The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-09-14
SAYS THAT PEARY
ROBBED DR.. COOK
DR.. HANSEN RELATES INCIDENT
OF tATTER'S STORES AT
ANNAToOk.
BELIEVED COOK DEAD
Stationed Giant NewfoundI ander to
Guard Over the Place, and He
Traded Them For Furs
And Skins.

Copenhagen, Sept. ia remark
able letter, giving Dr. Frederick A
Cooks version of the trouble with
| Commander Peary over supplies. ap
pears in the newspaper Politiken. The
letter was written by DIR. Norman
Hansen, prominent Danish oeulisr
who several times visited Greenland
to study eye diseases.
DIR. Cook told practically the same
story to one of his closest American
friends before Commander Peary re,
| appeared on the scene. hut said he
did not intend to make it public be-
cause II might lead to unpleasantness.
Or, Hansen was with Cook for
some time in Greenland and returned
with him on the Danish government
steamer Hans Egede. In his letter.
he says:
Now that Cook is gone, | am no
longer under any obligation to keep
silence and will exercise my right to
publish about the house in Annatook
a story. which Dr. Cook himself had
too much delicacy to relate to the
world. | write it according to my mem.
ory. in the same manner that DR..
Cook in Egedesminde told it to me,
and | am fully convinced that in no
details are my recollections wrong.
Said Or. Cook Was Dead
DR. Cook had built his store house
In Annatook, north of Etah and it was
this depot which he started to reach
IN February, 1909, crossing Smith
Sound. 1t was a pretty large house,
the walls being built of heavily filled
provision boxes, so that Dr. Cook
knew that everything would be safe
when he reached it. He had, before
the start, arranged to let a young
friend named Whitney. to use the
house while hunting musk oxen, in
the winter of 190S-0g.
When DR.. Cook and his two Eski- |
mos, exhausted and half starved came
within a shots distance of the house
III Annatook, young Whitney came
out to bid him welcome, but inside
the house was a stranger. a giant
New Foundland boatswain, on watch. |
The man had been placed in DR.. |
Cooks house by Peary when the la |
ter passed Etah with his ship bounl |
north. Peary had given the boat.
swain a written order, which com.
menced with the following words:
This house belongs to DR.. Freder.
lick Cook, but DIR. Cook is long ago
dead and there is no use to search for
MIN. Therefore, Commander Robert
E. Peary, install my boatswain in
his deserted house"
Had to Fight Boatswain.
This paper the boatswain, who
Gould neither read nor write, exhibit.
d to DIR. Cook and the latter took Il
opy This copy. however. he does
lot intend to publish if Peary's course
Ices not force him to- DR. Cook gave
ne lively account Of how the young
Mr.. Whitney, was treated
Ike a dog by the giant hoatswain and
oW Whitney had witnessed the sail
r bartering DIR. Cooks provisions for
OK and bearskins for himself.
Or. Cook had to beg to get into
is own house, and had to make /
ompromise with the boatswain with
trong fists.
DIR. Cook made a present of the
onse with all its contents to his two
aithful Eskimos, but he was com.
elIed to let the Newfoundland boat v
vain continue his watch The boass- /
vain, however, received strict or. I
ers not to exchange any more of the
rovisions or guns.
Whitney Got Instruments. a
ITO Mr., Whitney DR.. Cook gave his a
Istruments and observations, as he h
fought these were safer there than
n the long sledge trip in the spring
cross Melville bay, but all his note Z
ooks and grassy and soiled record 4
poks, which had been so closely
ritten upon, he kept and carried with r
i'm. .
To me, who understands only lit. n
10 astronomy, the records written n
)wn so closely and in all directions ?
ere very hard to read, but what is u
he record to us? The two men. z
cary and Cook, their characters,
'eir conduct, that Is what interests
:, and every little item throwing
de light upon their natures is valu- ,
de" K