the proof-sheets, stolen from the printers, Messrs. Lent & Graff, were
found on the table of the Explorers' Club on June 27, 1911. It is
important to note that this pro-Peary repository of bribed, faked and
forged writings, which were issued to defame me, is also the den for
stolen goods. Who are the thieves who congregate there to deposit their
booty? Why the theft of a part of my book? What humbug has this club and
its shameless president next to offer?
[28] Letter from an onlooker when Mt. McKinley was climbed:
To Dr. Cook's Friends:
Professor Parker says "regretfully" that Dr. Cook's evidence as to the
ascent of Mt. McKinley was unconvincing.
I was located in the foothills of Mt. McKinley, and had been for about a
year, when Dr. Cook, Professor H. C. Parker, Mr. Porter, the topographer
of the party, and Mr. Miller, Fred Printz and the rest of the party,
landed at the head-waters of the Yentna River, in the foothills of Mt.
McKinley.
I met Professor Parker and the rest of the party, and saw a great deal
of them while they were up there, as I had three mining camps in the
foothills from which they made their try for the top of the mountain. I
let Dr. Cook have one of my Indian hunters, who knew every foot of the
country around there, for a guide. Dr. Cook also had some of his caches
in my camps, leaving supplies which he did not take along with his
pack-trains. Some of Dr. Cook's party were in our camps nearly every day
or so, and consequently I became very well posted in regard to Dr.
Cook's affairs, and very well acquainted with him. Dr. Parker should be
the last one to say anything about mountain-climbing or anything else
connected with the expedition, or anything where it takes a man and
pluck to accomplish results--good results; as he showed himself to be
the rankest kind of a tenderfoot while in the foothills of Mt. McKinley,
and was the laughing stock of the country. Mt. McKinley and the country
around there was too rough for him. He got "cold feet," and started back
for the States, before he had even seen much of the country around
there.
Looking over my memoranda, I find that Dr. Cook had given up his attempt
to climb Mt. McKinley for the time being, and had sent Printz and Miller
on a hunting expedition, and the rest of the party was scattered out to
hunt up something new.
At that time I came into Youngstown, and the boys were getting ready to
strike out on their different routes, and Dr. Cook was going down to
Tyonic, in Cook's Inlet, with his launch, to meet a friend, Mr. Disston,
who expected to go on a hunting trip with him. The friend did not
arrive, so Dr. Cook returned to the head-waters of the Yentna River, to
Youngstown, arriving there on Monday, August 27. On Sunday, August 28,
he started down to the Sushitna River. I went down with him as far as
the Sushitna Station, and he told me he was going to run up the river
and strike Fish Creek, which ran up on another side of Mt. McKinley, and
see what the chances were to make the top of the continent from that
side. He made it. I was one of the last to see him start on the ascent,
and one of the first to see him when he returned after he had made the
ascent.
Dr. Cook proved to be a man in every respect, as unselfish as he was
courageous, always giving the other fellow a thought before thinking of
himself.
Upon his arrival from the ascent of the mountain, although tired and
worn and in a bad physical condition himself, he gave his unlimited
attention to a party of prospectors who had been picked up from a wreck
in the river, and brought into camp in an almost dying condition just
before his arrival. He spent hours working over these men, and did not
give himself a thought until they were properly cared for.
_Evidence?_ No man who has known Dr. Cook, been with him, worked with
him, and learned by personal experience of his courage, energy and
perseverance, would ask for evidence beyond his word.
Dr. Cook is one of the most daring men, and can stand more hardships
than any man I have ever met, and I believe I have met some of the most
able men of the world when it comes to roughing it over the trails in
Alaska and the North.
Dr. Cook climbed Mt. McKinley. Of course there are always skeptics--men
who have a wishbone instead of a backbone, and who, when wishing has
brought to them no good results, their last effort is pushed forth in
criticism of the things which have been constructed or accomplished by
men, their superiors.
If Professor Parker wants evidence to convince him, I think he can find
it, provided he will put himself to as much trouble in looking for
evidence as he has in criticising such evidence as he has obtained.
Respectfully yours,
J. A. MACDONALD.
VONTRIGGER, CALIFORNIA.
_Author's Note._--It is a curious fact that most men who have
assailed me are themselves sailing under false colors. Herschell
Parker was an assistant professor and instructor in the Department
of Physics in Columbia University. This gave him the advantage of
using the title, "Professor," but, like many others, his university
association was mostly for the prestige it gave him. His
professorship assumption was, therefore, a deception. Instead of
devoting himself conscientiously to university interests, he was,
like Peary, engaged in private enterprises--such as the Parker-Clark
light, and other ventures--and employed substitute instructors to do
the work for which he drew a salary, and for which he claimed the
honor and the prestige. A man who thus sails falsely under the
banner of a professorship is just the man to try to steal the honor
of other men. Here is a make-believe professor who is not a
professor; whose dwarfed conscience is eased by drippings from the
Arctic Trust; who has stooped to a photographic humbug. He is a
fitting exponent of the bribing pro-Peary propaganda.
[29] When Mr. Peary first returned from the North, and began his attacks
upon me, he caused a demand for "proofs" through the New York _Times_
and its affiliated papers; he had them call for my instruments; he
insinuated that I had had no instruments with me in the North (despite
the fact that Captain Bartlett had informed him that my own Eskimos had
testified that I had); he declared that any Polar claim must be
established by an examination of observations and an examination of the
explorer's instruments.
In view of the unwarranted newspaper call for "proofs," I was
embarrassed by having left my instruments with Whitney. Mr. Peary had
his, however. But were they carefully examined by the august body who so
eagerly decided he reached the Pole? Was the verdict of the
self-appointed arbiters of the so-called National Geographic Society
based upon such examination as Mr. Peary--concerning my case--had
declared necessary?
Testifying before the subcommittee of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
when the move was on to have Peary made a Rear-Admiral, Henry Gannett,
one of the three members of the National Geographic Society, who had
passed on Peary's claim, admitted that their examination of Mr. Peary's
instruments was casually and hastily made in the Pennsylvania Station at
Washington. When Peary later appeared in person before the committee, he
admitted having come to Washington from Portland, Maine, to consult with
the members of the National Geographic Society who were to examine his
proofs, and that he had brought his instruments with him in a trunk,
which was left at the station. The following took place (See official
Congressional Report, Private Calendar No. 733, Sixty-first Congress,
Third Session, House of Representatives, Report No. 1961, pages 21 and
22):
"Mr. Roberts--How did the instruments come down?
"Captain Peary--They came in a trunk.
"Mr. Roberts--Your trunk?
"Captain Peary--Yes.
"Mr. Roberts--After you reached the station and found the trunk, what
did you and the committee do regarding the instruments?
"Captain Peary--I should say that we opened the trunk there in the
station.
"Mr. Roberts--That is, in the baggage-room of the station?
"Captain Peary--Yes.
"Mr. Roberts--Were the instruments all taken out?
"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. Members of the committee will
probably remember better than I._
"Mr. Roberts--Well, do you not have any recollection of whether they
took them out and examined them?
"Captain Peary--Some were taken out, I should say; whether all were
taken out I could not say.
"Mr. Roberts--Was any test of those instruments made by any member of
the committee to ascertain whether or not the instruments were
inaccurate?
"Captain Peary--_That I could not say. I should imagine that it would
not be possible to make tests there._
"Mr. Roberts--Were those instruments ever in the possession of the
committee other than the inspection at the station?
"Captain Peary--NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE."
NOTE.--This, then, was the basis of the glorious verdict of the packed
jury which assailed me; which demanded as necessary instruments of me
which had been left in the North, and which posed as a fair body of
experts!
All important questions asked of Peary, Tittman and Gannett were hedged,
their aim being to avoid publicity. In substance, they admitted that in
the "Peary Proofs," passed upon a year before, there was no proof. They
admitted that their favorable verdict was reached upon an examination of
COPIES of Mr. Peary's observations, and that the examination and
decision occurred at a sort of social gathering in the house of Admiral
Chester, who had attacked me. Chairman Roberts, commenting on the
testimony, wrote (see page 15):
"From these extracts from the testimony it will be seen that Mr.
Gannett, after his careful examination of Captain Peary's proofs and
records, did not know how many days it took Captain Peary from the time
he left Bartlett to reach the Pole and return to the _Roosevelt_, that
information being supplied by a Mr. Grosvenor. It will be also observed
that Mr. Gannett, as a result of his careful examination of Captain
Peary's proofs and records, gives Captain Peary, in his final dash to
the Pole, the following equipment: Two sledges, 36 or 32 dogs, 2
Eskimos, and Henson. It will be seen later from Captain Peary's
testimony, that he had on that final dash 40 dogs, 5 sledges, and a
total of six men in his party. This discrepancy on so vital a point must
seem quite conclusive that the examination of the Geographic Society's
committee was anything but careful."
* * * * *
APPENDIX
COPY OF THE FIELD NOTES
The following copy of the daily entries in one of my original note-books
takes the expedition step by step from Svartevoeg to the Pole and back
to land.
As will be seen by those here reproduced, the original notes are mostly
abbreviations and suggestions, hasty tabulations and reminders,
memoranda to be later elaborated. The hard environment, the scarcity of
materials, and cold fingers did not encourage extensive field notes.
Most of these field notes were rewritten while in Jones Sound, and some
were also copied and elaborated in Greenland.
In planning this expedition, every article of equipment and every phase
of effort was made subordinate to the one great need of covering long
distances. We deliberately set out for the Pole, with a desperate
resolution to succeed, and although appreciating the value of detail
scientific work, I realized that such work could not be undertaken in a
pioneer project like ours. We therefore did not burden ourselves with
cumbersome instruments, nor did we allow ourselves to be side-tracked in
attractive scientific pursuits. Elaborate results are not claimed, but
the usual data of Arctic expeditions were gathered with fair success.
(Notes usually written at end of day's march.)