would keep the ships clear of the shoals and rocks that lay round us.  But, after making a trip to the N., and standing back again to the S., our ship, by a small shift of the wind, fetched farther to the windward than was expected.  By this means she was very near running full upon a low sandy isle, called Pootoo Pootooa, surrounded with breakers.  It happened, very fortunately, that the people had just been ordered upon the deck to put the ship about, and the most of them were at their stations, so that the necessary movements were not only executed with judgment, but also with alertness, and this alone saved us from destruction.  The Discovery being a-stern was out of danger.  Such hazardous situations are the unavoidable companions of the man who goes upon a voyage of discovery.

This circumstance frightened our passengers so much that they expressed a strong desire to get ashore.  Accordingly, as soon as day-light returned, I hoisted out a boat, and ordered the officer who commanded her, after landing them at Kotoo, to sound along the reef that spits off from that island for anchorage; for I was full as much tired as they could be with beating about amongst the surrounding isles and shoals, and determined to get to an anchor somewhere or other if possible.  While the boat was absent, we attempted to turn the ships through the channel, between the sandy isle and the reef of Kotoo, in expectation of finding a moderate depth of water behind them to anchor in.  But, meeting with a tide or current against us, we were obliged to desist, and anchor in fifty fathoms water, with the sandy isle bearing E. by N. one mile distant.

We lay here till the 4th of June.  While in this station we were several times visited by the king, by Touboueitoa, and by people from the neighbouring islands, who came off to trade with us, though the wind blew very fresh most of the time.  The master was now sent to sound the channels between the islands that lie to the eastward; and I landed on Kotoo to examine it in the forenoon of the 2d.

This island is scarcely accessible by boats, on account of coral reefs that surround it.  It is not more than a mile and half, or two miles, long, and not so broad.  The N.W. end of it is low, like the islands of Hapaee; but it rises suddenly in the middle, and terminates in reddish clayey cliffs at the S.E. end, about thirty feet high.  The soil, in that quarter, is of the same sort as in the cliffs, but in the other parts it is a loose black mould.  It produces the same fruits and roots which we found at the other islands; is tolerably cultivated, but thinly inhabited.  While I was walking all over it, our people were employed in cutting some grass for the cattle; and we planted some melon seeds, with which the natives seemed much pleased, and inclosed them with branches.  On our return to the boat we passed by two or three ponds of dirty water, which was more or less brackish in each of them; and saw one of their burying-places, which was much neater than those that were met with at Hepaee.