Project Gutenberg's A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, by Matthew A. Henson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Negro Explorer at the North Pole

Author: Matthew A. Henson

Commentator: Robert E. Peary
Booker T. Washington

Release Date: March 28, 2007 [EBook #20923]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NEGRO EXPLORER AT THE NORTH POLE ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

A NEGRO EXPLORER AT THE NORTH POLE

[Illustration: MATTHEW A. HENSON]

A NEGRO EXPLORER AT THE NORTH POLE

BY

MATTHEW A. HENSON

WITH A FOREWORD BY
ROBERT E. PEARY
REAR ADMIRAL, U. S. N., RETIRED

AND AN INTRODUCTION BY
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1912, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

_All rights reserved, including that of translation
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_

_February, 1912_

FOREWORD

Friends of Arctic exploration and discovery, with whom I have come in
contact, and many whom I know only by letter, have been greatly
interested in the fact of a colored man being an effective member of a
serious Arctic expedition, and going north, not once, but numerous times
during a period of over twenty years, in a way that showed that he not
only could and did endure all the stress of Arctic conditions and work,
but that he evidently found pleasure in the work.

The example and experience of Matthew Henson, who has been a member of
each and of all my Arctic expeditions, since '91 (my trip in 1886 was
taken before I knew Henson) is only another one of the multiplying
illustrations of the fact that race, or color, or bringing-up, or
environment, count nothing against a determined heart, if it is backed
and aided by intelligence.

Henson proved his fitness by long and thorough apprenticeship, and his
participation in the final victory which planted the Stars and Stripes
at the Nor