“I fully intended to make science my life-work. I did not for the simple reason that … They [the college professors] treated biology as purely a science of the laboratory and the microscope … I had no more desire or ability to be a microscopist and section-cutter than to be a mathematician. Accordingly, I abandoned all thought of becoming a scientist,” he wrote.
By the time he graduated from Harvard with honors and the nickname “Teddy,” he surprised everyone again by going into politics. At twenty-three years old, he was elected to the New York State Assembly. Roosevelt quickly established himself as a leader, making newspaper headlines and earning respect for fighting corruption in the state government.
A portrait of twenty-seven-year-old Teddy Roosevelt in his buckskin hunting suit.
Although his career path had shifted to politics, Roosevelt never abandoned his passion for nature. In fact, he always returned to it whenever he experienced any devastating setbacks.
When Roosevelt was a sophomore in college, his father died of cancer, and he retreated to his family’s country home in Oyster Bay, New York. Then he went deep into Maine’s wilderness. Roosevelt kept his mind and body in constant motion, trying to fend off his grief and depression. Always carrying his gun, he went on grueling horseback rides and punishing hikes through the woods and fields, keeping a lookout for wildlife specimens to add to his collection.
At the time, Roosevelt wrote about his grief in his diary:
“If I had time to think, I believe I should go crazy … Sometimes, when I by accident think of him [his father], it seems utterly impossible to realize that I shall never see him again … It is as if part of myself had been taken away … When something occurs to bring him vividly before my memory, there come moments of terrible, dull heart pain. He was everything to me: father, companion, friend.”
Two years later, on Valentine’s Day 1884, twenty-five-year-old Roosevelt was ravaged by grief again when his mother, Martha, died of typhoid fever, a type of bacterial infection. Several hours later, his first wife, Alice, died in his arms from kidney failure, a day after giving birth to their daughter.
“The light has gone out of my life,” Roosevelt wrote in his diary on the day they died.
There was only one way Roosevelt knew how to cope with his overwhelming sorrow. He had to take action and do things to stay sane. So even though he was a rising political star as a young state assemblyman, he packed up and moved to the Wild West, where he had bought a ranch. He lived the life of a cowboy in the town of Medora, in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory (today’s North Dakota). Roosevelt threw himself into the physical demands of cattle roundups, bronco busting, and buffalo and grizzly bear hunting.
Roosevelt (middle) stands between his friends in Medora, North Dakota.
At first, the cowboys weren’t sure what to make of him. Roosevelt looked different. His eyeglasses triggered distrust because, at that time and in that region, people looked at glasses as some kind of character defect.
Roosevelt also sounded different. He had a high-pitched, cultured voice tinged with a New York accent. Plus, he talked really, really fast. But he proved his mettle.
Even though Roosevelt wasn’t a crack shot, the best roper, or the best horseback rider, he had something else that the cowboys valued even more. He wasn’t afraid to work hard and was always willing to lend a hand.
“A man of ordinary power, who nevertheless does not shirk things merely because they are disagreeable or irksome, soon earns his place,” Roosevelt once stated.
His extreme endurance also impressed the cowboys, especially when he rode hundreds of miles, spending all day and night in the saddle, without complaint.
“That four-eyed maverick has sand in his craw a-plenty,” a ranch hand said approvingly.
Although Roosevelt was accepted as a friend, fellow cowboy, and, ultimately, the sheriff’s deputy, he never completely severed his ties to New York or politics. He went back to New York frequently to spend time with his family. During his visits, reporters kept tabs on him, printing stories about his cowboy adventures in the newspaper, which kept him in the public eye.
In 1886, the Republican Party urged him to run for mayor of New York, calling him the “Cowboy Candidate.” Roosevelt reluctantly accepted the nomination but ended up losing the race.
The following year, Roosevelt hung up his spurs as a rancher. The freezing-cold winter had killed three-quarters of all the cattle that roamed the Badlands, and ranching turned out to be a money-losing venture for him.
But he didn’t have any regrets. In fact, looking back on it, Roosevelt believed that he never would have become president of the United States if it hadn’t been for his experiences in the Dakota Territory. It helped him further develop his skills as an independent and strong leader.
“It taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision,” Roosevelt wrote.
Over the years, the work and experience had noticeably transformed Roosevelt’s physical appearance.
“What a change!” one newspaper reporter wrote. “Last March he was a pale, slim young man, with a thin, piping voice and a general look of dyspepsia … He is now brown as a berry and has increased 30 pounds in weight. The voice … is now hearty and strong enough to drive oxen.”
One thing that hadn’t changed, however, was his heartache, which Roosevelt said was “beyond any healing.” Even so, he did find true love again with his childhood sweetheart, Edith Carow, whom he married.
Though Roosevelt went home to New York and eventually returned to a career in politics, he still kept some ties to the West. In fact, when America went to war with Spain in 1898, after the sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine, Roosevelt left his job as assistant secretary of the Navy and helped form the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the Rough Riders.
Roosevelt (front row, third from the right) with the Rough Riders, who fought in the Spanish-American War.
Roosevelt, who became a colonel, brought together a group of fierce cowboys, American Indians, Texas Rangers, prospectors, cops, and elite athletes. At forty years old, Roosevelt led them through a hailstorm of bullets as they charged up San Juan Hill, in Cuba, and into a bloody battle. Even when enemy bullets grazed Roosevelt’s elbow and another knocked off his glasses, nothing slowed him down. He fought until the Spanish retreated. When Roosevelt returned home, he was not only a hero but also the most famous man in the country.
With his reputation for honesty and his growing popularity, the Republican Party, which was rocked by scandal, nominated Roosevelt for governor of New York. Roosevelt won the election, and soon after, William McKinley tapped him to run as his vice president. But just six months after winning the election, President McKinley was assassinated. Roosevelt, who was only forty-two years old, became the youngest president in the nation’s history.
As president, Roosevelt was known as the champion of the working man. He took on big, monopolistic companies, deeming them “hurtful to the general welfare.” When Roosevelt brought an antitrust lawsuit against J. P. Morgan, a multimillionaire banker, Morgan was stunned. Morgan thought they were friends, especially since he contributed large sums of money to Roosevelt’s presidential campaign. But Roosevelt treated everyone equally, and that meant calling out people when they were wrong, even if they were his friends.
President Roosevelt tipping his top hat to the crowd.
“I am President of all the people of the United States,” Roosevelt said. “Without regard to creed, color, birthplace, occupation, or social conditions. My aim is to do equal and exact justice among them all.”
Roosevelt was also known as the guardian of America’s land—a cornerstone of his presidency that was influenced by his time spent in the Wild West. He used his power and influence to protect and conserve 230 million acres of American forest, desert, and plains, including the Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Yosemite, and the Painted Desert, to name a few. His conservation efforts also saved the buffalo from extinction.
The Roosevelt family in 1907. (Back row, from left to right) Kermit in his riding gear. Alice, Teddy Jr. (Front row, from left to right) Archie, Theodore, Edith, and Quentin.
Bringing his unbridled energy and enthusiasm to the job, Roosevelt was a force of nature.
“I have seen two tremendous works of nature in America. One is Niagara Falls and the other is the president of the United States,” said John Morley, a British politician, after spending two days with Roosevelt in the White House.
Of all his accomplishments as president, Roosevelt believed that the construction of the Panama Canal was his greatest achievement. The canal was an engineering feat, carving out a fifty-mile-long passage across the Isthmus of Panama that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The shortcut shaved off nearly eight thousand miles for ships traveling from New York to California.
Roosevelt was fifty years old when his second term as president ended. He decided not to run again. Instead, he went on a safari in Africa with his son Kermit. The nineteen-year-old loved adventure, just like his dad. Their trip was cosponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. Roosevelt was sent with a team to collect specimens of big-game animals for the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
When they returned and the museums received their specimens, Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of the American Museum of Natural History and the paleontologist who named the Tyrannosaurus rex, said it was “by far the most successful expedition that has ever penetrated Africa.”
After his trip to Africa, Roosevelt decided he wanted to run for president in the 1912 election. He didn’t think his successor, William Taft, was making good on his promise to finish what Roosevelt started—his program of reform. Roosevelt wanted to get back in office so he could make sure it happened.
Prior to his Brazil expedition, Teddy went on an African safari with his son Kermit, pictured here, and brought back specimens for the National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History.
Although Roosevelt was one of the most popular presidents to ever hold office, the Republican Party gave their support to Taft, the current president. So Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party, also known as the Bull Moose Party. This ended up splitting Republican votes between Roosevelt and Taft, which allowed the Democratic hopeful, Woodrow Wilson, to win the election.
When Roosevelt failed to get reelected, he wasn’t just disappointed at losing—he was shattered.
“I had expected that we would make a better showing … I try not to think of the damage to myself personally,” Roosevelt confided to his friend Arthur Hamilton Lee.
So, not long after losing the election, when Roosevelt received the invitation to travel to South America not only to speak but also to spend time in the wilderness, where he could collect new specimens, the former president soon found himself on a steamship heading to Brazil.
His plans were to have a “delightful holiday.” He was going to journey through South America in areas that were already on the map. A team of six other American men with varying backgrounds—from natural history to arctic exploration—would accompany him. Roosevelt didn’t expect it to be a very dangerous adventure.
That is, until shortly after he arrived in Rio, and his plans changed.
CHAPTER 3
The Offer
October 21, 1913
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It was 8:30 a.m., and the sun was bright when Theodore Roosevelt stepped ashore in Rio de Janeiro. He was dressed in a tailcoat and top hat. Walking with his wife, Edith, and son Kermit, Roosevelt was welcomed with military honors. Whistles blew and a band played both the Brazilian and American national anthems. Soldiers, wearing crisp uniforms with shiny buttons and carefully polished shoes, were lined up in neat rows, saluting him.
As the guest of honor, Roosevelt led a parade of important politicians and diplomats down a wide boulevard dotted with palm trees. Walking confidently, with his shoulders thrown back, Roosevelt waved his hand and tipped his top hat to the crowd, revealing a head full of thick brown hair.
The swarms of people, all eager to catch a glimpse of Roosevelt, waved back excitedly. His lively blue-gray eyes were somewhat hidden by the glare of the sun off his wire-rimmed glasses. No one would ever suspect that he was blind in his left eye.
It was a closely guarded secret that Roosevelt had injured his eye during a boxing match while he was president. The people in the crowd only noticed his big, friendly smile, which lit up his face.
Roosevelt’s blind eye wasn’t the only injury that he kept secret. His left leg was permanently damaged from an accident eleven years before, when a trolley crashed into his horse-drawn carriage. Roosevelt was flung from the carriage and landed on the roadside. His Secret Service agent, who was also thrown from the car, was killed.
Although the public was told that Roosevelt’s injuries were minor—a slight bruising—in reality, his left leg was severely bruised. Soon after the accident, a bacterial infection caused his leg to swell up like a balloon from his knee to his ankle. Roosevelt underwent two operations. Refusing any anesthesia, he was fully awake when the surgeon cut open his leg down to the shin bone to drain the abscess.
Despite the surgeon’s best attempts, Roosevelt’s left leg remained prone to infection at the slightest injury. Since antibiotics hadn’t been discovered yet, if another bacterial infection developed, Roosevelt could end up losing his leg. Or even his life.
But Roosevelt’s leg hadn’t been bothering him lately. In fact, during the journey on board the Vandyck, he brought down the house when he danced the sailor’s hornpipe—a solo jig where he kicked up his legs and threw out his arms with gusto, imitating the work of a sailor, from rowing a boat to climbing the rigging to saluting his fellow passengers.
Like the passengers on the ship, who cheered on Roosevelt with shouts and applause, the people of Rio greeted him with the same warm enthusiasm at the parade. A newspaper reporter in the crowd wrote that he expected Roosevelt to be much taller than the then-average height of five feet eight inches. Tipping the scale at well over two hundred pounds, he was stout. But at just one week shy of turning fifty-five years old, he still had “the energy of a boy.”
After the welcoming ceremony and a tour of the city’s recently modernized ports and boulevards, the chauffeured car turned on to Paissandu Street, famous for the lanky royal palm trees that lined each side. At the end of the street, Roosevelt found himself at Palacio Guanabara, or Guanabara Palace, a frosty white and buttery beige neoclassical residence, similar in style to the White House.
Inside, the luxurious palace featured gleaming marble walls, high ceilings, and spacious rooms filled with fancy gold-leaf furnishings. From the dining room window, there was a view of the garden, which was filled with mango trees, palms, exotic flowers, and bubbling fountains. Beyond the garden, down the palm-lined street, was a beautiful view of the bay.
The palace had once been the home of Portugal’s Princess Isabel, the daughter of Dom Pedro II, Brazil’s last emperor. It was now the home of Brazil’s president, Hermes da Fonseca, and it was where Roosevelt would be staying.
After a meeting with President da Fonseca, Roosevelt met with Lauro Müller, the lean and elegant foreign minister of Brazil. Müller was delighted to be meeting with Roosevelt. He knew that Roosevelt’s expedition through the Brazilian wilderness would garner international attention and raise Brazil’s profile in the world.
Palacio Guanabara, the presidential palace in Rio, where Theodore Roosevelt stayed.
In a letter to Müller, Roosevelt wrote:
“My hope is to make this trip not only an interesting and valuable one from a scientific standpoint, but of real benefit to Brazil, in calling attention to the ease and rapidity with which the vast territory can be traversed, and also to the phenomenal opportunities for development which she [Brazil] offers.”
Roosevelt was also
looking forward to the meeting with Müller. He wanted to firm up the details of his plan to go down the well-traveled Paraguay River and the Tapajós River all the way to where it met the Amazon River. But Müller had something else in mind for Roosevelt. It was the chance of a lifetime. An offer that Roosevelt couldn’t refuse.
The proposal was for Roosevelt to go deep into an unexplored part of the Amazon jungle in Mato Grosso—Brazil’s wild frontier—to map an uncharted river with the renowned explorer Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon.
A crack shot and expert hunter, Rondon was once described as the “Daniel Boone of Brazil.” Born into poverty, he was sent to live on his uncle’s ranch in Mato Grosso after his parents died. It was there that Rondon learned how to survive in the untamed wilderness.
At ten years old, he was riding bareback on cattle roundups with the other cowboys. He spent weeks out on the vast and remote plains, working in the intense heat and rains. Rondon not only helped brand the cattle but also deftly hunted the jaguars that preyed on them, and the wild pigs that destroyed the crops.
When Rondon wasn’t working on the ranch, he went to school. He was very smart, especially in mathematics. In 1881, when he was sixteen, Rondon joined the army and earned a scholarship to the Military Academy in Rio de Janeiro, twelve hundred miles away from his home.
At school, he stood out for not only being the best sertanista, or frontiersman, but also as a good athlete. At five feet three inches, Rondon wasn’t tall, but he was strong and tough. Known for his ferocious energy, he had a seemingly endless supply of endurance. He impressed classmates—one of whom was Lauro Müller—when he climbed Sugar Loaf mountain, scaling it with only a rope.
By 1890, twenty-five-year-old Rondon was a graduate of the Superior War College and an army engineer. It was a combination of his relentless stamina, survival skills, and mathematical mind that made him the perfect candidate to join one of Brazil’s boldest and most brutal projects—building the telegraph network.
Death on the River of Doubt Page 2