I never stopped seeking out a way to speak with you directly—in vain. This was no straightforward thing, for I was but an ordinary seaman and you a master. Other than in illness and injury, a ship’s surgeon has scant opportunity to commune with the crew. Oft-times I doubted such an opportunity would ever come. My old friend Brice noted the sullenness into which I had fallen, barely guessing its true cause, and began to badger me about it. Although I had little tolerance for such banter, and told him so, still he continued, often alluding to it at the mess table. One night, as we chewed without appetite on our biscuit dipped in foul brackish water, Brice addressed me with tender-hearted exasperation. “What’s taken hold of you, Joubert? Ever since you cavorted with that savage you’ve been acting strangely. Are you in love? Are you afflicted with some malady of the loins?” I felt a rising tide of rage so strong I launched myself at him with a view to landing a blow that would shatter his jaw and quit his badgering. Thankfully I missed, for I would have been flogged once more and might not have survived another ordeal. But my only friend was lost to me, and for the rest of the voyage I never passed over an occasion to slight him.

In the heavy fogs of autumn, we sighted land once more, and a cheer went up among the weary crew. We had come to our destination, the islands of the Alexander Archipelago. The aim of our expedition was to purchase furs from the natives, which we would take to Macau to sell to the Chinese. At each landing, we made it known that we wished to trade their skins of beaver, seal, otter, bear, elk, and wolf in exchange for guns, iron nails, knives, blankets, and spirits. But on each occasion we learned that all their best furs had been sold to another ship only weeks before, leaving us a meager assortment of second-rate merchandise. Our luck was no better in the Queen Charlotte Islands. And so, with winter approaching and our commerce left greatly in want, we set sail for China, hoping there to sell what furs we had procured. By the time we departed Alaska, a wintry pall was set in across the sky and the ocean had become stroppy and cruel.