Omitting a number of minute circumstances, I shall only select a few things which mark Mr.Cook's personal conduct, and relate to his intercourse with the natives.
The good usage the three boys had met with, and the friendly and generous manner in which they were dismissed to their own homes, had some effect in softening the dispositions of the neighbouring Indians.
Several of them, who had come on board while the ship lay becalmed in the afternoon, manifested every sign of friendship, and cordially invited the English to go back to their old bay, or to a cove which was not quite so far off.

But Lieutenant Cook chose rather to prosecute his discoveries, having reason to hope that he should find a better harbour than any he had yet seen.
While the ship was, hauling round to the south end of a small island, which the lieutenant had named Portland, from its very great resemblance to Portland in the British Channel, she suddenly fell into shoal water and broken ground.

The soundings were never twice the same, jumping at once from seven fathom to eleven.

However, they were always seven fathom or more; and in a short time the Endeavour got clear of danger, and again sailed in deep water.

While the ship was in apparent distress, the inhabitants of the islands, who in vast numbers sat on its white cliffs, and could not avoid perceiving some appearance of confusion on board, and some irregularity in the working of the vessel, were desirous of taking advantage of her critical situation.