the Clan's elderly and young children had already begun the trek to G̱aajaa Héen (Old Sitka). At nightfall, the House Chiefs met again to discuss their planned march across the island. Mothers with infant children were to depart in the morning. Day Four The naval cannon fire began at daybreak, halting periodically to allow the Russians to extend offers of peace to the Kiks.ádi, which were in turn rejected. That afternoon, the Tlingits' response was that they had tired of battle, and would accede to the Russian demands to evacuate Shís'gi Noow the following day. Once the sun had set, the natives held their last gathering in the sapling fort. The elders offered praise for their clansmen who had defended the Kiks.ádi homeland against a formidable enemy. The Clan gathered together for a last song, one that ended with a loud drum roll and a wail of anguish (which the Russians interpreted as a sign of their surrender). The Tlingit then departed undetected under the cover of darkness. Aftermath It was not until the evening of 4 October that the Kiks.ádi began their retreat. The Russians landed a large contingent of troops to secure the beachhead and to reconnoiter the area in and around Shís'gi Noow. To their great surprise, none of the natives was to be found as, unbeknownst to the Russians, the Tlingit had embarked on what is now referred to as the "Sitka Kiks.ádi Survival March". On 8 October, Captain Lisianski visited the abandoned Tlingit fortification, in which he estimated eight hundred males lived, and recorded: ...what anguish did I feel, when I saw, like a second massacre of innocents, numbers of young children lying together murdered, lest their cries, if they had been borne away with their cruel parents, should have led to a discovery of the retreat... The fort was razed to preclude the possibility of its being used as a stronghold against the Russians and their allies ever again. Neva sailed out of Sitka Sound on 10 November. In January 2021, the fort was rediscovered using electromagnetic induction. "Sitka Kiks.ádi Survival March" The first leg of the Tlingit's sojourn entailed a hike west from Gajaa Héen to Daxéit (the Clan's fishing camp at Nakwasina Sound, where each May the Kiks.ádi harvested herring eggs, a traditional native food). From there, the group's exact path across the mountains north to Cháatl Ḵáa Noow (the Kiks.ádi "Halibut