Willmar tribune., 1909-10-20
COOK NOT
AT POLE,
--PEARY
Naval Commander
STORMY RefuteS
Claims Made by
the Doctor.
TESTIMONY OF THE EsKIMos

TESTIMONY Of The ESKlM0S
Long and Carefully Prepared State.
ment Given to the Public Amounts
to Direct Questioning Of Dr.. Cooks
veraeity-Is Signed by All the
Principals Of the Roosevelt Party.
New York. Oct. 1.-THE following
statement Of Commander Robert E.
Peary, which he submitted, together
with the accompanying map, to the
Peary Arctic club in support of his
contention that DR.. Cook did not reach
the north pole, is now made public for
the first time. The statement and
map have been copyrighted by the
Peary Arctic club.
Commander Peary's Introduction.
Some of my reasons for saying that
DR.. Cook did not 60 to the north pole
Will be understood by those who read
the following statements of the two
Eskimo boys who went with him. and
who told me and others of my party
where he did 60. Several Eskimos
who started with DR.. Cook from An.
oratok in February, 1908, were at
Etah when I arrived there in August,
1903. They told me that DR.. Cook had
with him, after they left, two Eskimo
boys, or young men, two sledges and
some twenty dogs. The boys were
l-took-a-shoo and Ah-pe-lah. I had
known them from their childhood.
One was about eighteen and the other
about nineteen years of age.
On my return from Cape Sheridan
and at the very first settlement I
touched (Nerke, near Cape Chalon) in
August, 1909, and nine days before
reaching Etah, the Eskimos told me,
In general way, where DR.. Cook had
been; that he had wintered in Jones
Sound, and that he had told the white
men at Etah that he had been a long
way north, but that the boys who were
with him, I-took-a-shoo and A-pe-lah,
said that this was not 50. The Eski.
mos laughed at DR.. Cooks story. On
reaching Etah, talked with the Es.
kimos there and with the two boys
and asked them to describe DR.. Cooks
journey to members of my party and
myself. This they did in the manner
stated below.
(Signed.) r. E. PEARY.
Signed Statement of Peary, Bartlett,
Mcmillan, Borup and Henson, in Re-
gard to Testimony of Cooks Two
Eskimo Boys.
The two Eskimo boys. I.took.a.shoo
and Ah-pe-lah, who accompanied Dr.
Cook while he was away from Anora-
tok in 1908 and 1909, were questioned
separately and independently, and
were corroborated by Panikpah, the
father of one of them Q-took-a-shoo),
who was personally familiar with the
first third and the last third of their
journey, and who said that the route
for the remaining third as shown by
them, was as described to him by his
son after his return with DR.. Cook.
The narrative of these Eskimos is
as follows:
They, with DR.. Cook, Francke and
nine other Eskimos, left Anoratok,
crossed Smiths Sound to Cape Sabine,
slept in Commander Peary's old house
in Payer Harbor, then went through
Rice strait to Buchanan hay. After a
few marches Francke and three Eski.
mos returned to Anoratok.
DR.. Cook, with the others, then pro-
ceeded up Flagler bay, a branch Of
Buchanan bay, and crossed Elles-
mere Land through the valley pass at
the head of Flagler bay, indicated by
Commander Peary in 1898, and utilized
by Sverdrup in 1899, to the head of
Sverdrup's BAY Fiord" on the west
side of Ellesmere Land.
Their route then lay out through
this ford, thence north through Sver.
drup's "Heuerka Sound and Nansen
strait
On their way they killed musk oxen
and bear, and made caches, arriving
eventually at point on the west side
of Nansen strait (shore of Axel Hell
berg Land of Sverdrup), south Of
Cape Thomas Hubbard.
A cache wss formed here and the
four Eskimos did not go beyond this
point. Two others, Koolootingwah and
1nughfto, went on one more march
with DR.. Cook and the two boys.
helped to build the snow igloo, then
returned without sleeping.
(These two Eskimos brought back