- THREE FAREWELLS TO PEARY 



No sooner had Peary selected the site for his camp than 

 there were bustle and activity on board the Erik. Not so 

 much that we were eager to get rid of our leader, but that 

 it was imperative on every account that the favorable con- 

 ditions should be improved, and that we should land all 

 our stores and supplies before the ice could, by a change 

 of wind, come in and drive us out. Every man and boat 

 was set at work, and in two hours or less the tents were 

 up, the natives were on shore, and the beginning of a 

 booming town of the mining variety was visible; all the 

 dogs and all the meat were landed on the opposite shore, 

 and before we " turned in " that night, the greater part of 

 the work of debarkation was completed. Next morning 

 Mrs. Peary and Miss Peary visited the new encampment, 

 and the remaining articles of equipment and stores were 

 taken over in the boat, so that by the time dinner was 

 announced, practically everything was ready for the final 

 departure. 



Lowering the boat, first went the natives, the gallant 

 fellows who had stood faithfully by their leader in many 

 arduous marches and weary campaigning, obeying him 

 with implicit fidelity; then the ever-faithful " Mat," who 

 handled the natives with a tact and skill which amounted 

 almost to genius, and then Peary himself, after the last 

 good-by and hand-grasp with every one of us, who bade 

 him Godspeed. It was not strange at all, that when little 

 Marie said in broken accents to the loyal steward, " Good- 

 by Charlie, take good care of my father," that some of us 

 found a sudden attraction in the main truck, where our 

 stars and stripes were flying, and that we all of us realized 

 that this was one of the moments which may be historic. 

 Mrs. Peary, on the quarter deck, bade her husband fare- 

 well, and then with the same self-possession and confidence 

 which are a part of his nature, Peary himself went over the 

 side and into the boat, amid our cheers and the volley of 

 our rifles. 



In a few minutes came the inevitable transition from 

 the sublime to the commonplace. Mr. Peary, in the hurry, 

 had left his mittens, and down from the bridge came a 

 member of the party with them in his hands. Quickly 

 lowering the boat, I jumped into it, and was rowed across 



197 



