DR. COOK'S OWN STORY 65 



"One thing stands out conspicuous — that this American citizen never dis- 

 credited his country by any high falutin vulgarity or ungenerous cavilHng 

 against any brother explorer. 



He impressed every one, from the King of Denmark down, as a simple- 

 minded, honest man, not a bit of a bounder. I believe him to be absolutely 

 unprovided by nature with the necessary outfit of a fakir. 



"Cook himself is certain that he got to the pole. He has a certainty that 

 is as calm, as immutable, as the great pyramids." 



A DIPLOMAT'S TRIBUTE TO DR. COOK. 



Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, American Minister to Denmark, in a magazine 

 article written shortly after Dr. Cook's return to the United States, tells in a 

 straightforward way why he believes implicitly in Dr. Cook, and narrates 

 interestingly some of his experiences with Dr. Cook in Copenhagen immediately 

 following the explorer's return from the North Pole. 



Dr. Egan had been prepared for the complete acceptance of Dr. Cook's 

 story, which he now expresses, by the attitude of the Danes themselves, who 

 relied upon the testimony of those who vouched for the intrepid traveler as 

 much as upon his own, in view of their especial qualification for judging the 

 veracity of anything that comes out of the frozen North. In the course of his 

 introduction, leading up to the receipt in Copenhagen of the two cablegrams 

 announcing Dr. Cook's discovery, Dr. Egan says: 



"The people of Scandinavia are natural explorers. One cannot teach an 

 Arab anything about the desert, and it would be a very audacious man who from 

 southern regions would attempt to give lessons to a Dane or a Norwegian on 

 the lands that lie above him or seas that lie beyond him. These people know 

 by the instinct of long heredity, by constant study of the maps of Greenland 

 and of the unknown lands of the waters that are lost in mist, the ways of the 

 frozen North. They know the ins and outs of Arctic warfare as we know the 

 character of the various States in our Union. To a Dane, Greenland, Iceland 

 and the land which Cook has seen are subjects of perpetual interest. They are 

 always looking toward the North, and expecting news from the mysterious 

 North, and the sojourner among these people so learns to think and talk of 

 the North and to be intensely interested in it. * * * 



"Now the Danish officials in Greenland are cautious folk. They are not 

 easily moved to praise or blame. And on matters concerning the north and 

 the pole they are scrupulously conservative. No emotion, no sensation moves 



