Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1909 — PEARY’S EVIDENCE AGAINST DR. COCK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PEARY’S EVIDENCE AGAINST DR. COCK

Alleges Cook Did Not Reach North Pole. PROOF OF STATEMENT. Witnesses Queted Are Cook’s Esklmu Buys. NATIVES LAUGH AT CLAIM. Point Out limit of Explorer’s Journey on Carefully Prepared Map.

New York, October 12.—The following statement of Commander Robert E. Peary, which he submitted, together with the accompanying map, to the Peary Arctic Club in support of his contention that Dr. Cook did not reach the North Pole, is now made public for the first time. The statement and map have been copyrighted by the Peary Arctic Club. (Entered according to Act of congress, in the year 1909. by the Peary Arctic Club, in the office of the Librarian of Congress,' at Washington, D. C.)

INTRODUCTION BY PEARY. Some of my reasons for saying that Dr. Cook did not go to the North Pole will be understood by those who read the following statements of the two Eskimo boys who went with him, and who told me and others of my party where he did go. Several Eskimos who started with Dr. Cook from Anoratok in February, 1908, were at Etab when I arrived there in August, 1908. They told me that Dr. Cook had with him, after they left, two Eskimo boys or young men, two sledges and some twenty dogs. The boys were I-took-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah. I had known them from their, childhood. One was about eighteen and the other about nineteen years of age. On my return from Cape Sheridan and at the very first settlement I touched (Nerke, near Cape Cha Ion) tn August, 1909. and nine days before reaching Etah, the Eskimos told me, in a general way, where Dr. Cook had been; that he had wintered in Jones Sound and that he had told the white men at Etah that he had been a long way north, but that the boys who were with him, I-took-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah, said that this was not so. The Eskimos laughed at Dr. Cook’s story. On reaching Etah, I talked with the Eskimos there and with the two boys and asked them to describe Dr. Cook’s journey to members of my party and myself. I his they did in the manner stated below. (Signed) R. E. Pfaby.

SIGNED STATEMENT OF PEARY, BARTLETT, McMILLAN, BORUP AND HENSON, IN REGARD TO TESTIMONY OF COOK’S TWO ESKIMO BOYS. The two Eskimo boys, I-took-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah, who accompanied Dr. Cook while he was away from Anoratok in 1908 and 1909, were questioned separately and independently, and were corroborated by Panikpah, the father of one of them (I-took-a-shoo}, who was personally familiar with the first third and the last third of their Journey, and who said that the route for the remaining third, as shown by them, was as described to him by his son after his return with Dr. Cook. Notes of their statements were taken by several of us, and no one of us has any doubt that they told the truth. Their testimony was unshaken by cross-examination, was corroborated by other men in the tribe, and was elicited neither by threats nor promises, the two boys and their father talking of their journey and their experiences in the same way that they would talk of any hunting trip. To go more into details: One of the boys was called in, and, with a chart on the table before him, was asked to show where be had gone with Dr. Cook. This he did, pointing out with his finger on the map, but not making any marks upon it. As he went out, the other boy came in and was asked to show where he had gone with Dr, Cook. This he did, also without making any marks, an<* indicated the same route and the same details as did the first boy. When he was through, PanlkpaU the father of I-took-a-shoo, a very in telllgent man, who was in the party of Eskimos that came back from Dr. Cook from the northern end of Nan-

sen’s Strait, who is fan.filar as a hunter with the Jones Sound region, and who has been in Commander Peary’s various expeditions for some fifteen years, came in and Indicated the same localities and details as the two boys. Then the first boy was brought in again, and with a pencil he traced on the map their route, members of our party writing upon the chart where, according to the boy's statement, they had killed deer, bear, some of their dogs, seal, walrus and musk-oxen. The second boy was then called in and the two went over the chart together, the second boy suggesting some changes as noted hereafter. Finally, Panikpah, the father, was again called In to verify details of the portions of the route with which he was personally familiar. The bulk of the boys’ testimony was not taken by Commander Peary, nor in his presence, a fact that obviates any possible claim that they were awed by him. Certain questions on independent lines from the direct narrative of the

Eskimo boys were suggested by Commander Peary to some Of us, and were put by ns to the Eskimo boys. Still later, Commander Peary asked the Eskimo boys two or three casual questions on minor points that had occurred to him. During the taking of this testimony. It developed that Dr. Cook had told these boys, as he told Mr. Whitney and Billy Pritchard, the cabin boy, that they must not tell Commander Peary or any of us anything about their journey, and the boys stated Dr. Cook had threatened them if they should tell anything. Tbe narrative of these Eskimos is as follows: They, with Dr. Cook, Francke and nine other Eskimos, left Anoratok, crossed Smith’s Sound to Cape Sabine, slept In Commander Peary’s old house In Payer Harbor, then went through Rice Strait to Buchanan Bay. After a few marches Francke and three Eskimos returned to Anoratok. Dr. Cook, with the others, then proceeded up Flagler Bay, a branch of Buchanan Bay, and crossed Ellesmere Land through the valley pass at tbe head of Flagler Bay, indicated by Commander Peary in 1898, and utilized by Sverdrup in 1899, to the head of Sverdrup’s “Bay Fiord’’ on the west side of Ellesmere Land. Their route then lay out through this fiord, thence north through Sverdrup’s “Heuerka Sound” and Nansen Strait. On their way they killed musk-oxen and bear, and made caches, arriving eventually at a point on the west side of Nansen Strait (shone, of Axel Heiberg Land of Sverdrup), south of Cape Thomas Hubbard. A cache was formed here and the four Eskimos did not go beyond this point. Two others, Koolootingwah and Inughito, went on one more march with Dr. Cook and the two boys, helped to build the snow Igloo, then returned without sleeping. (These two Eskimos brought back a

letter from Dr. Cook to Francke, dated the 17tb of March. The two men rejoined the other four men who had been left behind, and the six returned to Anoratok, arriving May "th. This information was obtained not from the two Eskimo boys, but from the six men who returned and from Francke himself, and was known to us in the summer of 1908, when the RrwsereM first arrived at Etah. The information is Inserted here as supplementary to the narrative of the two boys.) After sleeping at the camp where the

last two Eskimos turned back, Dr. Cook and tbe two boys went in a northerly or northwesterly direction with two sledges and twenty odd dogs, one more march, when they encountered rough ice and a lead of open water. They did not enter this rough ice, nor cross the lead, but turned westward or southwestward a short distance and returned to Heiberg Land at a point west of where they had left the cache and where the four men had turned back. Here they remained four or five sleeps, and during that time I-took-a-shoo went back to the cache and got his gun which he had left there, and a few items of supplies. When asked why only a few supplies were taken from the cache, the boys replied that only a small amount of provisions had been used in the few days since they left the cache, and that the Jr sledges still had all they could carry, so that they could not take more. After being informed of the boys’ narrative thus far, Commander Peary suggested a series of questions to be put to the boys in regard to this trip from the land out and back to it. These questions and answers were as follows: Did they cross many open leads or much open water during this time? Ans. None. Did they make any caches out on the ice? Ans. No. Did they kill any bear or seal while out on the ice north of Cape Thomaa Hubbard? Ans. No. Did they kill or lose any of their dogs while out on the ice? Ans. No. With how many sledges did they start? Ans. Two. How many dogs did they have? Ans.

From here they then went southwest along the northwest coast of Heiberg Land to a point indicated on the map (Sverdrup's Cape Northwest). From here they went west across the ice, which was level and covered with snow, offering good going, to a low island which they had seen from the shore of Heiberg Land at Cape Northwest. On this island they camp eu for one sleep. The size and position of this island, as drawn by tbe first boy, was criticised by the second boy as being too large and too far to the west, the second boy-calling the attention of the 1 first to tbe fact that the position of the island was more nearly in line with the point where they had left Heiberg Land (Cape Northwest) and the channel between Amund Ringnes Land and Elie; Ringnes Land. This criticism and correction was accepted by the first boy, who started to change the position of the island, but was stopped, as Commander Peary-had given instructions that no changes or erasures were to be made in the route as drawn by the Eskimos on the chart From this island they could see two lands beyond (Sverdrup’s Ellef Ringnes and Amund Ringnes Lands). From the island they journeyed toward the left hand one of these two lands (Amund Ringnes Land), passing a small island which they did not visit. Arriving at the shore of Amund Ringnes Land, the Eskimos killed a deer as indicated on the chart. The above italicised portion of tbe statement of the Eskimo boys covers the period of time in which Dr. Cook claims to have gone to the Pole and

Did not remember exactly, but , something over twenty. How many sledges did they have when they got back to land? Ana. Two. Did they have any provisions left on their sledges when they came back to land? Ans. Yes: the sledges still had about all they could carry, so they were able to take but a few things from the cache.

back, and the entire time during which he could possibly iiave made any attempts to go to it. The answers of the Eskimo boys to Commander Peary’s series of independentquestions, showing that they killed no game, made no caches, lost no dogs, and returned to the land with loaded sledges, makes their attainment

of the Pole bn the trip North of Cape Thomas Hubbard a physical and mathematical impossibility, as it would demand the subsistence of three men and over twenty dogs during a journey of ten hundred and forty geograpbical miles on less than two sledge loads of supplies. If it is suggested that perhaps Dr. Cook got mixed and that he reached the Pole, or thought he did, between the time of leaving the northwest coast of Heiberg Land at Cape Northwest, and his arrival at Ringnes Land, where they killed the deer, we must then add to the date of Dr. Cook’s letter of.' March 17th, at or near Cape Thomas Hubbard, the subsequent four or five sleeps at that point, and the number of days required to march from Cape Thomas Hubbard to Cape Northwest (a distance of some sixty nautical miles), which would advance his date of departure from the land to at least the 25th of March, and be prepared to accept the claim that Dr. Cook went from Cape Northwest (about latitude eighty and a half degrees North) to the Pole, a distance of five hundred and seventy geographical miles, in twenty-seven days.

After killing the deer they then travelled south along the east side of Ringnes Land to the point Indicated on the chart, where they killed another deer. They then went east across the south part of Crown Prince Gustav Sea to the south end of Heiberg Land, then down through Norwegian Bay, where they secured some bears, but not until after they had killed some of their dogs, to the east side of Graham Island; then eastward to the little bay marked “Eld’s Fiord” on Sverdrup’* chart; then southwest to Hell’s Gate and Simmon’s Peninsula. Here for the first time during the entire journey, except as already noted off Cape Thomas H. Hubbard, they encountered open water. On this point the boys were clear, emphatic, and unshakable. They spent a good deal of time in this region, and finally abandoned their dogs and one sledge, took to their boat, crossed Hell’s Gate to North Kent, up into Norfolk Inlet, then back along the north coast of Colin Archer Peninsula to Cape Vera, where they obtained fresh elder duck eggs. Here they cut the remaining sledge off, tnat is shortened it, as It was awkward to transport with the boat, and near here they killed a walrus. The statement in regard to the fresh elder duck eggs permits the approximate determination of the date at this time as about the first of July. (This statement also serves, if indeed anything more than the inherent straightforwardness and detail of their narrative were needed, to substantiate the accuracy and truthfulness of the boys’ statement. This locality of Cape Vera is mentioned tn Sverdrup’s narrative as the place where during his stay in that region he obtained ducks’ eggs.) From Cape Vera they went on down into the southwest angle of Jones Sound, where they killed a seal; thence east along the south coast of the Sound, killing three bears at the point noted on the map, to the peninsula known as Cape Sparbo on the map, about midway on the south side of Jones Soupd. Here they killed some musk-oxen and, continuing east, killed four more at the place indicated on the chart, and were finally stopped by the pack ice at the mouth of Jones Sound. From here they turned back to Cape Sparbo, where they wintered and killed many musk-oxen. After the sun returned in 1909 they started, pushing, their sledge, across Jones Sound to Cape Tennyson; thence along the coast to Clarence Head (passing Inside of two small islands not shown on the chart, but drawn on It by the boys), where they killed a bear; thence across the broad bight in the coast to Cadogan Fiord; thence around Cape Isabella and up to Commander Peary’s old house in Payer Harbor near Cape Sabine, where they found 4 seal cached for 'them by Panikpah, I-took-a-shoo’s father. From here they crossed Smith Sound on the ice, arriving at Anoratok.’ (Signed) R. E. PNary, U. S. N. Robert A. Bartlett. Master S.S. Roosevelt. D. B. McMillan, Georoe Borup. Matthew A. Henson.

The accompanying map is reproduced exactly from the original submitted *by Commander Teary with his official statement by which he hopes to prove that Dr. Frederick A. Cook never reached the north pole. The map purports to have been traced out in the presence of the two Eskimos who were -with Dr. Cook and, according to Peary, is based upon their actual statements as to Cook's entire journey. The dotted lines In the small map in the upper left hand corner is the route which Dr. Cook says he took on his journey to and from the pole after leaving Cape Thomas Hubbard. The irregular line extending northeast from Isachsen Land is the edge of the land ice. tar-mH which. Peary declares. Dr. Cook did not venture.