The stranded ship
fell to pieces like a boat of paper; and the attacking islanders
strewed the provisions to the winds with shrieks of laughter. On the
30th of April, the assailants began firing muskets, which they had
captured from Korovin's massacred hunters; but the shots fell wide of
the mark. Then they brought sulphur from the volcanic caves, and set
fire to the long grass on the windward side of the tents. Again,
Korovin sallied out, drove them off, and extinguished the fire. May,
June, and half July he lay stranded here, waiting for his men to
recover, and when they recovered, setting them to build a boat of skin
and driftwood.
Toward the third week of July, a skin boat twenty-four feet long was
finished. In this were laid the wounded; and the well men took to the
paddles. All {104} night they paddled westward and still westward,
night after night, seeking the third vessel--that of Denis Medvedeff,
who had come with them the year before from Bering Island. On the
tenth day, Russian huts and a stone bath-house were seen on the shore
of a broad inlet.
Pages:
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148