The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-13
INTRODUCTION BY PEARY.

Some of my reasons for saying that Dr. Cook did not go 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 go. Several Eskimos who started with Dr. Cook from An oratok in February, 1908, were at Etah when I arrived there in August, 19OS 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 I-took-a- shoo and Ah-pe-lah I had known about eighteen and the other about nineteen years of age.
 On my return from Cape Sheridan and at the very first settlement I touched (NaRke, near Cape Chalon) in August, 1909, and nine days before reaching Etah, the Esl1imos 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 Ah-pe-lah. said that this was not so. The Eski- mos laughed at Dr. Cooks story On reaching EtGh, I talked with the Eski- mos there and with the two boys and asked them to describe Dr. Cooks jour- ney to members of my party and my self. This they did in the manner stated below.
 .} (Signed) R. E. PEARY, SIGNED STATEMENT OF PEARY,
 BARTLETT, MCMILLAN, BORUP
 AND HENSON, IN REGARD 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. 7
 4NOlcS Ol tuelI SldlSuIcHtS were tdhoH by several of us, and no one of us has any doubt that they told the truth.
 Their testimony was unshaken by cross-eXaminatiOn, was corroborated by other men in the tribe, and was elicited neither by threats nor prom ises, the two boys and their father talking of their journey and their eN- periences in the same way that they would talk of any hunting trip.
 To go more into details: One of the boys was called in, and, with chart on the table before him, was asked to show where he had gone with Dr. Cook. This he did, pointing out with his finger on the map, but not making any marks upon it.
 As he went out. the other boy came had gone with Dr. Cook This he did, also without making any marks, and indicated the same route and the same details as did the first boy.
 When he was through, Panikpah, the father of I-took-a-shoo, a very in- telligent man, who was in the party of Eskimos that came back from Dr. Cook from the northern end of Man. sens Strait who is familiar as hunt CT with the Jones Sound region, and who has been in Commander Peary's various expeditions for some fifteen years, came in and indicated the same localities and details as the two boys.
 Then the first boy was brought in again, and with a pencil he traced on the map their route, members of our party writing upon the chart where, according to the boys statement, they had killed deer bear, some of their dogs, seal, walrus and musk-oxen.
 The second boy was then called in and the two went over the chart to- gether. the second boy suggesting some changes as noted hereafter
 Finally, Panikpah, the father, was again called in to verify details of the portions of the route with which he was personally familiar.
 . The bulk of the boys testimony was not taken by Commander Peary. nor in his presence, fact that obviates any possible claim that they were awed by him.
 Certain questions on independent lines frnrro the direct narrative of the