Death on the River of Doubt

by Samantha Seiple

  Rondon agreed. “When we were able to discover his bad qualities … we were so far advanced in the river that it was impossible for us to rid ourselves of his presence, and we therefore had to resign ourselves to keeping him with us until the end of the journey.”

  Building a new canoe was backbreaking, tedious work that cost the expedition precious time.

  There was no doubt that morale was low.

  “There isn’t anyone of our party that will not be very thankful when this trip draws to a close. There are too many uncertainties and possibilities to face to make it a thing to anticipate with gusto,” Cherrie wrote in his diary.

  While Rondon tried to keep the camaradas motivated to build a new canoe, Roosevelt and Kermit went into the forest to hunt for food. Walking among the giant trees with their snakelike lianas, or vines, hanging down, Roosevelt noted the stillness and silence in the forest.

  Hours later, despite Roosevelt’s best efforts, he came back empty-handed. Luckily, Kermit returned with the chicken-like curassow for a pot of canja. They had also started to eat the celery-like palm tops. But the men were slowly starving.

  Roosevelt and Cherrie had taken the time to sort and count their food rations. If it turned out that the River of Doubt was a tributary of the Amazon River, they estimated that they had to travel another four hundred miles. Based on their current average speed and the number of miles that they had already traveled, they would run out of food thirty-five days before they would finish their journey.

  “There may be very serious times ahead of us,” Cherrie wrote.

  The curassow, which looks somewhat similar to a chicken, whistles when it senses danger and prefers to run instead of fly.

  Along with the lack of food, illness had started creeping up on them. One of the camaradas was suffering from malaria. And Roosevelt wasn’t feeling well, either.

  Malaria was the most feared and the most prevalent disease in the Amazon. This potentially fatal illness is caused by a parasite that is spread by the female Anopheles mosquito.

  The first signs of malaria include a teeth-chattering chill along with a pounding headache, followed by a dangerously high fever, and then profuse sweating. At this point, the victim is usually extremely exhausted and weak, and can do nothing but sleep.

  This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and in some cases if left untreated, kidney failure, seizures, confusion, and death.

  The Anopheles mosquito, which transmits malaria parasites.

  At the time, the only medicine to combat malaria was quinine, which is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. For the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition, Dr. Cajazeira had luckily brought plenty of it.

  Although Roosevelt was showing signs of malaria, he wasn’t going to let it prevent him from doing whatever he could to help.

  On March 14, four days after the two canoes were destroyed, the group woke up to more heavy rain. Despite the stormy weather, the camaradas finished building the new canoe by noontime. About an hour later, they pushed it into the river.

  When the new canoe didn’t sink, the men felt a glimmer of hope. That is, until they tried to load their cargo.

  One less canoe meant divvying up the cargo and redistributing the weight across the remaining canoes. As a result, the six canoes were so weighed down that they were only a few inches from being completely submerged.

  To help remedy the problem, the men cut some buriti-palm branches, bundled them together, and attached them to the sides of the canoes. The palm branches acted as buoys, helping to lift the heavy canoes up high enough to keep the water from rushing over the sides.

  An hour and a half later, the expedition was once again heading down the River of Doubt. It wasn’t long before the current picked up, and they were facing another series of rapids.

  Everyone knew it was a risk to charge through the rapids. But it was also a risk to be overly cautious.

  “On such a trip it is highly undesirable to take … risks, for the consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are taken, the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow,” Roosevelt stated.

  With no time to waste, they threw caution aside. The camaradas steered the six canoes right into the wild waters.

  “The two biggest rapids we only just made,” Roosevelt wrote. “And after each we had hastily to push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my canoe was nearly swamped.”

  The canoes managed to make it through unharmed, and the group’s risky decision had paid off. This time.

  CHAPTER 10

  Risking It

  March 15, 1914

  Day 17

  The next day the water was calm, and the expedition was making better time.

  To speed things up even more, Rondon was using a different mapping method called the “moveable sighting” process. Although it was faster, the method was not as accurate and Rondon didn’t like it. But he decided it was best to use this method, for now. It allowed Rondon and Lyra to take measurements based on sightings of Kermit’s moving canoe.

  Since they had been making such good time, the expedition set out early that morning. As the camaradas paddled down the smooth river, they could see the surrounding forest peppered with Brazil’s famous rubber trees, which ranchers harvested for a milky-white sap called latex.

  But within a short time, the surrounding landscape began to change from towering trees to rocky hills. Soon, they once again heard the sound of thundering rapids. Paddling the canoes around a curve, they saw an island in the middle of the white foaming water, splitting the river in half.

  Kermit’s canoe stopped on the left bank, just above the rapids, and waited for Rondon’s canoe to catch up. When Rondon arrived, he ordered Kermit to wait there while he and Lyra scouted from the river’s shoreline to determine if the rapids were passable or if a portage would need to be built.

  While Rondon and Lyra checked out the area, Kermit decided to find out if it would be easier to travel down the other side of the river, hoping to save them some time. Kermit ordered João and Simplicio to paddle the canoe toward the island in the middle of the river, so they could get a better look at the right side of the river.

  João and Simplicio didn’t want to disobey Rondon’s order to stay put, but they didn’t want to disobey Kermit’s order, either. Feeling obligated, they started paddling the canoe downstream toward the island. Once there, Kermit, the camaradas, and Kermit’s dog, Trigueiro, climbed out of the canoe and investigated the other side of the river. It looked not only impossible to go down—even with empty canoes—but the shoreline’s terrain looked too difficult to even build a portage.

  After climbing back into the canoe, Kermit ordered João and Simplicio to return to the other side of the river. They began paddling the small canoe upstream, but before they had gotten very far, a shifting whirlpool spun the canoe around, pushing them toward the rapids and right in the path of a waterfall!

  With the canoe turned sideways, waves and waves of water rushed in. Kermit shouted to João, the helmsman, to turn the front end of the canoe around. Using every ounce of strength, João was able to straighten it out. But it didn’t stop them from heading nose first over the waterfall.

  Roosevelt watched in terror as his son disappeared over the water’s edge. He and Cherrie hurriedly climbed out of their own canoe and ran down along the bank of the river, making their way toward the waterfall.

  At the bottom, Kermit’s canoe was still upright but it was filled with water and close to sinking. João and Simplicio frantically worked their paddles, trying desperately to get the canoe to the bank.

  They were nearly there when another shifting whirlpool ripped them away. The canoe was flung to the middle of the river, where it quickly filled up with water and capsized. Kermit, João, Simplicio, and Trigueiro the dog were dumped into the river along with ten days’ worth of food rations and tools for boat building.

  João grabbed a rope that was tied to the bow and pulled th
e canoe while trying to swim toward the shore. But the force of the current tore it from his hands.

  Clutching his rifle, Kermit, along with his dog, climbed on top of the overturned canoe. Within seconds, they were swept down the rapids. The canoe rolled, throwing Kermit off, and the raging river carried him right over another waterfall. The water pounded Kermit’s helmet down over his face and held him under the water’s surface.

  Fighting his way back up, Kermit gasped for breath. Now in swift—but somewhat calmer—water, Kermit willed himself to swim toward a branch hanging over the river. Knowing it was his best and, most likely, only chance to save himself, he reached up. His arm burned with fatigue as his wet hand seized the branch. With his last bit of strength, Kermit pulled himself out of the water and climbed onto the river’s muddy edge. His dog, Trigueiro, climbed up onto the bank and sat next to him.

  Shaken and dripping wet, they started walking back to the others. Trigueiro ran ahead while Kermit followed, keeping close to the bank. When Kermit was coming down a hill, he ran into Rondon and Lyra.

  Although Rondon was relieved to see that Kermit was alive, he was also angry that the young man had disobeyed his order. Rondon kept his temper under control but made the chaffing remark, “Well, you have had a splendid bath, eh?”

  Kermit explained what had happened and told them that he thought everyone was safe, believing that João and Simplicio had also been able to swim to the bank. Kermit didn’t know what happened to the canoe, telling them it had disappeared in the whirlpool.

  Rondon was a great leader who commanded the respect of the expedition members.

  While Kermit went back upstream, Rondon and Lyra decided to continue scouting the area downstream. They wanted to take a look at the second waterfall.

  It wasn’t long before Rondon and Lyra saw João walking toward them. When Rondon questioned him, João told a different version of events. João said that after Kermit looked over the rapids, he ordered them to go down them—even though João and Simplicio told him that they were impassable. In spite of their warning, Kermit repeated the order, and the two men felt obligated to obey.

  What really happened, no one will ever know. João’s version may have been true. Or he may have been afraid of the consequences for disobeying Rondon’s order. At that moment, what they did know was that Simplicio was missing and so was the canoe with ten days’ worth of food and tools.

  No one searched harder for Simplicio than Kermit. He spent hours walking up and down the river, hoping to find him. But Simplicio’s body was never found. The men speculated that when he went over the waterfall, his body must have been pulled underwater and beaten against the boulders, drowning him.

  The canoe was also gone. It must have been smashed to pieces against the boulders and swept away, with no trace left of it.

  Though the men knew that danger and death were real possibilities on the expedition, the pain from the loss of Simplicio was felt by everyone. A feeling of despair was also edging its way into the group.

  “Misfortune still pursues us and this morning we lost another canoe and one of the boys was drowned. Today’s misfortune is a tragedy!” Cherrie wrote in his diary.

  The following morning, after everyone listened to Rondon’s Order of the Day, a post and a marker were placed at their campsite. The sign read: “In these rapids died poor Simplicio.”

  CHAPTER 11

  The Arrow

  March 16, 1914

  Day 18

  After acknowledging Simplicio’s death and naming the waterfall after him, the men once again began the backbreaking job of building another portage. Kermit continued his search for Simplicio’s body. But all that he was able to find was an oar, a box of rations, and more rapids.

  While the camaradas built the portage and Kermit looked for Simplicio, Rondon set off with his dog, Lobo, to hunt for game and Brazil nuts. Walking along the bank of the river, Rondon was about a mile away from their camp when he heard the sound of spider monkeys, the largest primate in the Amazon rain forest. They would make a good meal.

  Rondon crouched down, taking cover in the thick vegetation, and quietly advanced toward the sound of the monkeys. While he kept his eyes focused on the trees above, trying to spot them, Lobo ran ahead.

  More animals of the Amazon:

  Top: A spider monkey has a prehensile tail but no thumbs and spends most of its time in trees.

  Bottom: A peccary can be ferocious when threatened and makes a rattling sound by chattering its teeth to scare off predators.

  Trying not to make a sound, Rondon listened for the monkeys. Instead, he heard Lobo cry out in agony.

  Rondon immediately thought that a jaguar or the wild boar–like peccary was attacking his dog—until he heard a chorus of voices. He recognized it as the sound that some of the Indian tribes would make when they were ready to attack an enemy.

  Lobo staggered back to Rondon, blood dripping from his body. Two arrows had pierced him. One had struck his stomach, just below his heart. The other had hit his right leg, and the muscle was ripped away.

  Rondon fired his rifle into the air. He waited a few moments, hoping the sound would scare the Indians away. But the voices were coming closer.

  He fired his gun again, but the Indians were still heading his way.

  Rondon was torn. He wanted to help his dog, but he didn’t want to fight the Indians. If Rondon wanted peace, he knew there was only one thing he could do.

  Rondon left his dying dog and ran as fast as he could back to camp.

  When he arrived, Rondon was greeted with more bad news. The canoe that had taken them four precious days to build had smashed on the rocks and sunk. They were now down to just four canoes for twenty-one men.

  At that moment, Rondon was more concerned about the Indians and Lobo. He asked Kermit, Lyra, Dr. Cajazeira, and Antonio Pareci to go back with him. Before leaving, he quickly grabbed some tools and beads, which he planned to give to the Indians as a peace offering.

  The group retraced Rondon’s steps, and they soon found a trail of blood that led them to Lobo, who had tried to follow Rondon back to camp. They examined Lobo’s dead body and found one of the arrowheads still inside the dog. When Rondon inspected it, he knew right away that it did not belong to the Nhambiquara. But he had no idea which tribe it came from.

  The mysterious arrows belonged to the Cinta Larga Indians. Although the Cinta Larga were expert hunters and fishermen, skilled at surviving in the ruthless jungle, they were even more primitive than the Nhambiquara.

  Unlike the Nhambiquara Indians, who had made the expedition’s original dugout canoes, the Cinta Larga Indians had never even seen a boat until they saw the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition go by. They also had never seen or used a fishing pole and hook to catch a fish. Instead, they made long wooden arrows without a blade on the tip to spear the fish. Or they used a poison that paralyzed the fish, making it easy to scoop them out of the water.

  The impenetrable forest and rough river had kept the Cinta Larga so isolated that they had never seen a white man before, and they were shocked to see the men’s beards. The men in the Cinta Larga tribe didn’t have whiskers; their faces were naturally bare and hairless. So when they saw Kermit’s and Cherrie’s bearded faces, they wondered if they were even human or some kind of animal.

  Since first spotting the expedition members, the Cinta Larga had been holding tribal meetings, trying to decide if they should go to war and kill the invaders. Since they weren’t governed by a chief, the decision had to be unanimous.

  If the Cinta Larga did attack and, ultimately, kill all the men on the expedition, there would be a big celebration. One of the highlights would involve cooking and eating their enemies’ dead bodies. This was the only time cannibalism was allowed in the tribe.

  Nevertheless, reaching a unanimous decision about going to war was proving difficult. Rondon, however, knew exactly how he was going to proceed.

  Despite the fact that the Cinta Larga had attacked and k
illed his beloved dog, Rondon left the tribe some beads and metal axes in an effort to keep the peace. Even so, Rondon and the others knew that this gesture of goodwill was no guarantee that the Cinta Larga wouldn’t attack.

  At the end of the day, Cherrie expressed everyone’s growing concerns in his diary:

  “Misfortune still pursues us! From last night’s camp we came only a few kilometers to another series of rapids … In addition to losing the canoe we have a very possible danger from the Indians! … Our position is really a very serious one. Provisions are every day decreasing. It is impossible to go back. The journey ahead is undoubtedly a very long one. The difficulties to overcome can only be judged by what we have passed through!”

  CHAPTER 12

  No Doubt

  March 17, 1914

  Day 19

  There was no denying that their situation was looking grim.

  “So far the country had offered little in the way of food except palm-tops,” Roosevelt wrote. “We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid serious trouble.”

  With just four canoes left, there wasn’t enough room to fit all of their equipment and supplies. This was a serious problem, but the expedition couldn’t risk stopping and building new ones. They had to keep moving.

  “It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians,” Roosevelt wrote.

  So everyone had to leave some of their belongings behind—tents, surveying instruments, and clothes. Roosevelt gave an extra pair of pants to Paixão Paishon, the camarada whose only pair had been torn to shreds when he had helped build the now-wrecked canoe. Since that time, Paishon had been wearing his underdrawers.

  With the loads lightened, the group was finally able to take off down the river. But like the cargo, not everyone could fit in the canoes, so thirteen of the men had to walk.