Tracts, those little messengers of truth, become oftentimes the appointed vehicles both of temporal and spiritual blessings. Tracts were found in several huts of the natives, carried thither, we suppose, by seamen; and with the exception of pieces of copper, they were all that could be written upon, and thus the only reliable means of communication. From the first, therefore, the captain and his officers availed themselves of this instrumentality; and, whenever they found a leaf of a book or a tract, or a piece of copper, if opportunity occurred, they would send it down the coast by the natives, carefully enclosed in a piece of walrus or deer skin, giving some account of the shipwreck, officers, and crew, and where they could be found.
We hoped by this means that the news of our condition would, sooner or later, reach the ear of some navigator early on the coast, and thus bring to pass a more speedy deliverance.
In this, as the sequel will show, we were not disappointed. The natives had no idea of written language; and, believing that something of great importance was marked upon either the paper or copper, or both, they preserved it with the greatest care, and almost with superstitious reverence.
They had an impression that we could converse with our countrymen and absent friends in this way, which was true; but what they supposed was, that we could talk to them at any time by those mysterious marks. And hence they frequently urged us to speak to them, and obtain some assistance from them, or that they might send some aid to us.
Mr. Reoy, one of our company, was the first to get on board of a ship,—the Bartholomew Gosnold,—he being down some two hundred miles below East Cape. He therefore gave immediate information as to the locality of the officers and crew of the Citizen.
About this time there were five ships at or near Indian Point, working their way towards the north through the floating ice. The news of the shipwreck was brought to these ships by the natives, bearing in their hands tracts and pieces of copper, written upon by the captain and his officers, stating the wreck, where the company could be found, and their earnest desire to be taken off. The natives approached the ships, lying off a short distance from the shore, holding up in their hands those mysterious parchments, in order to attract the attention of those on board. The story was soon told. The tracts and pieces of copper at once removed all uncertainty which had for months surrounded the fate of the Citizen and the condition of her officers and crew.
The announcement that so many fellow-seamen were still in the land of the living; that they had survived the rigors of an arctic winter; that they were not far up the coast,—less than a day's sail,—and that they were anxiously and hourly looking and waiting for approaching ships, was enough to stir the deepest sympathies of every mariner's heart.
With the least possible delay, being impelled not only by a sense of duty, but actuated by the most generous and philanthropic sentiments and emotions, Captain Jernegan, of the ship Niger, and Captain Goosman, of the ship Joseph Hayden, left immediately to secure the unfortunate ones on East Cape, firmly resolving, like true sons of the ocean, "We will have them on board before to-morrow night." This was early in the morning. They were distant from East Cape more than fifty miles. With a favoring wind, and success attending their efforts in getting through the drifting ice, they reached the cape next day, about two o'clock in the morning, only a few miles in the offing, and in sight of the settlement.
The natives were the first to spy the ships, and one immediately rushed in and informed Captain Norton they had come.
Though it was an event which we all had long looked for and earnestly desired, and time indeed had rolled heavily on its wheels in bringing the happy day of deliverance, yet when it was announced to us, we could hardly believe it. Somehow or other, having been so long inured to disappointment, we felt for the moment it was too much and too good news to credit.