DR. COOK'S OWN STORY 69 



Royal Geographical Society if it had not been for their red, white and blue 

 cockades, for which a passage was instantly made. The Crown Prince was in 

 position and tremendously interested. Near him was Commodore Hovgaard, 

 commander of the King's yacht, to whom the success of the ceremonies attend- 

 ing the reception of Dr. Cook is largely due. 



"It was a beautiful morning; the' Sound never looked bluer or seemed to 

 be more brilliantly flecked with silver spots. The crowd increased and I began 

 to know what pain a President had to suffer under the process of congratula- 

 tory hand-shaking. The Crown Prince had an engagement to preside at the 

 laying of the cornerstone of a students' building at ten o'clock. He is most 

 punctual. When he goes to a ceremonious convention himself he is always 

 there at the exact time. When his father, the King, goes he is invariably there 

 five minutes before the time. We still waited. The Crown Prince concluded 

 that the students would not be impatient, because they had the habit of taking 

 'the academical quarter of an hour.' At last the Hans Egede appeared. The 

 expectancy of the great crowd grew intense and expressed itself in silence. 



"The Crown Prince and the representatives of the Royal Geographical 

 Society and myself entered the launch. In a short time we were on the deck 

 of the Hans Egede. 



PRINCE GREETS HIM. 



"Doctor Cook, not by any means then the glittering butterfly of fashion 

 into which a tailor later in the morning transformed him, stood at the head of 

 the ladder. Prince Christian greeted him first ; then I came. He smiled : — 'You 

 are the first American I have shaken hands with for over two years,' he said. 

 Afterward he explained, with that careful regard for exact truth which is his 

 characteristic, that he had in the meantime shaken hands with Mr. Whitney, 

 but that he looked so much like an Eskimo that, for the moment, Doctor Cook 

 had forgotten his nationality. 



"The explorer in his rough and weatherbeaten clothes, resembled somewhat 

 the familiar figure of Robinson Crusoe. Prince Valdemar, the Premier Admiral 

 of the Danish navy stood near him and most enthusiastically congratulated the 

 American people, through me, on this new glory to the American flag. The 

 thing after we landed was to know how to get to our carriages. 



"The Crown Prince, through the cleverness of his Chamberlain, got safely 

 into his automobile, but Dr. Cook and Mr. W. T. Stead, whom I had invited 

 to share my carriage, were with myself pinned tight in the enthusiastic, happy 

 and energetic crowd. Dr. Cook had his sea legs on, which in a crowd are not 



