PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN, an Arc tic explorer and civil engineer in the United States navy; born in Cresson, Pa., May 6, 1856; was graduated at Bow doin College, and in 1885 became a civil engineer in the United States navy, with the rank of lieutenant. In 1886 he made a journey of reconnoisance to Greenland, advancing for over 100 miles on the in• terior ice. In 1891 and 1893 he made other trips to the Polar regions, in which he was accompanied, as far as the win ter quarters, by his wife, Josephine Diebitsch Peary, author of "My Arctic Journey." In these expeditions he made excursions on a sledge along the coast of Greenland, and traversed the inland ice from McCormick Bay to the N. E. angle of Greenland (Independence Bay). He proved the convergence of the E. and W. coasts of northern Greenland, and al most with positiveness the insularity of the mainland. He discovered new lands (Melville Land and Heilprin Land), and named many glaciers. In May, 1896, Lieutenant Peary made a successful ex pedition to Greenland for the purpose of collecting specimens in natural history. He returned to Cape Breton, September 27. In 1897 he was given leave of ab sence by the government for the purpose of continuing his explorations, and to establish a station in the far N. of Greenland, which should be provisioned and supplied and made the basis of a series of annual expeditions into the Polar regions. He went N. in the sum
mer of 1897 to take the necessary pre liminary measures, such as securing the aid of the Eskimos, fixing the site of a station, etc. He returned in October of that year, bringing with him an immense mass of meteoric iron, or what is sup posed to be such, from Cape York, Greenland, which was placed in the Mu seum of Natural History in New York City. On July 3, 1898, Lieutenant Peary again sailed in the "Hope" from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Sidney, Cape Breton, and from there to Cape York, Baffin's Bay. At that place the party and stores were transferred to the "Windward." In the party with Peary were Dr. T. F. Diedrich, Jr., of New Jersey, Mathew Henson, his colored serv ant, and Shakapsi, an Eskimo. They carried provisions for four years. In September, 1901, word was received from Peary that he had rounded the Greenland archipelago (the extreme N. land lull it broke out again early in 1525, on a more extended scale, the peasants of Al sace, Franconia, Lorraine, the Palati nate, and Swabia joining in the move ment. The insurgents were defeated by the army of the Archduke Ferdinand, May 2; again at Konigshofen, June 2; and were put down after 100,000 persons had perished, in June, 1525. The Ana baptists took part in the movement.