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It was from Korelin, one of the four refugees, that the Russian archivists took the first account of the massacre; and Coxe's narrative is based on Korelin's story, though the tradition of the massacre has been handed down from father to child among Oonalaskans to this day, so that certain caves near Captain Harbor, and Makushin Volcano are still pointed out as the refuge of the four pursued Russians.
Two Russians have been slain bathing in the hot springs near Makushin Volcano, four murdered at the huts, four wounded; and the barrack is burned to the ground.
Hostages and scurvy-stricken Russians were packed in the hold with the meat stores and furs like dying rats in a garbage barrel. It was as much as a Russian's life was worth, to show his head above the hatchway; and the siege lasted from the middle of December to the 30th of March, when Drusenin's four refugees, led by Korelin, made a final dash from Makushin Volcano, and gained Korovin's ship.
All night, for a week, they coasted within the shadow of the shore rocks, hiding by day, passing three Indian villages undiscovered. Distance gave them courage. They now paddled by day, and just as they rounded Makushin Volcano, lying like a great white corpse five thousand feet above Bering Sea, they came on five Indians, who at once landed and running alongshore gave the alarm.
I know some friends of mine landed there not long ago and cooked eggs over the jets of steam which gush out of the mountainside. Did you ever hear of using a volcano for a cook-stove?" "Well, I should say not," said Ted, amused. "These Alaskan volcanoes are great things." "The one called Makushin has a crater filled with snow in a part of which there is always a cloud of sulphurous smoke.
Carlsen, before he went below, had sent a man into the fore-spreaders, and now he shouted, cupping his hands and sounding his news as if it had been a call to arms. "Land-ho!" "What is it?" called Rainey back. "High peak, sir. Dead ahead! Clouds on it, or smoke." He came sliding down the halyards to the deck as Lund said: "That'll be Makushin. Now the fun'll commence."
A certain audacious assurance seemed to ooze out of him, to permeate his neighborhood, and a measure of it extended to Rainey. "We'll sight Makushin first," muttered Lund, as if to himself. "Makushin?" "Volcano, fifty-seven hundred feet high. Much ice in sight?" Rainey described the horizon. "All fresh-water ice," said Lund. "An' melting." "Melting? It must be way below freezing," said Rainey.
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