COOK'S RETURN 273 



*'I think that on the whole," added Dr. Cook, "I have a right to announce 

 my own news." 



Dr. Cook's attention was called by one of the reporters to an assertion in 

 the first instalment of his narrative in the Herald, to which he had referred to 

 the secrecy of his preparations at Gloucester, which had been made even then 

 with the conquest of the pole in view, while in the second instalment he spoke 

 of his purpose to reach the pole as an after thought, occurring to him on the 

 shores of Greenland. 



"Well," replied the explorer ; "we prepared in New York. We did not ask 

 the government for funds ; we took no private subscriptions. We were, there- 

 fore, not responsible to any one and did not have to tell of our movements. 

 The business concerned us only. We prepared for every emergency when we 

 left here ; we arranged for a supply of provisions and for material with which 

 to make sleds and camp work. \Mien you have done that you have done all 

 that was necessary for polar expeditions. As to the other part of the question, 

 we have told and told very completely why we started out for the pole at that 

 time. It was simply because we found a condition which was unusually favor- 

 able. The best natives and the best dogs were there within seven hundred 

 miles of the pole. It was a condition which I have never seen before nor since. 

 The Eskimos were very unsuccessful at that point two years before and two 

 years since we have been there." 



Still further light was thrown upon his trip by Dr. Cook in a speech at a 

 banquet tendered him September 23 by the Arctic Club of America. 



Upon his claim the organization, composed of men who have explored the 

 frigid seas, placed the imprimatur of its approval as the one who "first" was on 

 the "upper edge" of the earth. With them was a brilliant assemblage of the 

 men and the women of this city, who joined with the veterans of polar en- 

 deavor in giving enthusiastic welcome to the returned explorer. 



Twelve hundred persons, the second largest company ever assembled at a 

 public dinner within those walls, pressed about the man who had found the 

 hyperborean realm, after he had made his response to their greetings, and 

 overwhelmed him with expressions of confidence and good will. Side by side 

 with the men who guide the destinies of New York and with women of society 

 stood survivors of the Greely expedition and of the quest which Mr. Peary led. 



With characteristic modesty Dr. Cook gave credit for his discovery to the 

 polar explorers who had gone before and by whose hard-won knowledge and 

 heart-breaking errors he had learned; to his friend and backer, John R. Brad- 



