Seas of Fortune(147)

“Japan,” answered Captain Haruno.

“Where have you been?”

“Many places.”

“Who are the natives I see on board your ship?”

“Indians.”

It soon became apparent to the guards that Captain Haruno was not going to regale them with an epic story. Indeed, after a few more polite deflections, he insisted that a messenger be sent to the grand governor, and he didn’t even allow his people to spend the night in the village.

The next morning, a small squadron of samurai rode up, and Captain Haruno and the rest of his company were guided to Date Masamune’s present camp. The grand governor greeted them warmly, then had them divided up to be debriefed by various advisors.

Katakura Shigetsuna, the grand governor’s chief advisor, did spare a moment to promise Haruno and Tokubei that the grand governor would honor them for their rescue of the castaways, and the discovery of iron on Texada. Indeed, he assured them that the grand governor would mention their discovery prominently in his report to the shogun. But he also warned them to be patient; there were many more immediate demands on the grand governor’s attention. “Rest while you can,” he added.

* * *

Captain Tasman was amazed by how quickly the village of Monterey/Andoryu was assembled. Assembled, not built; many of the kirishitan had simply packed up their homes, which were made of cedar or pine, and shipped them to the New World. Katakura Shigetsuna had told the captain that back in Japan, whole towns had been disassembled and reassembled in a new location.

Likewise, some of the kirishitan fishermen had taken their boats along. Masamune had encouraged this; the sooner the boats were in the water, catching fish, the sooner the colonists could stop living off the dried provisions they had taken along for the voyage. The waters of Monterey Bay proved to be extremely rich, although all the Japanese colonists, even the fishermen, were looking forward to their first rice harvest. Rice, however, was planted in the spring. What they could plant now was mugi: wheat, barley and rye.

Masamune had started across the Pacific with two thousand colonists and five hundred retainers. One in ten of the colonists, and one in twenty of the better-nourished retainers, had died at sea. The remainder was still a good many mouths to feed.

* * *

The rest of First-to-Dance’s tribelet, the Kalenta Ruk, had fled upriver, and no other Indians had yet been encountered by the Japanese of the “River City” settlement.

Date Masamune met there with his advisers. “That the natives avoided us was convenient when we were most vulnerable, while we were landing and before we had built up defenses. But now it would be good to speak to them, have them tell us what is good to eat and what isn’t.”

The Japanese had been mainly eating fish since landing. The farmers were planting wheat on the high ground, but it would be awhile before it could be harvested, and they were none too sure how well their wheat would do in this soil and climate.

“I am sure that girl we picked up could tell us, if only we could speak to her,” said his son, the newly christened David Date.

Several of the Japanese had attempted to communicate with First-to-Dance, both by sign language and by trying to teach her Japanese and learn her own language. Progress was slow. Hold up a finger, and say a word. Do you mean “finger”? “One”? The direction “up”? It took time for each side to see what the different things that a particular word applied to had in common.

One word that they were quite interested in learning the name for was the one for the creature from which First-to-Dance’s robe was made. This robe was the skin of a sea otter. When the physician had first examined her, he had commented on how marvelous the material was, warm and waterproof. He was from the yukiguni, the “snow country” of Japan, and he was sure that this might be something that could be sold back home. Masamune had emphasized the importance of finding such products, to assure that the motherland would continue to supply them with the goods they couldn’t make themselves.

“Let’s put her on a looser leash,” said Masamune. “Let her wander around a bit, observe what she eats and drinks. Perhaps she would be more comfortable with some female company?”

* * *

Masamune decided that escorting First-to-Dance was exactly what was needed to distract Chiyo from archery practice.

Instead, of course, Chiyo insisted that her brother teach First-to-Dance, too.

First-to-Dance was somewhat nonplused by this development. Her people used the bow-and-arrow, but hunting was a male occupation. She absolutely refused to handle the bow, but was willing to watch Chiyo. And David Date, his aide Nobuyasu, and their friends.