FOREWORD 
pRIENDS of Arctic exploration and dis- 
covery, with whom I have come in con- 
tact, and many whom I know only by letter, 
have been greatly interested in the fact of a 
colored man being" an eiFective member of a 
serious Arctic expedition, and going north, not 
once, but numerous times during a period of 
over twenty years, in a way that showed that 
he not only could and did endure all the stress 
of Arctic conditions and work, but that he 
evidently found pleasure in the work. 
The example and experience of Matthew 
Henson, who has been a member of each and 
of all my Arctic expeditions, since '91 (my 
trip in 1886 was taken before I knew Henson) 
is only another one of the multiplying illus- 
trations of the fact that race, or color, or 
bringing-up, or environment, count nothing 
against a determined heart, if it is backed and 
aided by intelligence. 
Henson proved his fitness by long and 
