One had shipped from Yeddo as captain, and he knew in his head
the lay of the great lands, and of the place where men may cross
from one to the other on the ice. And he led us--I do not know,
it was so long--till there were but two. When we came to that
place we found five of the strange people which live in that
country, and they had dogs and skins, and we were very poor. We
fought in the snow till they died, and the captain died, and the
dogs and skins were mine. Then I crossed on the ice, which was
broken, and once I drifted till a gale from the west put me upon
the shore. And after that, Golovin Bay, Pastilik, and the priest.
Then south, south, to the warm sunlands where first I wandered.
'But the sea was no longer fruitful, and those who went upon it
after the seal went to little profit and great risk. The fleets
scattered, and the captains and the men had no word of those I
sought. So I turned away from the ocean which never rests, and
went among the lands, where the trees, the houses, and the
mountains sit always in one place and do not move. I journeyed
far, and came to learn many things, even to the way of reading
and writing from books. It was well I should do this, for it came
upon me that Unga must know these things, and that someday, when
the time was met--we--you understand, when the time was met.
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