Soon, however, we were on our way to the ships. Most gladly we turned away our eyes from the shore, and turned them towards our better home on the deep. The ship which was the nearer of the two to the shore, and on board of which Captain Norton and his officers first went, was the Joseph Hayden. When Captain Norton landed on deck, dressed in native costume, unshorn, and uncouth in appearance, as all were, Captain Goosman asked, as well he might, and as any other one would, "Is this _Norton_, captain of the Citizen?" He replied, "He used to be, and probably was now." Captain Goosman then embraced him in true sailor fashion, and cordially welcomed him and his officers to the hospitalities of his ship. In a few days, nearly all of our number were collected from the different settlements, and divided between the two ships. Captain Norton, being a fellow-townsman and formerly a schoolmate with Captain Jernegan, felt disposed, from this previous acquaintance, to take up his abode on board of the Niger. Every facility and comfort the ship afforded was most cheerfully offered by Captain Jernegan to Captain Norton and those of his officers on board with him. We soon exchanged the burdensome and unwieldy deer-skin clothes, which had so long identified us with arctic natives and arctic life, for the lighter and more agreeable dress of the sailor. In supplying our company with such articles of clothing as we needed, (indeed, we were absolutely destitute, having nothing but what we stood in,) the officers and sailors of the respective ships most generously contributed to relieve our present necessities. They rejoiced in the opportunity of effecting the deliverance of their fellow shipwrecked mariners, and considered it one of the most joyous events in their lives that they had done something towards augmenting the sum of human happiness, and thus becoming the means of kindling anew, in many minds, aspirations and hopes which had well nigh become extinguished. Thus, after a series of sufferings and painful reminiscences,--the loss of our ship, with five of our number at the time of the wreck, and one frozen to death while traveling,--having experienced the dreadful rigors of a northern winter and life among the natives, amid untold filthiness and degradation,--shut out from the hearing and company of friends and the whole civilized world,--after nine months and eight days, on the 4th of July, 1853, we found ourselves safe and happy on the decks of friendly vessels, with excellent accommodations, and all that fellow-seamen could do to make us comfortable and contented. * * * * * Four or five days after, the two ships above mentioned, with some others, put into East Cape. The natives came off in their canoes, as usual, to trade.