THE BATTLE OF THE HEROES 129 



belonged to Commander Peary and that he had no permission to seek their 

 assistance. 



Cook's statement on this point was this : 



"I will not enter into any controversy over the subject with Commander 

 Peary further than to say that if he says I have taken his Eskimos my reply 

 is that Eskimos are nomads. They are owned by nobody, and are not the 

 private property of either Commander Peary or myself. The Eskimos engaged 

 by me were paid ten times what they demanded to accompany me. 



"As to the story that Commander Peary says I took provisions stored by 

 him, my reply is that Peary took my provisions, obtaining them from the 

 custodian on the plea that I had been so long absent that he was to organize 

 relief stations for me in case I should be alive. Of this I have documentary 

 proof." 



The above gives a fair idea of the counter-charges brought by the rival 

 explorers and their friends. The more vital accusations, affecting the veracity 

 of the two men, remained to be settled before a "jury of their peers," — the 

 men of science, doubters by profession, who were to determine what the world 

 gained in knowledge by the two dashes northward. Of this no account can 

 be given here. The controversy was evidently one of those never to be settled 

 by a verdict even of so formidable a jury as that described. The true verdict 

 will be that of posterity. And it is not very venturesome to suggest that the 

 plain citizen of years to come will accord equal honor to the men who risked 

 all that they might stand on the earth's axis. 



Admiral Schley, made just by the fury of his experience in the Sampson 

 matter, said when he heard of Peary's triumph : 



"I am as fully delighted with the news that Commander Peary has been 

 successful as I was when word was received from Dr. Cook. He will share the 

 great honors for although Dr. Cook was the first to be successful in the quest, 

 Peary comes in for equal honors as his feat is no less wonderful than that of 

 the doctor. 



"There is no question in my mind as to the veracity of Peary's state- 

 ment as I know him to be a man of the highest integrity and he probably has 

 ample records and proofs to back up his contentions that he has reached the 

 point of highest latitude."^ The announcement that he has succeeded will do 

 much to dispel the skepticism manifest in certain quarters as to the ability of 

 any human being to penetrate to the pole. 



"This country has much to be proud of because of the fact that two of 



