His death presented Kiyoshi with a problem. That being, what to do about the body? In Japan, in the Shinto religion, contact with the dead was ritually polluting, and was left to the eta, the Japanese “untouchables.” But there were no eta on the Sado Maru. Nor were Japanese Christians any more enthusiastic about handling the dead, as their European instructors considered gravedigging to be a dishonorable occupation. If Kiyoshi could speak to the local Indians, he could perhaps persuade them to deal with the body, but they had seen no Indians recently. In any event, they didn’t know their language.
Kiyoshi picked out the two lowest-ranking of the remaining miners and ordered them to bury the corpse. After much argument, they did so.
* * *
Kiyoshi rose groggily. The sun had only just cleared the horizon, and scattered trees cast long shadows that in his half-awake state led Kiyoshi to imagine them the fingers of oni, Japanese demons.
He quickly made a Christian sign of aversion, followed by a Buddhist one, just to be safe.
As his head cleared, he became more and more sure that something was wrong. But what? Then he realized the answer: two men were missing from the mining camp. The very men who had conducted the burial the day before.
He shivered involuntarily. Had their state of impurity rendered them vulnerable to some American demon?
He called out, but they didn’t answer.
Kiyoshi quickly woke the others. They grabbed weapons and searched the area, spiraling outward.
They didn’t find the two missing men. But they did find footprints leading to the water, and then disappearing in the muck.
With some reluctance—as headman he could be held accountable for the actions of his men—he informed the samurai on duty that the men were missing. A samurai joined the search, to no avail.
Kiyoshi suggested that the men had been taken by the Indians, or perhaps by some water beast.
The samurai was skeptical. “I see no sign of a struggle. . . . And didn’t you have a man posted on guard? Why didn’t he call out?”
“The man who disappeared was the watchman on the last shift. He was taken by surprise, perhaps while relieving himself,” Kiyoshi suggested.
The samurai snorted. “There aren’t enough of us to conduct a proper search, especially since we don’t have horses. But I will have to report this to Lord Matsudaira.”
Kiyoshi shivered once again. There were more fearful beings than hypothetical American demons.
The samurai returned, this time with several of his fellows. “By order of Lord Matsudaira, we are taking over the night watches. And you and your men are to be roped together, night and day. So there are no more mysterious disappearances.”
December 1634,
Off the Coast of California
It had taken several weeks to refit the Ieyasu Maru to return to sea, and Captain Haruno had practically danced with impatience until they pulled out of the little harbor at Andoryu/Monterey.
To reach the Golden Gate, the Ieyasu Maru found it expedient to take a circuitous route. Monterey Bay lay to the south, but the prevailing winds of the California coast come from the northwest, and the California current sets south along the shore.
The rescue ship sailed directly away from land until it crossed the 125th meridian. It then encountered more variable winds, and made northing whenever it could. Eventually, it clawed its way up to the 38th parallel, and turned eastward. This process took perhaps two weeks, even though, when it had come south from British Columbia, the passage from the 38th parallel to that of Monterey had taken a single day.
South Bay, near modern Alviso, California
Led by Saburo, the samurai scout troop at long last reached Iroha-hime’s refuge. Each scout had an extra horse on a lead, so all of Iroha’s party would be able to ride back. Saburo proudly advised Iroha that he had come to rescue her, and that soon she would be safe with her father in the Monterey Bay colony. She had thanked him, and neither agreed nor disagreed with his statement that she would need to be ready to leave in a week’s time.
The week passed.
* * *
“I am sorry, Saburo, but I cannot go with you,” said Iroha. “I will wait for Captain Haruno to arrive, and go with him to rescue my husband. Then, and only then, will I go to Monterey Bay.”
“But . . . But, Iroha-hime, your father was most insistent that we wait no more than a week for Captain Haruno, and if he had not arrived by then, we were to take you with us.”
“My husband commanded me to remain here, and of course his authority overrides that of my father.”
“Actually,” said Matsuoka, “his command was that you go to your father in Monterey.”
“Yes, but that was because he thought that I might need to plead with my father in person to assist Lord Matsudaira. But Captain Haruno was sent to aid him, not just to rescue me, yes?”