An Interesting Journal I found in the Chicago Library

The Diary of Father Deigo de La Cucan
 
(Preface: I left my notes with Chris so all the names here are probably wrong, I will correct them later.)
 
Praise the Holy Father that my words ring true. The date was June 15th, 1583 and we had repaired our boat after floundering in a storm the previous week. With the help of the natives we had enough food and water to continue our journey. Sailing was not hard although the swamp that covers this land is treacherous and the sands shift constantly. It took a week of travel to finally make it to the Bay of the Lady, apparently the largest bay here and site of the previous colony of Jesuits as well as the French.
We paddled up a nearly inlet in the search for land and water and stumbled across some more natives fishing. There were shocked by the site of us and fell in the water. Nearby we spotted a rather ramshackle looking village and some natives come out, one, a very dark skinned fellow was pushed to approach us.
The man, Manawetok, was poorly dressed and spoke in broken Spanish a welcoming in us in the name of the Great Chief Atawoc who was a portly Indian painted in various colors and with a distinctive haircut and a steel hatchet. Captain Fernando promptly proceeded to address him in a long and rather boring list of the titles of the King of Spain, which did not go well with the Chief. Fortunately our courtier produced trade goods and smoothed over things with them and we were invited to dine with them.
The speech at dinner revealed the locals to be known as the Chesapoic and they had been forced to flee from a more inland confederacy of tribes known as the Wacamacoco, lead by the Powehaten. They seemed interested in gaining our favor and the Chief’s Best Son Burata, a rather burly fellow, was appointed as our guide.
The Captain decided to make for the Fort of the Jesuits the next day and we set out. We paddled upriver and, due to the skittish nature of the locals, Burata volunteered to go meet them and make contact. We fished and waited for them to return.
As the sun set a terrible beast, with fearsome teeth, a powerful catlike body, long tail come to the water, apparently seeking prey! And we were that prey as it began swimming right towards us!!
As it approached sparks flew from its mother.
Quicky the captain, the courtier and the mercenary grabbed the guns and opened fire! I drew the sign of the cross and passed them new guns after they fired. Fortunately several shots seemed to would the beast and it disappeared beneath the waves.
The Captain order the sailor to search for his “trophy” Madre de deus, the poor man is suffering from the flux. But he could find nothing.
Burata shortly arrived with representatives of the Triswok people and was quite upset that he missed our on all the action, revealing the beast to be known as a water panther, a rare and dangerous beast indeed.
The next day we traveled to the native village and we were very politely welcomed by the natives who were so taken with us that they offered to have some local scouts accompany us to the Jesuit Fort, which was close to an enemy village of natives. This was fortunate because none of us knew the land.
After hiding the boat and many hours of travel our scouts came rushing past us, revealing an enemy force of several dozen men charging our way! The Captain ordered the men to open fire and a bloodbath began. I will leave the gory details to others but the men slaughtered nearly a dozen natives with guns and spanish steel before they retreated. We received only minor injuries. We retreated somewhat, met up with our guides and went to look for the Jesuit Fort, which was apparently close as night fell.