In 1853, in the farthest outpost of the Czar's empire, many of the laborers were indentured servants -- seven-year men no better off than slaves. In New Archangel, now Sitka, four of them, all Scandinavians, stole a canoe and pointed it south toward Astoria, in Oregon, twelve hundred miles away.This adventurous story pits its characters against the sea and ultimately against each other. The four sea runners -- glib, gangly Melander, silent Karlsson, the thief Braff, and sour, doubting Wennberg -- must weather the worst the ill-named Pacific can throw at them. And must, day upon day, guided as much by instinct as by map, simply paddle, stroke upon stroke, toward the mouth of the Columbia River.