Vol. XXXVII, No. 4 WASHINGTON 



April, 1920 



PEARY AS A LEADER 



Incidents from the Life of the Discoverer of the North 



Pole Told by One of His Lieutenants on the 



Expedition Which Reached the Goal 



By Donald B. MacMillan 



"S 



TARS AND STRIPES nailed to 

 the Pole !" 



The accomplishment of that 

 which had been declared repeatedly to be 

 the impossible, that which onr strongest 

 nations had striven to do for more than 

 three hundred years, at the cost of many 

 lives and the expenditure of millions of 

 dollars, demanded great leadership. 



What manner of man was this who 

 persuaded the polar Eskimos to penetrate 

 to the interior of the great ser-mik-suah, 

 the abode of evil spirits ; induced them 

 to leave their homes and journey seven 

 hundred miles due north ; to travel out 

 over the drift-ice of the Polar Sea so 

 far that they declared that they would 

 never again see their wives and children ? 



What was the secret of that power 

 which he possessed over his white men 

 that, had he wished, they would have 

 followed him through broken ice, would 

 have crossed treacherous thin leads, sur- 

 mounted pressure ridges, and clung to 

 him until the last ounce of food was gone 

 and the last dog eaten ? 



We find the key to Rear Admiral Rob- 

 ert E. Peary's character in his reply to 

 the late ex- President Roosevelt upon the 

 presentation of the Hubbard Medal of 

 the National Geographic Society upon 

 the explorer's return in 1906 from the 



world's record of "Farthest North," when 

 he said : 



"The true explorer does his work not 

 for any hopes of reward or honor, but 

 because the thing which he has set him- 

 self to do is a part of his being and must 

 be accomplished for the sake of its ac- 

 complishment. 



"To me the final and complete solution 

 of the polar mystery, which has engaged 

 the best thought and interests of some of 

 the best men of the most vigorous and 

 enlightened nations of the world for 

 more than three centuries, and which to- 

 day stirs the heart of every man or 

 woman whose veins hold red blood, is 

 the thing which should be done for the 

 honor and credit of this country, the 

 thing which it is intended that I should 

 do, and the thing that I must do." 



Here we have energy, purpose, de- 

 termination, and love of country — some 

 of the essentials of a great leader, and 

 as such we who had the honor of serving 

 under him like to think of him, and such 

 we know he was. 



DEFYING THE GODS OE THE FROZEN 

 SAHARA 



On the 15th of July, 1886, far in on 

 the back of the great ice-cap of Green- 

 land, at an altitude of 7,525 feet, lay two 



