Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land's strange beast

Today is the 28^th of November, in the Year of Our Lord 1642.  I have most exciting news! We left Mauritius on the 8^th of October, and we had been at sea for over a month without sighting any land.  Four days ago, however, upon the horizon, I spotted a new land! The first discovery of our journey! I, as Commander of the expedition, have decided to call the new land Van Diemen’s Land, in honour, of course, of Anthony van Diemen. We have been trying repeatedly to land on the shore, but unfortunately the sea is too rough. Presently the ships are anchored in a bay on what I believe is the north side of Van Diemen’s Land.  As we cannot land, I was tasked with the problem of how to claim the island for the Netherlands, and I puzzled over it for quite some time; this morning, however, I had a stroke of utter genius, if I do say so myself.  In the end I decided to give the Dutch flag to the carpenter, a delightful young man by name of Pieter Jacobszoon, and I had him swim to the shore where our ships could not go and had him erect said flag. I followed his progress personally in my spyglass, both as he went and as he came back, and when he arrived, soaking wet back on the Heemskerck, there was much rejoicing. Earlier today, young Jacobszoon spoke to me about what he had seen on his brief spell on the island: he had seen smoke and heard voices, presumably from native peoples living there, and he also described to me a beast that ‘looked like a cross between a hunting dog and a tiger’. I do not know what to make of this. However, now is not the time for such thought, when there is so much more discovering to do!