A Japanese Robinson Crusoe

Chapter VI. On Russian Soil

C h a p t e r V I On Russian Soil Paramushur Island—so I spelled the name after hearing the pronunciation of the Norwegian captain—is located to the southwest of Cape Lopatka in Kamchatka. I was now landed alone on that island and walked here and there to see if any house or human being existed there. But I could scarcely find anything as far to the north and east as the eye could range from snowy hill to sparkling iceberg. I took snow and rolled it again and again until it became a large snowball about five or six feet in diameter. I made dozens of them and I built a wall with them. Then I pitched my tent in their midst. Soon a violent storm set in and dark night came down upon me. I took out my bearskin bag, and I put my whole body into it and had a horrible dreamy sleep under the little snow house. When I awoke the next morning, I found numerous animal tracks all around my snow wall; and just as I discovered the animals’ footprints, I remembered that I had forgotten to bring my pistol from the schooner. This gave me great sorrow, as I now had no weapon with which to chase game for my daily food, or to defend myself against the wild beasts. After I had finished my breakfast of a few dried fish and some hard sailor biscuits the captain had given me and had eaten a little snow in the place of water, I began to follow the tracks. For I thought that they might be dogs’ tracks, and if so, they must be owned by some native dwellers. But after about three or four hours’ walk, I lost the animals’ footprints on­ account of the violent storm. 66 Now the white flakes of snow were falling continually, and I knew not which way to go. As I was wandering here and there, my feet suddenly sank into a drift and my whole body was nearly buried in the vast mass of snow. I was in danger of death; yet I never doubted for an instant that the same Providence which had brought me from my country, and saved me from the mouth of the angry bear, and also from the hand of the spiteful mountain robber, was still preserving and watching over me. And so it was. Just then I was carrying on my back, together with the provisions, a long stick which I used to hold up my tent. By that long stick, which I had fixed on my back transversely, my body was prevented from sinking into the depths. So now, by treading with my feet to harden the snow, I came to the surface again. With most hearty thanksgiving to my Father, I returned back along my old tracks. It was a very unpleasant forenoon, with snow-squalls rushing in rapid succession down the gulf and out of the snowy hills. Now I did not know which way I must go. But while I was standing on the icy shore, I saw smoke coming up between two hills in the distance. I felt happy, for I had seen an object of hope, like Columbus who discovered seaweed floating from the American coast when he was in a state of great discouragement. After eating my little dinner, I began to walk toward the smoke. This time I went round along the seashore, because I was afraid of slipping again into a drift of snow. About noon I reached the place, where I found quite a number of dwellings or snow burrows which were built very closely together and formed a little village. While still in the distance, I saw half a dozen people walking directly towards me, and as they came close, I could not tell to what nationality or race they belonged. The men looked hard and bony with a white-brown complexion, blue eyes, and darkbrown hair. “Zurastway! Zurastway!” they shouted to me. I did not understand what they meant, but I imagined that On Russian Soil 67 it must be their salutation to a stranger. So I repeated it after them. “Zurastway! Zurastway!” This, I learned afterward from a native, meant “welcome” or “good-day.” When I repeated the native word, they laughed at me with true savage contempt; but when they noticed my...