Their escort consisted of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men. Two Japanese guides from the neighboring villages, changed at each new district, led the way, bearing handsomely-carved staves. Then came three soldiers, then Captain Golownin with a soldier on one side, and on the other an attendant with a twig to drive off the gnats, which were troublesome, and against which his bound hands prevented him from defending himself. Behind came an officer holding the ends of the ropes by which the prisoner was bound, then a party of Kuriles, bearing his kago, followed by another relief party. The other captives followed, one by one, escorted in the same manner. Finally came three soldiers, and a number of Japanese and Kurile servants carrying provisions and baggage. Each of the escort had a wooden tablet, suspended from his girdle, on which were inscribed his duties and which prisoner he was stationed with; and the commanding officer had a corresponding list of the whole. The prisoners had the same fare with the escort,—three meals a day, generally of rice boiled to a thick gruel, two pieces of pickled radish[92] for seasoning, soup made of radishes or various wild roots and herbs, a kind of macaroni, and a piece of broiled or boiled fish. Sometimes they had stewed mushrooms, and each a hard-boiled egg. Their general drink was very indifferent tea, without sugar, and sometimes sake. Their conductors frequently stopped at the villages to rest, or to drink tea and smoke tobacco, and they also rested for an hour after dinner. They halted for the night an hour or two before sunset, usually in a village with a small garrison. They were always conducted first to the front of the house of the officer in command, and were seated on benches covered with mats, when the officer came out to inspect them. They were then taken to a neat house (which generally, when they first entered, was hung round with striped cotton cloth), and were placed together in one apartment, the ends of their ropes being fastened to iron hooks in the walls. Their boots and stockings were pulled off, and their feet bathed in warm water with salt in it. For bedding they had the Japanese mattresses—quilts with a thick wadding—folded double. After the first six or seven days their bonds were loosened, and they got on more comfortably. The Japanese took the greatest care of their health, not allowing them to wet their feet, carrying them across the shallowest streams, and furnishing them with quilted Japanese gowns as a protection against the rain.