I have done it again. I moved my settler to a hill 1 tile outside of my borders and I saw a panther 2 tiles away
sadly he died. Damn animals. I knew I was taking a risk and I got burned. I'm ~ 4 turns from Alpha and as far as I've been able to tell I could be the only one headed in that direction. I'm hoping that I can get caught up in techs with Writing and then use Alpha for later trading.
I have a tech deal pending with Robboo and BCLG and a permanent alliance with Darkness.