Evening star., 1925-04-07
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

The sixteenth anniversary of the dis
covery of the North Pole by Admiral
Robert Z. Peary was observed yesterday
morning with commemorative exercises
at the discoverers grave in Arlington
Cemetery.
The news comes, at the same time,
that Capt Donald B. Macmillan has
completed arrangements for another ex-
pedition into the Arctic region, not to
visit the North Pole, but to seek a con-
tinent which science indicates may be
there beyond the itinerary Of any pre-
vious explorer Incidentally, the same
papers also tell the sequel of the tragedy
of the downfall of DR.. Frederick A
Cook. who claimed to have beaten Peary
in the quest of the centuries in reaching
the Pole. While Peary's sepulcher was
being honored by the Government and
the Navy, his erstwhile rival was on his
way to the penitentiary. there to serve
IA years penalty for alleged frauds in
oil stocks
Capt. Macmillan has published evil
dence to the effect that Cooks al
legged photographs of the North Pole
had been made at a point only Is
miles north of Etah. West Greenland
|-thesport from which Macmillan will
embark upon his voyage next month
to cross the unknown sea between
the Pole-55o miles farther north
and Alaska, in search for the conti-
nent, or to demonstrate that no such
continent exists.
The Macmillan expedition has re-
ceived official sanction of the Gov
ernment, which will supply him with
two airplanes and Navy personnel to
fly them, but the ship and thS cost
of the expedition will be supplied by
the National Geographic Society.
!: 4 x x
1t has been said that Capt. Mac
MILAN will seek out evidences OF
the lost settlers who are alleged &c
have been left in Greenland or Wine
land by the Morse expedition unde.
Eric the Red or Lief the Fortunate
in the year 1000. He will also seek
of Wineland {Vinland) by Lief the
Fortunate, in 1908 to 1905. However
romantic and interesting are the
speculations regarding the supposed
discoveries by the Morse, so manN
centuries before Columbus, they are
today of no practical value. 1t is
not for such considerations of aca-
demic interest that Capt. Macmillan
and his financial hackers are plan
ming so great an enterprise and ad-
venture. If the Morse did make the
years before Columbus, no memory of
it remained to inspire Columbus, and
nothing at all had come of the Morse
accident
1t was a modern Norseman, Fridtjof
Nansen. himself. a noted Arctic ex-
plorer. who first threw doubt upon
the legend of the discoveries of 1000
and 1905 AID, declaring them un-
proved and filled with irish medieval
folklore. Even If true, it was not
so important as the invasion of
America by Chinese via Alaska many
centuries before, from whom, it is
claimed. earlier races in this hemi-
spheres descended.
Nor so interesting as the tracing, a
short time ago, of the origin of the
name America" showing that what
we had an been taught-that the con-
Columbus by Amerigo Vespucius-
was not true, but that the name
America" was what natives had call
ed the country for ages before the
hen laid Columbus egg, with which
he proved how easy it was to fol-
low, but how puzzling it was to lead
into unknown paths. The Indian name
Cuba and Haiti and Porto Rico was
"Camaracan." easily misunderstood as
American" and for Colombia and
Peru they d, signated the land as
"Cax Amaraca"-"Amara Land"
Truth crushed to earth will rise in
later editions of school histories. 1t
is not necessary to equip polar expe-
ditions to revive the everfas ting Phoe-
nix, historic truth.
1t Is trite query to demand why
there should be any more expeditions
to the polar reStaas now that Peary