Show COOK NOT AT POLE PEARY Naval Commander Sternly Refutes Claims Made by the Doctor TESTIMONY OF THE ESKIMOS Long and Carefully Prepared Statement State-ment Given to the Public Amounts to Direct Questioning of Dr Cooks VeracityIs Signed by All the Principals of the Roosevelt Party New York Oct 12The following statement of Commander Robert E Peary which he submitted together with tho accompanying map to the Peary Arctic club In support of his contention that Dr Cook did not roach the north polo is now made public for tho first time Tho statement and map have been copyrighted by the Peary Arctic club Commander Pearys Introduction Some of my reasons for saying that Dr Cook did not go to the north pole will be understood by those who read tho following statements of tho two Eskimo boys who went with him and who told mo and others of my party whore ho did go Several Eskimos who started with Dr Cook from An oratok in February 1908 were at Etah when I arrived there in August 1908 Thoy told mo 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 ashoo and Ahpelah I had known them from their childhood One was about eighteen and the other about nineteen years of ago On my return from Capo Sheridan and at tho very first settlement I touched Norko near Cape Clmlon in August 1909 and nine days before reaching Etah tho Eskimos told me In a general way where Dr Cook had been that ho had wintered In Jones Sound and that bo had told the white men at Etah that he had been a long way north but that the boys who were with him I toolc a shoo and Apolah said that this was not so Tho Eskimos Eski-mos laughed at Dr Cooks story On reaching Etab I talked with the Eskimos Es-kimos thero and with the two boys and asked them to describe Dr Cooks Journey to members of my party and myself This they did In tho manner stated below Signed R E PEARY Signed Statement of Peary Bartlett McMillan Borup and Henson in Regard Re-gard to Testimony of Cooks Two Eskimo Boys The two Eskimo boys I took a shoo and Ahpolah who accompanied Dr Cook while ho was away from Anora tok In 1908 and 1909 were questioned separately and Independently and were corroborated by Panlkpah 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 tho remaining third as shown by them was as described to him by his son after his return with Dr Cook Tho narrative of these Eskimos Is as follows They with Dr Cook Francko and nine other Eskimos left Anoratok crossed Smiths Sound to Capo Sabine slept in Commander Pearys old house In Payer Harbor then went through Rico strait to Bachnnan bay After a few marches Francko and three Eskimos Eski-mos returned to Anoratok Dr Cook with tho others then proceeded pro-ceeded up Flagler bay a branch ol Buchanan bay and crossed Ellos mere Land through the vallfy pass at tho head of Flagler bay Indicated by Commander Peary in 1898 and utilized by Sverdrup in 1899 to the head of Sverdrups Bay Fiord on the westside west-side of Ellesmere Land Their route then lay out through this fiord thence north through Sver drups Heuorkii 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 Nausea strait share of Axel Hel berg Land of Sverdrup south of Cape Thomas Hubbard A cache was formed here and tho four Eskimos did not go beyond this point Two others Koolootlngwah and Inughlto wont on ono more march with Dr Cook and tho two boys helped to build the snow igloo then returned without sleeping These two Eskimos brought back n letter from Dr Cook to Franckc dated tho seventeenth of March The two men rejoined tho other four men who had been loft behind and the six returned to Anorntok arriving May 7 This information was obtained not from the two Eskimo boys but from ho six men who returned and from francko himself and was known to us In the summer of 1908 when the Roosevelt first arrived at Etoh The Information Is inserted here as supplementary supple-mentary to tho narrative of tho two joys > After sleeping at the camp where the last two Eskimos turned back Dr Cook and tho two boys went In a northerly or northwesterly direction with two sledges and twentyodd dogs one or more march when they encountered en-countered rough Ice and a lend of open water They did not enter this rough Ice nor cross tho lead but turned westward or southwestward n short distance and returned to Holberg Land at a point west of whore they had left the cache and whore tho four men had turned back Hero they remained four or five sleeps and during that time Itooka shoo went back to tho cache and got his gun which he had loft there and a fow items of supplies When asked why only a few supplies sup-plies were taken from tho cache the boys replied that only a small amount of provisions had been used in the few days since they left tho cache and that their 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 bo put to tho boys In regard to this trip from the land out and back to it These questions and answers wero as follows Did they cross many open leads or much open water during this time Ans None Did they make any caches out on ho ice Ans No Did the kill any bear or seal while out On the ice north of Capo Thomas lubbard Ans No JIll they kill or lose any of their dogs while out on tho Ice Ans No With how many sledges did they start Ans Two How many dogs did they have Ans Do not remember exactly but something some-thing ovej twenty How many sledges did thoy have when they got back to land Ans Two Did they have any provisions left on their sledges when they came back to and Ans Yes the sledges still had about all they could carry so they were able to take but a few things from the cache From hero thoy went southwest YMUb j along the northwest cot of Hclbcrg Land to a point indicated on tho map Sverdrups Capo Northwest From hero they went west across the Ice which wan level and covered with snow offering good going to a low Island which they had seen from the shore of Holberg Land at Cape Northwest On this Island they camped for ono cheep The size and position of this Island as drawn by the first boy was criti cised by tho second boy as being too largo and too fur to tho west tho second sec-ond boy calling the attention of the fist to the fact that the position of the island was more nearly In line with the point where they had left Heiberg Lurid Capo Northwest and tho channel between Amund Rlngncs Land and Ellef Rlngnes Land From this Island they could see two lands beyond Sverdrupa Ellef RIng nes and Amund Rlngnes Lands From tho Island they Journeyed toward the loft hand one of theso two lands Amund Rlngnes Land passing a small island which they did not visit Arriving at the shore of Amund Rlngnes Land the Eskimos killed a deer as Indicated on the chart The above portion of tho statement state-ment of the Eskimo boys covers the period of time in which Dr Cook claims to have gono to the polo and back and the entire time during which ho could possibly havo made any attempts to go to It If It is suggested that perhaps Dr Cook got mixed and that ho reached the pole or thought he did between the time of leaving the northwest coast of Heiberg Land at Cape Northwest North-west and his arrival at Rlngnes Land where they killed the deer we must then add to the date of Dr Cooks letter let-ter of March 17 at or near Cape Thomas Hubbard the subsequent four or five sleeps at that point and the number of days required to march from Capo 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 tho claim that Dr Cook went from Capo Northwest about latitude eighty and a half degrees de-grees north to the pole a distance of five hundred and seventy geographical miles in twentyseven days After killing tho deer they then traveled trav-eled south along tho cast side of Ring nes Laud to the point Indicated on tho chart whore they killed another deer They then wont east across the stuth part of Crown Prince Gustav sea to the south end of Hclberg 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 Gra-ham Island then eastward to tho lit itie i bay marked Elds Fiord on Svci drips chart then southwest to Hell Ga6 and Simmons peninsula Hero for the first time during the entire Journey except as alrendj noted off Cape Thomas II 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 Hells Gate to North Kent up into Norfolk Inlet then back along the north coast ol Colin Archer Peninsula to Cape Vera where they obtained fresh elder duck eggs Hero thoy cut the remaining sledge off that Is shortened It as It was awkward to transport with the boat and near hero they killed a walrus wal-rus Tho statement In regard to the fresh elder duck eggs permits the approximate approxi-mate determination of the date at this tlmo as about the first of July This statement also serves if Indeed anything any-thing more than the Inherent straightforwardness straight-forwardness and detail of their narra live were needed to substantiate the accuracy and truthfulness of the boys statement This location of Cape Vera Is mentioned in Sverdrups narrative as the place where during his stay in that region he obtained elder duck I eggs From Cape Vera they went on down into the southwest angle of Jones Sound where they killed a seal thence east along tho south coast ol tho sound killing throe bears at the point noted on the map to the peninsula penin-sula known as Cape Sparbo on the map about midway on the south side of Jones Sound Here they killed I somo muskoxen and continuing east killed four more at the place indicated indi-cated on tho chart and wero finally stopped by the pack ice at the mouth of Jones Sound From here they turned back to Cape Sparbo where I they wintered After the sun returned In 1909 they started pushing their sledge across I Jones Sound to Cape Tennyson thence along the coast to Clarence Head passing Inside ot 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 Com-mander Pearys old house In Payer Harbor near Capo Sabine where they found a seal cached for them by Pan lkpah Itooka shoos father From here they crossed Smith Sound on the ice arriving at Anoratok Signed R E PEARY U 8 N ROBERT A BARTtETT 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