EARLY YEARS 
over six years. After leaving school I went 
to Baltimore, Md., where I shipped as cabin- 
boy, on board a vessel bound for China. 
After my first voyage I became an able- 
bodied seaman, and for four years followed 
the sea in that capacity, sailing to China, 
Japan, Manilla, North Africa, Spain, France, 
and through the Black Sea to Southern Rus- 
sia. 
It was while I was in Washington, D. C, 
in 1888, that I first attracted the attention of 
Commander Peary, who at that time was a 
civil engineer in the United States Navy, with 
the rank of lieutenant, and it was with the in- 
stinct of my race that I recognized in him the 
qualities that made me willing to engage my- 
self in his service. I accompanied him as his 
body-servant to Nicaragua. I was his mes- 
senger at the League Island Navy Yard, and 
from the beginning of his second expedition to 
the Arctic regions, in 1891, I have been a 
member of every expedition of his, in the 
capacity of assistant : a term that covers a mul- 
titude of duties, abilities, and responsibilities. 
The narrative that follows is a record of the 
last and successful expedition of the Peary 
3 
