The First Sighting
"Fantastic first day making land. Davis did a fine job of organising the unloading of our supplies, and Francis was superb at taking charge on the construction of camp. I was in my cabins most of the day, as my travelling provisions were stored quite deep in the hold. The crew neglected to bring my evening rations, and so I boarded the next skiff for land to find where my dinner had gotten to. By this time, it was dark and so we could not get a good survey of the land, however Francis claimed to have seen many strange creatures moving in the distance across the wetlands, however there are some ten leagues of marsh between us and the next strip of solid land so I do doubt his eyes work half as well as that. The Siamese guides that we had sought out in Malacca were equally as adamant that they had seen strange bald men watching them from the edge of the marshes, submerged up to the eyes in mud. The only thing which settled their nerves was Des's promise of a hot meal; the crew had already returned to the ship, leaving us broadly stranded until morning, and so we explorers ate a first meal on this new continent.
We had our fire lit when we heard rustling. A chittering. Silence. Then one of god's fouler creations plodded into our fire's light. A blemmy, is the fairest way to describe it, though without any legs it ambulates by walking on its hands, the arms of the creature seemed surprisingly slender for such a robust torso, though the hands were so deformed I couldn't much stand the sight. Not a hair on its body and with pale peach skin lacking distinctive markings or texture. It had a flattened face, distinct eye whites, a large mouth with pink lips.
At first sight of the creature, I had the faintest flash of a notion that he may be some chieftain of a wondrous new intelligent people, but alas it had the same light behind its eyes as a bewildered hare. It did not appear to see us, instead looking onwards into the fire. It opened its mouth wider, showing four large teeth - two on top, two on bottom - and two large bony plates behind them. It then let out a shrill yelping call and a moment later several more of them came out. I had counted six. Wints claims nine. All approached the fire without any apparent sense of caution, which led me to deduce that they are nocturnal creatures, and that their eyes were unsuitably made to see with such a bright light in the darkness. I pointed to Des, who had one at his feet, and tried to whisper "Capture one", but the fool cook took it upon himself to yell back "Pardon!?". The second Des made a noise; every one of the creatures descended into absolute disarray -- pandemonium. I had my dinner knocked over, Francis lost a book to a spilled canteen, and Davis was knocked flat on his back by two of them charging through him at the same time. Lucky day indeed it is though, as one of the fool creatures charged straight into the fire when the panic began, which provided me with a suitable replacement to my mackerel and rice, especially as this Indian mackerel is too bony and lean. I would describe the flesh of the creature as being fibrous, somewhere between rabbit and mushroom, the arms being especially sinewed. The flavour is not good.
-- one of my guides from Siam believes that the creature may have a diet of bugs, as he discovered several carapaces in its stomach contents. Wints asked him if he was going to eat them; incredibly funny--
In the morning, our scouting party will explore the wetlands to see if we can find these creatures during the day time. If not, then we will establish a night scouting for them, as they are one of the most exciting discoveries of this century. "
