two bays separated by a low neck of land,
Knuckle Point; one bay was named Doubtless Bay and the other Sandy Bay;
the country is described as nothing but irregular white sandhills, and
Cook concluded from its appearance that the island was here very narrow
and exposed to the open sea on the west. This he soon proved to be
correct. Foster, in his account of the Second Voyage, says that when the
Endeavour was passing Doubtless Bay, M. de Surville was anchored under
the land, in the Saint Jean Baptiste, and saw Cook's ship, though himself
unseen. In the account of De Surville's voyage, published by the Academie
Francaise, it is stated that New Zealand was not sighted till 12th
December 1769, and owing to bad weather no anchorage was gained till
17th. No mention whatever is made of the Endeavour being sighted, and M.
l'Abbe Rochon, the editor, thinks it most probable that neither navigator
knew anything of the movements of the other. De Surville mentions having
lost anchors in a place he calls Double Bay, during a storm "ABOUT 22nd
December," and it may possibly have been the one Cook encountered on the
28th off the north end of the island. They were blown out of sight of
land on the 13th, the main topsail being split, and next day both fore
and mizzen topsails were lost, but they managed to bring up under shelter
of a small island off Knuckle Point. On the 15th the latitude was found
to be 34 degrees 6 minutes South, with land visible to the south-west,
and a large swell was coming from the west, so Cook concluded this was
the most northerly point of the island, and named it North Cape.

After beating about for some days against westerly winds, they ran up
north, returning southwards 23rd December, and the following day sighted
land to the south-east, which proved to be Tasman's Three Kings. Here
Banks provided the Christmas dinner, shooting several solan geese, which
were made into a pie, and were "eaten with great approbation; and in the
evening all hands were as drunk as our forefathers used to be upon like
occasions."

On the 27th, when about thirty leagues west of North Cape, and about the
same latitude as the Bay of Islands, no land in sight, the wind rose so
that they had to bring to, under the mainsail, but moderated a little the
next day so that they could run in towards the land. Again it freshened
up and blew a perfect hurricane, accompanied by heavy rain, and a
"prodidgeous high sea," which caused the ship to