The Sea Runners - Ivan Doig [91]
Much was our astonishment to find, beside a big tidal log, two men, much emaciated and looking the perfect pictures of misery and hardship. One of the poor fellows could only utter again and again 'Merica, 'Merica, so fixed was his mind on their arrival to this portion of America. The other man, a slender sort worn thin to the extreme by their ordeal, we could speak with, but could not make ourselves understood. Astoria was his oftenest word, and by trying our utmost, we at last conveyed to him that that locality lay just beyond the southern reach of the bay, oti the opposite bank of the Columbia River.
We cooked a rough stew of some venison jerky we had with us, the pair eating as though they never could be sated. We then contrived to lift them onto our horses and after taking them to our house, summoned some of the other settlers from around. Among us since the grounding of the Willimantic in Gray's Harbor has been a Dane, dwelling at Chinook, who: was steward of that vessel, and through his endeavors we succeeded in conversing with the hard-used pair. Their history is as follows:
In 1850 they engaged to WOrk for the Russian Fur Company seven years, and accordingly embarked, in company with eighteen others, for the northwestern coast, bound for New Archangel, After a residence of nearly two years, they found they could not bear the ill usage which they were receiving, and determined to make their escape. They were four, who determined on that leave-taking. At a place beyond Vancouver Island, one of their number was slain by the Indians. A second unfortunate was drowned in the descent of the coast between the Strait of Fuca and here.
When found, the two who have survived had been in this bay for a span of time they did not know. They mistook the large drift stump for a cabin and were very nearly done up by their exertions to reach it. The more slight of the pair, and thus better fitted to tread his way atop the tideflat, returned to their canoe—a craft about twenty feet in length by three in width, sprightly built; and with this they have made a winter voyage of over a thousand miles on one of the worst parts of the coast!—and from there fetched a cylinder of maps enwrapped in waterproofing. With these large sheets, and flint and steel, and branches and driftwood got from around, lie was able to construct atop the log the smudge fire which signaled us to their aid.
They are well cared for by the citizens here, and at present are comfortably situated at Chinook, whence they will be taken across the river to Astoria when their strength is sufficient.
Their names arc Nils Karlsson and Anders Wennberg, and they are of Sweden.
Yours &c
Jonathan E. Cotter
The End
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
IN THE WORDS of an admired friend, the novelist Mildred Walker, my sea runners "have lived only in the world of this book." But their life in these pages does draw breath from actuality. According to a contemporary letter-to-the-editor in the Oregon Weekly Times, during the winter of 1852–53 oyster men at Shoalwater Bay (modernly renamed Willapa Bay) north of the mouth of the Columbia River came upon three men, "the perfect pictures of misery and despair," who had achieved a canoe voyage down the Northwest coast from indentureship at New Archangel. Their names were reported as Karl Gronland, Andreas Lyndfast, and Karl Waster holm; a fourth man, whose name was not reported, was killed by Indians along the way. Their great and terrible journey is not known in detail, I would hope that Melander, Karlsson, Wennberg, and Braaf are in the spirit of those actual voyagers.
Naval Captain of Second Rank Nikolai Yakovlevich Rosenberg and the Lutheran pastor, and Wha-laltl Asabuy and the Astoria collector of customs, did exist but their conversations herein arc imaginary.
To cut down on complication, I've employed present-day usages in the following