Our Illustrious Leader

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Big, strong, reliable - that I bear the same name is a coincidence

Perhaps so Hanno, but nevertheless not inappropriate for a Dutchman, given your mob's fame in the realm of early maritime exploration. With which we're well acquainted here, living as we do in New Holland, with Van Diemen's Land lying just south of us, and New Zeeland to the south east!

I've sometimes wondered how we finished up speaking English instead of Dutch, perhaps it had something to do with Jan Carstensz, who in 1623 reported to the Dutch East India company of seeing "a dry land, no use to mankind, whose inhabitants were the poorest and most wretched creatures ever seen''!

Hardly a glowing report, and it would be another 150 years before the Poms arrived, and only for the purpose of sending convicts here, because the Yanks had recently stopped them sending convicts there!

Funny how world history can turn on such tiny events as Jan Carstensz's report. Of course, some may be inclined to agree with his assessment of the place even today!