December 29th, 1678
We have reached Saint Magnus, the island is as beautiful as they say. The green hills stretch on for kilometers, I would love to live here if life would allow it. The joys of sailing are plenty, and I have discovered many beautiful lands such as Saint Magnus. The sorrow comes in that I am not able to live in all of these places at once, and once I arrive, I must leave so soon. During this day, I spent time sightseeing around the island. I usually allow myself one day during a voyage to spend by myself doing something I love, it’s what makes me sane in this repetition.
Now we are leaving to go south. It pains me to leave this place so soon after arriving, but the mission must go on. We have stocked up enough food to last us another two months so that we can make our way home after the expedition.
The ship has been stopped out at sea. Heavy fog rolled in after we departed from the port. We are too far now from Saint Magnus to turn around, so we must stop for the time being. I am going to attempt to get some sleep while this fog has us stopped. The past days at sea have made me very tired indeed. I hope that this fog clears soon.
December 30th, 1678
The fog still has not cleared, so we have begun to conduct routine ship checks. We must’ve gone through the entire ship twice already, and the fog shows no signs of lifting anytime soon. I have nothing left to do but stare at the sea and collect my thoughts. Many of the crew have turned to drinking to pass their time, but I just stay with my thoughts, sober as a judge.
I let myself get absorbed by the sea and all of her beauty. When I finally came to, the fog had gone, and we were ready to set sail once again. I stationed myself back in my quarters and lay there for what felt like hours, staring at the wooden ceiling that lay above me, water dripping from the cracks. This put me in another trance, and before I knew it, the day had come, and it was my turn to man the rig again. I pulled myself up out of bed and set my eyes on the horizon.
We are now on our way to our destination, the Southern Land. Anticipation is building in my system, and I cannot wait to finally see this land for myself. I hope that we will be able to set up a camp and stay there for a while. I do not want to have to immediately go back on this boat, I would like time on land.
January 2nd, 1679
We have finally spotted land in this desolate sea. Although it is the middle of summer, the air is as cold as the middle of autumn. I have decided to grab my jacket for the first time during this trip, it has kept me more comfortable for this section of our journey. The air stings my face and burns my lungs. I have lit the lanterns in my cabin and plan to stay there until landfall. The warmth is not much, but it wards off the chilly weather. I have also taken to writing stories during this time that I have to myself. I hope that I may publish them eventually, but it is doubtful.
We have reached the land. I felt the anchor drop and heard the shouts of the people from my quarters. I walked out of my cabin, my coat draped across my back, and I saw this new land for the first time. For how far south this was, there was not much snow on the ground, instead, there were patches of grass and large trees reaching for the heavens. This was very surprising to me, I expected this land to be covered with snow and ice. The further I looked, though, this appeared to be just a small island, but it was much more pleasing to the eye than what the Southern Land was meant to be.
We have all departed from the boat and set up a small camp on the rocky shore of this land. The trees here make for good firewood, and now that we have all warmed up, we are ready to sleep. The next day, we plan to explore this new land and learn more about it.
January 3rd, 1679.
The mornings are much colder than the days here, the temperature seemed to drop drastically after the sun went down. I sat by the fire with a cup of coffee before the rest of my crew awoke and got ready for the day ahead of us. To our east, we see another island, smaller in size, but seemingly greener than the island that we have set up camp on. We may explore that land at a later date, after this land has been thoroughly surveyed.
We have climbed to the top of a mountain that lies near the camp that we set up. We can see most of the island from here, and it seems like there is not much to be had on this one. Rock formations dot the land, but none of them seem to be sapient-made. From this mountain we can see that the rest of the land is covered with snow and ice, where we landed being the only exception. This is most likely why the land has no signs of sapient life. We will head back to camp for now and go to the second island tomorrow.
January 4th, 1679
We have taken a dinghy over to the eastern island. This land is by far greener than the other island. We will set up another camp here for the crew that I have brought, so that we may have more time to explore the land. So far, the plants that inhabit this smaller island seem to be of the same variety as the ones on the first island. This island does not have a large mountain like the last one; it is instead relatively flat with a large mound in the center, not nearly as large as the mountain on the first island.
Boating over here and setting up the camp took up most of our day, so we will rest for the day and start our expedition tomorrow. The other captains are at our first camp, I hope that they are doing okay over there while we are exploring this land.
Something new has caught our eye. Just before sunset, we saw some movement just beyond our camp. When we investigated, we discovered penguins, a whole flock of them. It seems like this land has some life, but it is not sapient like we hoped it would be. We kept our eyes on these creatures as we went to bed. I just hope that they do not raid our supplies while we sleep.
January 5th, 1679
We have begun our survey of this island and have discovered something miraculous. Atop the hill at the center of the island, we discovered rock formations, though they seemed to be sapient-made, meticulously stacked on top of one another. There were lines upon lines of these rock stacks, which seem to be some sort of burial site, the remnants of a once living civilization. We dug near one of these stacks and found a skeleton. The skeleton seemed to be some kind of cava, we buried it back where we found it, we must have respect for these dead.
We returned to our camp, where we ate our dinner and settled down for the night. There was something that caught my eye earlier in the day that we will be exploring tomorrow. I hope that it is something worthwhile, or we would’ve wasted a day looking for nothing.
January 6th, 1679
We have arrived at the site that I located earlier. It seems to be some sort of ancient settlement that has been frozen in time. There are remnants of wooden huts, lined with insulation to keep out the cold. The center of the settlement has what seems like the remnants of a large fire pit, most likely used for gatherings. We discovered skeletons inside most of the homes, some even surrounding the fire pit at the center of the town. It seems like some sort of disease may have ravaged this civilization. I hope that it may now lie dormant so that we do not catch the same sickness. I got down on my knees in front of one of the skeletons and prayed for it. I do not pray much, but it seemed like the right thing to do in the moment.
We arrived back at camp after dark. The nights here are too cold to do anything but sleep, so we all gathered in our sleeping rolls and went to bed. We will head back to the other island in the morning to call the others over to this land. We will attempt to establish a settlement.
January 9th, 1679
We have begun to construct buildings with the lumber that we brought from home. We are attempting to copy the building style of the old cava settlement, they must’ve known this land more than we do. We hope to complete our first buildings within the next few weeks. With how dark and cold it gets at night, we can only build in the daytime, limiting the time we have. Our lumber will soon run out, and we will have to begin cutting the trees on this land. I hope that the dead of this land will not mind us using their resources.
January 13th, 1679
Something is happening. Our crew keeps telling us stories about sounds they hear in the night. They also tell us stories of their lanterns being blown out when there is no wind to do such a thing. We have also seen some of this evidence, such as sacks of grain being torn into without signs of footprints or anything showing us who may have done this. I am beginning to become scared of what this land may hold for us; maybe the spirits that inhabit this land have not been welcoming of our presence. Or maybe the penguins are back to haunt us, but there have been no signs of these birds recently. I hope that this may just be all in their heads, and it is not truly happening to us.
January 15th, 1679
One of the buildings burned down today. There was no sign of the criminal who did this, and the men who lived in the house did not make it out in time for the roof to collapse unto them. This has become far too much for any of us to handle; we must leave this accursed land, never to come back. I pray that the spirits of this land do not follow us back to our homes and continue to haunt us there. We have quickly packed our ships and have set sail back for home. We hope to land back in Korćetta by the end of the month.
January 24th, 1679
One of our ships has sunk. We hit particularly turbulent waters when we were about to reach the Sea of Gondwana. The waters were far too rough, so we were not able to save any of the crew on the ship. We continued on our way, we just needed to make it home at this point. I will be in charge of letting the families of the lost crew know about what happened here. It is a heavy burden that I shoulder for this crew, but it is what is right and what I must do. I hope that nothing bad happens before we reach Korćetta in about two days time. We are so close to home, I can almost taste it.
January 26th, 1679
We have reached Portmorski today, signalling an end to this journey. I am meant to meet with the king today to tell him about my mission, but I am terrified of what he may do to me. I will have to tell him how I have failed. My family and I will live in shame for the rest of our lives, something that I cannot bear to leave for them. I will tell the king the truth and hope that he spares me.
January 27th, 1679
The king has decided to spare me, but has decided that I will never sail a ship again in my life. I know that I said that I would like to settle down with my wife, but I did not want it to happen like this; I wanted it to happen on my own terms. I am so ashamed of myself. It should have been my life that was taken at sea, not my innocent crew members. I will have to live with this guilt for the rest of my life.
June 13th, 1725
I am dying and I know it. I am going to draw my final breath soon, knowing that for these past decades, I have done nothing but wallow in my own guilt and sadness. I just pray that Wszechświat will be merciful. I leave my son with nothing but my shame, and the legacy that I left for him is something that he will never be able to get rid of. I hope that he does not blame me for this life I have left him, but I know that he will be strong and make it despite everything.
Footnote: Jakub lived the rest of his life in isolation; the only reports of him being seen are by his family. King Leo II ended up pardoning Jakub, letting him captain a ship once more, but Jakub refused to go to sea again. Jakub ended up dying of complications from old age, most people seeing this as a curse laid upon him by the spirits of Osnia, making him live in his shame for the rest of his life. The site of the old settlement is still said to be haunted by the spirits of the land and the spirits of the crew that died in that burning building. The burial sites and old cava village have since been dedicated as heritage sites and are not to be touched or tread on by anyone again. Many more superstitious beliefs now plague the land, including the stories of the old cava god destroying crops and introducing sickness to the colonizers.