RECEPTIONS OF COOK AND PEARY 191 



On that morning, however, all disappointments were forgotten 

 and the city turned out with renewed zeal. Commander Peary 

 received a taste of the greeting that awaited him while still far 

 from Sydney. A flotilla of craft, ranging from palatial yachts to 

 small buzzing motor boats, came out to escort him, each display- 

 ing every bit of bunting that it owned. All the while whistles 

 were screeching in a deafening din. Out of this fleet shot a 

 launch, and Mr. Kehl, the American Consul at Sydney, climbed 

 on board to welcome the explorer. 



Next a press tug ran alongside and correspondents came on. 

 Then a tug chartered by the Italian Consul and filled with his 

 fellow countrymen came near. The launch of a photographer 

 was caught in the water washing between the tugs and capsized, 

 but the photographer was dragged out by the heels. 



More of the welcoming flotilla came by. Peary, standing on 

 the deck, doffed his cap to every salute. The harbor mouth was 

 entered and a vista of green grass was opened up. 



"Gee," said one of the Roosevelt's crew, "wouldn't I love to get 

 out in that grass and wallow." 



Then the town of Sydney came into view, the place fairly 

 smothered in waving flags and its waterfront black with waiting 

 throngs. These held their peace until the Roosevelt was well 

 within range of their voices, and then they lifted these to the ut- 

 most. And all about was a tossing sea of flags, English and 

 American waving side by side. 



The Roosevelt herself was gayly decked with bunting, and 

 from her mizzen gaff rippled the Stars and Stripes with the 

 words "North Pole" inscribed on a field of white cut diagonally 

 across its folds. Beside the commander, proud in his achieve- 

 ment after 23 years of nearly constant effort, stood his wife and 

 daughter and little son. Mrs. Peary, for the first time in the 

 many times she had come to greet her husband homebound from 

 the frozen North, had gone to greet him victorious at sea. She 



