upon it the rocks which they dug. This thought childish, for all the world was made of
rocks;
but they gave me food and set me to work. When the schooner was deep in the water, the
captain gave me money and told me to go; but I asked which way he went, and he pointed
south. I made signs that I would go with him; and he laughed at first, but then, being short
of men, took me to help work the ship. So I came to talk after their manner, and to heave
on ropes, and to reef the stiff sails in sudden squalls, and to take my turn at the wheel. But
it was not strange, for the blood of my fathers was the blood of the men of the sea.
“I had thought it an easy task to find him I sought, once I got among his own people; and
when we raised the land one day, and passed between a gateway of the sea to a port, I
looked for perhaps as many schooners as there were fingers to my hands. But the ships lay
against the wharves for miles, packed like so many little fish; and when I went among
them
to ask for a man with the mane of a sea lion, they laughed, and answered me in the tongues
of many peoples. And I found that they hailed from the uttermost parts of the earth.
“And I went into the city to look upon the face of every man. But they were like the cod
when they run thick on the banks, and I could not count them. And the noise smote upon
me
till I could not hear, and my head was dizzy with much movement. So I went on and on,
through the lands which sang in the warm sunshine; where the harvests lay rich on the
plains; and where great cities were fat with men that lived like women, with false words in
their mouths and their hearts black with the lust of gold. And all the while my people of
Akatan hunted and fished, and were happy in the thought that the world was small.
“But the look in the eyes of Unga coming home from the fishing was with me always, and
I
knew I would find her when the time was met. She walked down quiet lanes in the dusk of
the evening, or led me chases across the thick fields wet with the morning dew, and there
was a promise in her eyes such as only the woman Unga could give.
“So I wandered through a thousand cities. Some were gentle and gave me food, and others
laughed, and still others cursed; but I kept my tongue between my teeth, and went strange
ways and saw strange sights. Sometimes, I, who was a chief and the son of a chief, toiled
for men,–men rough of speech and hard as iron, who wrung gold from the sweat and
sorrow
of their fellow men. Yet no word did I get of my quest, till came back to the sea like a
homing seal to the rookeries. But this was at another port, in another country which lay to
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
18
the north. And there heard dim tales of the yellow-haired sea wanderer, and I learned that
he was a hunter of seals, and that even then he was abroad on the ocean.
“So I shipped on a seal schooner with the lazy Siwashes, and followed his trackless trail to
the north where the hunt was then warm. And we were away weary months, and spoke
many of the fleet, and heard much of the wild doings of him I sought; but never once did
we
raise him above the sea. We went north, even to the Pribyloffs, and killed the seals in herds
on the beach, and brought their warm bodies aboard till our scuppers ran grease and blood
and no man could stand upon the deck. Then were we chased by a ship of slow steam,
which
fired upon us with great guns. But we put on sail till the sea was over our decks and
washed
them clean, and lost ourselves in a fog.
“It is said, at this time, while we fled with fear at our hearts, that the yellow-haired sea
wanderer put into the Pribyloffs, right to the factory, and while the part of his men held the
servants of the company, the rest loaded ten thousand green skins from the salt-houses. I
say it is said, but I believe; for in the voyages made on the coast with never a meeting, the
northern seas rang with his wildness and daring, till the three nations which have lands
there sought him with their ships. And I heard of Unga, for the captains sang loud in her
praise, and she was always with him. She had learned the ways of his people, they said,
and
was happy. But I knew better,–knew that her heart harked back to her own people by the
yellow beach of Akatan.
“So, after a long time, I went back to the port which is by a gateway of the sea, and there I
learned that he had gone across the girth of the great ocean to hunt for the seal to the east
of the warm land which runs south from the Russian Seas. And I, who was become a
sailorman, shipped with men of his own race, and went after him in the hunt of the seal.
And
there were few ships off that new land; but we hung on the flank of the seal pack and
harried it north through all the spring of the year. And when the cows were heavy with pup
and crossed the Russian line, our men grumbled and were afraid. For there was much fog,
and every day men were lost in the boats. They would not work, so the captain turned the
ship back toward the way it came. But I knew the yellow-haired sea wanderer was
unafraid,
and would hang by the pack, even to the Russian Isles, where few men go. So I took a
boat,
in the black of night, when the lookout dozed on the fo’c’slehead, and went alone to the
warm, long land. And I journeyed south to meet the men by Yeddo Bay, who are wild and
unafraid. And the Yoshiwara girls were small, and bright like steel, and good to look upon;
but I could not stop, for I knew that Unga rolled on the tossing floor by the rookeries of the
north.
“The men by Yeddo Bay had met from the ends of the earth, and had neither gods nor
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
19
homes, sailing under the flag of the Japanese. And with them I went to the rich beaches of
Copper Island, where our salt-piles became high with skins. And in that silent sea we saw
no man till we were ready to come away. Then, one day, the fog lifted on the edge of a
heavy wind, and there jammed down upon us a schooner, with close in her wake the
cloudy
funnels of a Russian man-of-war. We fled away on the beam of the wind, with the
schooner
jamming still closer and plunging ahead three feet to our two. And upon her poop was the
man with the mane of the sea lion, pressing the rails under with the canvas and laughing in
his strength of life. And Unga was there,–I knew her on the moment,–but he sent her
below
when the cannons began to talk across the sea. As I say, with three feet to our two, till we
saw the rudder lift green at every jump,–and I swinging on to the wheel and cursing, with
my back to the Russian shot. For we knew he had it in mind to run before us, that he might
get away while we were caught. And they knocked our masts out of us till we dragged into
the wind like a wounded gull; but he went on over the edge of the sky-line,–he and Unga.
“What could we? The fresh hides spoke for themselves. So they took us to a Russian port,
and after that to a lone country, where they set us to work in the mines to dig salt. And
some died, and–and some did not die.”
Naass swept the blanket from his shoulders, disclosing the gnarled and twisted flesh,
marked with the unmistakable striations of the knout. Prince hastily covered him, for it
was
not nice to look upon.
“We were there a weary time; and sometimes men got away to the south, but they always
came back. So, when we who hailed from Yeddo Bay rose in the night and took the guns
from the guards, we went to the north. And the land was very large, with plains, soggy
with