24th December 1769

[Three Kings Islands]

[Off North Cape, New Zealand]

Light Airs next to a Calm all this 24 Hours. At 7 p.m. saw the land from the Mast head bearing South 1/2 East; at 11 a.m. saw it again bearing South-South-East, distant 8 Leagues. At Noon Latitude observed 33 degrees 48 minutes South.

Joseph Banks Journal

Land in sight, an Island or rather several small ones most probably 3 Kings, so that it was conjecturd that we had Passd the Cape which had so long troubled us. Calm most of the Day: myself in a boat shooting in which I had good success, killing cheifly several Gannets or Solan Geese so like Europaean ones that they are hardly distinguishable from them. As it was the humour of the ship to keep Christmas in the old fashiond way it was resolvd of them to make a Goose pye for tomorrows dinner.

Sydney Parkinson Journal

On the 24th, after having beat about for three days, we discovered land, which we supposed was the island of the Three Kings, though we could not bring it to appear any thing like the described figure of that island in Dalrymple's Book, having nothing of that broken appearance which that figure exhibits, forming one large clump of land, rather flat at the top, with eleven small rocks lying in a row from it. It being calm, Mr. Banks went out in the small boat; and we saw some birds so much like our island geese; that we could not have distinguished the difference. We caught, several of them, made them into a pye, and they tasted excellently.