The Project Gutenberg EBook of The North Pole, by Robert E. Peary

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Title: The North Pole
Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club

Author: Robert E. Peary

Release Date: August 3, 2006 [EBook #18975]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE NORTH POLE

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

[Illustration: THE FIVE FLAGS AT THE POLE

LEFT TO RIGHT

1. Navy League--Ooqueah
2. D. K. E. Fraternity--Ootah
3. Polar Flag Carried 15 Years--Henson
4. D. A. R. Peace Flag--Egingwah
5. Red Cross Flag--Seegloo]

THE NORTH POLE

ITS DISCOVERY IN 1909 UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE PEARY
ARCTIC CLUB

BY

ROBERT E. PEARY

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT

AND A FOREWORD BY
GILBERT H. GROSVENOR
DIRECTOR AND EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

[Illustration]

GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK

Originally published in 1910 by Frederick A. Stokes Co.

First Greenwood Reprinting, 1968

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 68-55210

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO
MY WIFE

INTRODUCTION

SOME _years ago I met at a dinner in Washington the famous Norwegian
arctic explorer, Nansen, himself one of the heroes of polar adventure;
and he remarked to me, "Peary is your best man; in fact I think he is on
the whole the best of the men now trying to reach the Pole, and there is
a good chance that he will be the one to succeed." I cannot give the
exact words; but they were to the above effect; and they made a strong
impression on me. I thought of them when in the summer of 1908 I, as
President of the United States, went aboard Peary's ship to bid him
Godspeed on the eve of what proved to be his final effort to reach the
Pole. A year later, when I was camped on the northern foothills of Mt.
Kenia, directly under the equator, I received by a native runner the
news that he had succeeded, and that