GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



great personal endurance, his repeatedly tested fearlessness, his 

 capacity to manage year after year in such a way that he escaped 

 well from it all — all this won the unstinted admiration of the 

 Eskimos. They thought it good fun to risk something with a 

 man like Peary — the great Peary of the strong will, the mighty 

 lord of inexhaustible wealth, Piulerssuaq, who himself will 

 surely some day be the hero of one of their tribal myths. 



During my meetings with the Polar Eskimos I have often 

 had occasion to hear them speak of him ; and they have always 

 been full of appreciation and proud to have been with him, even 

 if one often feels that their respect for the man was greater than 

 their love. I will recount a little incident which was told me 

 by Odaq, who accompanied Peary on all his Polar travels. 



It was in 1906, the year in which Peary reached 87° 14' and 

 set a temporary record farthest north. Six Eskimos accom- 

 panied him, and these had for several days remonstrated with 

 him that they would have to turn now if they should not die 

 from starvation on the return journey ; but Peary maintained 

 obstinately that they must endure for a while longer. They 

 had met with many mishaps. Open water had delayed them, 

 and terrible blizzards in biting cold had hindered all progress ; 

 but as soon as there was a lull in the storm Peary got out of the 

 snow-hut and made his way northward, always northward, into 

 the ill-famed pressure-ice, fighting his way, clearing a path for 

 the sledges and the worn-out dogs which followed, driven by the 

 Eskimos. And Peary continued his slow walk against the 

 storm with the sledges snailing behind him. Then came an 

 evening after such a day when a longing for land, for wife 

 and children and the delicious game far down southward 

 seized the young hunters so strongly that they could see only 

 death and destruction in all their desperate push northwards. 

 They had not spoken much about it ; but Odaq thought they 

 looked so strangely at each other ; and it struck him that none 

 of them dared to mention land any more. He could bear it 

 no longer, and went into the snow-hut where Peary lay sleep- 

 ing. "I have come to speak to you for my comrades' sake," 

 he said, "for further progress now would mean death for all of 

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