternation: and almost
instantly the man in the chains cried out 'five fathom.' By this time,
the rock on which the ship had struck being to the windward, she went
off without having received the least damage; and the water very soon
deepening to twenty fathoms, she again sailed in security.

The inhabitants in the Bay of Islands were found to be far more
numerous than in any other part of New Zealand which Lieutenant Cook