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"...a hero magnified by Eskimo legend to immortal proportions. To
the Eskimos, who loved him, Matt was the greatest of all the
men who came from the south."
Peter Freuchen |
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| Peter Freuchen |
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| "The basic reason for Henson's
popularity is the man himself, his character and ability that grow
upon you the more and the longer you know him."
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Peary said "...within striking distance of the Pole, their work is
done. They shall be no longer needed... But Henson is not to
return. I can't get along without him. Matthew Henson went to the Pole with Peary because he was a
better man than any of us."
Donald MacMillan
"...a hero magnified by Eskimo legend to immortal proportions. To
the Eskimos, who loved him, Matt was the greatest of all the
men..."
Peter Freuchen
"...at this table sat Peary, fresh from the discovery of the North
Pole, and Theodore Roosevelt, just back from the central jungles of
Brazil...many of them popular and many of them admired, but few more
admired or more popular than North America's only famous Negro polar
explorer, one of the historic figures in the annals of geographical
discovery, Matthew A. Henson. Where Matt sits among the guests of
honor is always one of the most popular spots of the rostrum."
"The basic reason for Henson's popularity is the man himself, his
character and ability that grow upon you the more and the longer
you know him. But he joined the Explorers Club with a good start
through the testimony borne him by his chief, Admiral Peary, in
the various books which he wrote about his northern work that are
bibles to the students of the history of geographic discovery.
They tell of a magnificent series of expeditions which occupied
the years from 1891 to 1909 and in which Henson was an integral
part. Even more constantly in speech than in writing did Peary
keep referring to Henson as the best traveler whom he had known,
the most nearly indispensable man." "Peary's verdict is, no
doubt, the most important single testimony to Henson's ability
and to his importance in those epoch-making discovery voyages
which resulted, first, in a determination that Greenland was an
island, instead of a continent reaching to and beyond the Pole,
as many had thought; later, in the attainment of the Farthest
North by sledge at sea; and, finally, in the supreme achievement
of reaching an axis of the earth." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
"...I met Matt Henson for the first time in America. I was
thrilled, as one would be, to shake the hand of this mortal whom
I'd first come to know as a hero magnified by Eskimo legend to
immortal proportions. To the Eskimos, who loved him, Matt was
the greatest of all the men who came from the distant Land of
the South” Peter Freuchen, author of Book of the Eskimos
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By Admiral Donald MacMillan, 1909 expedition
team member
"It was at the beginning of another great adventure. We had
smashed through the ice of Kane Basin, Kennedy and Robeson
Channel. We had steamed farther north than any ship had ever
steamed. We had spent the winter locked in the ice of the Polar
Sea, snuggling close to the northern shores of Ellesmere Island.
The long dark winter night was at its end, slowly giving way to
an increasing twilight. Due to constant activity, to days and
weeks of moonlight-sledging, the men were as hard as nails,
eager and ready for the big job, to do that which man had tried
to do for three hundred years—attain the North Pole. It was
quiet on board ship, strangely so for only a few of us were
left. The Eskimo women were not laughing and singing as usual.
They sat in their small box-like dark rooms thinking. Their
husbands had gone north along the shore. Just where, or why,
they did not know. A knock on my door. Peary entered and sat
down on my bunk. We talked of the trip, of ice conditions on the
Polar Sea, of low temperatures, of equipment, of the number of
dogs, of the amount of food, and then of the various supporting
parties which had already left the ship. He spoke of Bartlett,
of Ross Marvin, of George Borup, of John Goodsell, of the part
each one was to play in this—“my last attempt.”
"When each man
has fed me and my men up to a certain point, within striking
distance of the Pole, their work is done. They shall be no
longer needed.” Peary sat there thinking for a moment and then
added, “But Henson is not to return. I can't get along without
him.” I think that here is the greatest compliment that Peary
has ever paid to any man. After twenty and more years of
companionship, could he have said anything more in praise of the
man who had trudged with him northward over the Greenland ice
cap! Who had stood with him at the most northern point of land
in the world, who had held the American flag at the world's
record of 87 degrees 6 minutes; who had suffered with him on the
Polar Sea on that frightful march to land in 1906, when dogs
were used for food and sledges burned for fuel. Peary knew Matt
Henson's real worth.
And so did we from the day we joined the
ship at the foot of East Twenty-third Street in New York. Quiet,
efficient, modest, at his assigned job, perfecting equipment to
be used in that thousand mile hike over the drifting, shattered
ice field between Ellesmere Island and the Pole. To Matt, now an
Arctic expert, we went for instruction. He showed us this, he
showed us that, to make the hardship of the trail a bit easier.
A carpenter, he built the sledges; a mechanic, he made the
alcohol stoves; an expert dog driver, he taught us to handle our
dogs. Highly respected by the Eskimos, he was easily the most
popular man on board ship.
From that day in early September when
the Roosevelt stuck her stub nose into the ice-foot bordering
the northern shore of Ellesmere Island, Henson, strong
physically, and above all fully experienced, was of more real
value to our Commander than Bartlett, Marvin, Borup, Goodsell
and myself all put together, Matthew Henson went to the Pole
with Peary because he was a better man than any of us.
Commander
Donald B. MacMillan |
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