De Surville was the next navigator who visited New Zealand. When Cook's ship, the Endeavour, was working out of Doubtless Bay in the North Island, De Surville's vessel, the St. Jean Baptiste from India, was sailing on, and neither navigator was aware of the other's vicinity.

What led to this Frenchman's visit was a rumour, widely circulated and universally believed, that the English had discovered an island of gold in the Southern Ocean. De Surville anchored his ship in Doubtless Bay in December, 1769, and immediately landed at Mongonia, and was received by crowds of natives, who were delighted and surprised at the confidence reposed in them, and, in return, they supplied the strangers with food and water. One day a storm arose as a party of invalids were endeavouring to reach the ship from the shore. Being driven back, the sick were detained by the inclemency of the weather for two days in the house of a chief named Naginoui, and by his people they were fed and carefully attended without remuneration. When the storm subsided, one of the ship's boats was missing, and De Surville, without any evidence for so doing, believed that the New Zealanders had stolen it. Under the guise of friendship, he invited Naginoui on board, accused him of the theft, and put him in irons. Not satisfied with this treacherous revenge, he burned the village where his sick had found an asylum in the hour of need, and carried the chief away from his native land.