According to my clata, out of 1,501 escapees, 1,010 convicts were captured or returned voluntarily; 40 were found dead or were killed in pursuit; 4 5 i were missing. In spite of being an island, Sakhalin loses one-third of all its escapees.
In the reports from which I gathered these figures, those who returned voluntarily and those who were captured are included in one figure, those found dead or killed while being pursued are also listed together, and no one knows how many must be credited to captors and what percentage of the fugitives perished from soldier's bullets.n
Nostalgia is commonly found among our officials and sailors in Vladivostok. I myself saw two insane officials—a lawyer and a bandmaster. Such cases are not rare among free people Iiving under comparatively healthy conditions, and it is quite understandable that they occur frequently on Sakhalin.
I remember when I was once approaching a ship by cutter I saw a barge filled to ovcrflowing with escapees pulling away. Some of the escapees wcre gloomy, others were laughing uproariously, and one had no feet—they had been frozen off. They were being returned from Nikolayevsk. Looking at this barge teeming with people, I could imagine how many more convicts there were wan. dcring on the mainland and the island.
Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko ( 1853-1921). The stories recounted escapes by prisoners from Sakhalin.—TRANS.
f One day some escapees stole a compass in Duĉ to help them lind thcir way north and to bypass the ccrdon of guard posts at Cape Pogobi, but the compass led thcm straight into the cordon. I heard that in order to avoid the guarded western shore, the con- victs have recently begun to escape along a route eastward to Nyisky Bay, then northward along the shores of the Okhotsk Sea to Capes Maria and Yelizavcta, then southward to enable them to cross the strait opposite Cape Pronge. They told me this was the route chosen by the notorious Bogdanov, who escaped just before my arrival, but this may not be accurate. There arc Gilyak path- ways along the Tym River, and there are a few yurts, but the journey from Nyisky Bay is long, tortuous and arduous. The great privations suffered by Polyakov when he traveled south from Nyisky Bay should be remembered if one wishes to judge the risk of traveling north from the bay.
I have already described the terrible experiences suffered by escapees. Escapees, especially the incorrigible ones, gradually grow accuswmed to the tundra and the taiga, their feet become calloused, and it is not surprising that some of them have been known to sleep while walking. I was told that Chinese vagrants, the khut^- khuzy, who are sent to Sakhalin from the Primorskaya district, can remain at large longer than others because they seem to be able to suhsist on roots and grasses for months at a time.
• On June 29, 1886, the naval vessel Tungus observed a black speck on the sea some 20 miles from Due. When they approached closer they saw two men sitting on a platform of bark atop four lashed logs, and they were obviously heading somewhere. Next to them on the raft was a bucket of fresh water, a loaf and a half of bread, an ax, about a p^^ of flour, some rice, two tallow candles, a bar of soap and 1"\'o bricks of tea. When they were taken aboard and questioned about their identity, it "-'as learned that they were prisoners from the Due prison who had escaped on June 17 ( 12 days earlier), and they were traveling "that way, to Russia.'' A violent storm struck two hours later and the ship was unable to reach the Sakhalin shore. The question is, what would have hap- pened to the escapees in such weather if they had not been picked up by this ship? See Vldivoitok ( 1886), No. 31, with reference to this.
6 In June, 1887, coal was being loaded aboard the ship Tira in Due waters. Usually the coal was brought up on barges towed by a steam cutter, and the barges came alongside thc ship. Toward evening the wind freshened and a storm rose. The anchors could not hold the Tira. so it sailed to De Kastri. The coal barge was cast up on shore near Due, while the cutter sailed to the Alex- androvsk Post and sheltered itself in the river. At night, when the weather grew somewhat calmer, the workmen on the cutter, all of them convicts, gave the guard in charge of the cutter a forged telegram from Due ordering him to proceed immediately to sea to save people supposed to have been carried out to sea on a barge during the storm. The guard had no idea a trick was being played on him, and he unmoored the cutter from the dock. Instead of going south to Duĉ, the cutter turned north. There were seven men and three women on board. Toward morning the weather grew worse. The engine of the cutter was swamped near Cape Khoe. Nine were drowned and their bodies were cast ashore; only one man, the pilot, saved himself by floating on a board. This sole survivor, Kuznetsov, is now working for the mining engineer at the mine in Alexandrovsk Post. He served tea. He is a strong, swarthy, handsome man, about forry years old, obviously proud and ferocious. He reminded me of Thomas Ayrton in The Chil- dretl of Caplain Grant [by Jules Verne).
7 Khitrov market was a disreputable square in Moscow.—TRANS.
An old resident of Nerchinsk says: "American whaleboats have given sanctuary to escapees from Botany Bay, and they will do the same for escapees from Sakhalin" (Moscow News, 1875, No. 67).
This is described in "Penal Convicts in Okhotsk," Rrmmian Ant/quity, XXII, where an interesting incident is related. In 1885 the Japanese newspapers carried the story that nine foreigners had been shipwrecked near Sapporo. The authorities sent officials to Sapporo to assist them. As well as they could, the foreigners ex- plained that they were Germans, their schooner had been ship- wrecked, and they had saved themselves in a lifeboat. They were taken from Sapporo to Khokodate. When addressed in English and Russian they failed to understand what was being said; they went on repeating, ''German, German." Somehow the Japanese found out which of them was the captain of the ship, and showed him an atlas, asking him to indicate the exact position of the shipwreck. For a long time his finger moved over the map, but he could not find Sapporo. The replies of all the shipwrecked men were vague. At that time one of our cruisers was in dock at Khokodate. The Governor-General asked the captain of the cruiser to provide a German interpreter. The captain sent a senior officer. Recognizing them to be Sakhalin convicts, the same escapees who had recently attacked the Krilon lighthouse, this officer resorted to a ruse; he made them line up in single file and then gave the command in Russian: "To the left in a circle, march!" One of the convicts forgot his role and immediately executed the command. In this way it was possible to learn what country these clever Odyssean travelcrs belonged to. See Vlad/Vortok ( 1885), Nos. 33 and 38.
Blokha is famous for his escapes and for having murdered many Gilyak families. Recently he has been held in "The Irons," chained hand and foot. When the Governor-General was visiting "The Irons" with the island commandant, the latter ordered the chains to be removed, and ordered him to give his word of honor not to escape any more. It would be interesting to learn what honor means to Blokha. When he is being Hogged, he screams, "For what I have done, your worship! For what I have done! I really deserve this!" It is quite conceivable that he will keep his word. The convicts enjoy the reputation of being honorable men.