Let me add that all this took place at a time when there were some slight misunderstandings berween the Russians and the Japanese. I have found further information in the Kronstadt Newj (1880), No. i i 2, in an article entitled "Sakhalin Island. Some Interesting Information Regarding Mauka-Koyuv [Mauka-Cove] ." According to the article Mauka is the headquarters of a company which has received the right from the Russian government to harvest sea plants for i o years and the population consists of 3 Europeans, 7 Russian soldiers and 700 Koreans, Ainus and Chinese laborers.
That the cabbage business is profitable and is expanding can be seen from the fact that Semenov and Demby already have imi- tators. A setder named Birich, a former instructor and steward for Semenov, borrowed money, constructed all the necessary buildings for the industry near Kusunnay, and began inviting setders to work for him. He has some 30 employees. This is an unofficial undenaking, and there is no jailer. The Kusunnay Post, abandoned long ago, is one hundred versts south of Mauka at the mouth of the Kusunnay River, which was once the boundary between the island's Russian and Japanese administrations.
3 Nonh of Krilon I saw the rocks into which the Kostroma crashed and settied after being lost in the fog. Dr. A. V. Shcherbak, who was escorting the convicts on the Kostroma, set off signal rockets after the shipwreck. He told me later that he lived through three prolonged emotional experiences. During the first, which was the longest and most excruciating, he believed they would inevitably sink; the convicts were screaming with panic; the women and children were taken off on a lifeboat under the command of an officer; they headed toward where they thought the shore would be, and soon disappeared in the fog. The second experience came when they hoped they might be rescued; a gun was heard boom- ing from the Krilon lighthouse, this being a sign that the women and children had reached the shore safely. The third experience came when the air was suddenly filled with the music of the cornet being played by the returning officer, and then he felt complete confidence in being rescued.
4 N. V. Rudanovsky, a Russian officer and one of G. I. Nevel- skoy's fellow adventurers, was the first to investigate and describe the Aniva shore. The details are available in the diary of N. V. Busse, who participated in the Amur expedition. The diary is called "Sakhalin Island and Its Expedition of i 853-54." There is also the article by G. I. Nevelskoy and Rudanovsky: "In Connec- tion with the Memoirs of N. V. Busse" in Vestnik Evropy [News of Europe] (1872), VIII, and Nevelskoy's notes. Major N. V. Busse, a nervous and quarrelsome man, wrote that "Nevelskoy's attitude in the preparation and spirit of his papers is not suffi- ciently serious," and about Rudanovsky he said: "he is difficult as a subordinate and an intolerable companion." He said that Ruda- novsky '"made obtuse remarks," while Boshnyak was described as "a dreamer and a child." He was irritated when Nevelskoy lit his pipe slowly. While spending the winter in Aniva with Ruda- novsky, senior officer Busse tiresomely demanded all the honors due his rank and the observance of all minor conventions. All this occurred in the wilderness, when they were living "eye to eye," and when the young man was completely immersed in im- portant scientific work.
a» Men have almost forgotten the time when officers and officials serving on Sakhalin suffered any privations. In 1876 they paid four rubles for a pood of white flour, three rubles for a bottle of vodka, and "practically no one ever saw fresh meat." ( Ruuky Mir [Russian World], 1877, No. 7.) Nothing is said about how the common people lived. In fact, they suffered dire poverty. Only five years ago the correspondent of Vladivoitok wrote that "no- body could put his hands on half a jigger of vodka, while Man- churian tobacco (similar to our makhorka) cost 2 rubles 50 kopecks per pound. The settlers and some guards smoked Bohea tea leaves and brick tea" ( I 886, No. 2 2).
G In all fairness I must admit that Major S. was most respectful of my profession of letters, and during my entire stay in Korsakov he went to j:reat lengths to keep me from getting bored. Several weeks before my arrival he was just as solicitous about the Eng- lishman Howard, also a writer seeking adventure. Howard had been shipwrecked in a Japanese junk on the Aniva. He later wrote some absolute nonsense about the Ainus in his book Life with Trans-Siberiatt Savagei.
'' Nedelya [The Week] was a Sunday newspaper.—TRANS.
8 In my presence E. V. Shtelling expressed the desire to build a meteorological station, and he was strongly supported by the mili- tary doctor, an old inhabitant of Korsakov and a very fine man. But I see no reason why the station should be built in Korsakov, which is open to the east winds. It should be built in some more central location, such as the Vladimirovka settlement. Moreover, in Southern Sakhalin, where each locale has its own climate, it would be more efficient to establish meteorological observation points in several places simultaneously: in Busse Bay, Korsakov, Krilon, Mayka, Vladimirovka, Naybuchi and Tarayka. This will not be easy, but the problems are not insuperable. The services of educated convicts could be employed. As experience has shown, they quickly learn to conduct observations on their own, and all that is needed is someone to supervise them.
9 I. I. Bely was successful in organizing naval convicts into an expert crew for work at sea. The senior man among them is a convict called Golitsyn, a little man with whiskers. When he sits at the rudder and bellows his command "Cut the spar," or "Oars in the water," he acts with rypical authoritative severiry. Not- withstanding his commanding appearance and seniority, I saw him beaten rwo or three times for drunkenness and coarse language.
After him, the most expert seaman is convict Medvedev, an intelligent and courageous man. When the Japanese consul, Mr. Kuze, was returning from Tarayka, Medvedev was at the helm. A guard was with them in the whaleboat. Toward evening the wind freshened and it turned dark. When they were ncar Naybuchi, the entrance to the Nayba River could not be seen and it was danger- ous to land. Medvedev decided to spend the night at sea in spite of the storm. Mr. Kuze sharply commanded him to stay close to shore, but Medvedev disobeyed and kept taking the boat farther and farther out to sea. The storm raged all night. The waves ham. mered at the boat, and every moment they were in danger of being swamped and overturned. The consul later told me it was the most terrifying night of his life. When Medvedev sailed into the mouth of the little river at dawn, the whaleboat was still shipping water while crossing the bar. Nowadays when Mr. Bely sends anyone with Medvedev, he always says, "No matter what he does, please be quiet and don't protest."
Two brothers attract attention in the prison. They are former Persian princes who are addressed in letters from Persia by their full titles. They were sentenced for murder in the Caucasus. They dress in Persian clothing, in tall lambskin hats with foreheads bare. They are still probationers and are not permitted to carry money. One of them complained that he has no money for tobacco, and he thinks that if he could smoke his cough would get better. He glues envelopes for the office very clumsily. After watching him work, I said, "Very good!" Obviously this praise was received with great satisfaction by the former prince.
The secretary at the prison is a convict called Heyman, a stout, handsome, dark-haired man, formerly a Moscow police officer sentenced for corruption. While I was at the prison he dogged my heels. Each time I turned around, he respectfully removed his hat.