COOK'S STORY OF HIS DISCOVERY OF NORTH POLE 29 



for the moment people fairly stopped breathing", so startled were 

 they by the stupendous character of the unlooked-for news. 



To his wife, wired to her former address in Brooklyn, came also 

 a message, thus worded: 



"LERWICK, Shetland Islands, September i. 

 "MRS. FREDERICK A. COOK, 



"No. 693 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. : 

 "Successful and well. Wire address to Copenhagen. 



"FRED." 



Simultaneous with these was the following despatch, sent to 

 Copenhagen from an inspector of the Greenland government, who 

 was on board the "Hans Egede" : 



"We have on board the American traveler Dr. Cook, who 

 reached the North Pole April 21, 1908. Dr. Cook arrived at 

 Upernavik in May of 1909 from Cape York. The Eskimos of Cape 

 York confirm Dr. Cook's story of his journey." 



These brief messages only whetted the public taste. What did 

 it all mean ? How did he succeed in this wonderful discovery where 

 so many had failed? Who was this Frederick Cook? What had 

 he done to make his word worthy of credence? What reason had 

 any one to accept his astounding statement? Was the telegram a 

 "fake," a falsehood manufactured to deceive the world? 



Who Frederick Cook was soon appeared. His name and ex- 

 ploits were well known to geographers. For seventeen years he had 

 been before the world, mainly in the work of polar research. In 1891 

 he had sailed with Lieutenant Peary in his first polar expedition. In 

 1893 ne na d gone north on the yacht "Leta," and in 1894 on the 

 steamer "Miranda." These were but summer excursions, but he 

 was learning the secrets of the North. In 1897 he had gone to the 

 Antarctic region as surgeon of the Belgian expedition and for a 

 year had remained in this vessel frozen in the heart of a heavy ice- 



