Lost in the Shadow of Fame

by William E. Lemanski

  For the specimen-gathering project, the museum recommended two recognized and seasoned professionals to support the scientific goals of the team. George K. Cherrie was an experienced wilderness traveler and naturalist, specializing in ornithology. Having spent nearly two-decades in South America collecting birds, he spoke Spanish fluently and he was accustomed to facing hardship and danger in foreign lands. His other attributes were courage and physical toughness despite his advancing age of forty-seven. The other member enlisted by the museum was a young twenty-six year old museum mammalogist, Leo Miller. Miller was already a veteran of South American exploration and despite his young age was a highly respected scientist at the museum.

  The first planning error, besides teaming with Zahm and which would result in much of the trip’s later problems, began with the recruitment of Anthony Fiala. Fiala was a discredited ex-arctic explorer ending his career as a salesman in the Rogers Peet & Company clothing store on 5th Avenue in New York; a far distance and fall from the frozen wastes of the North. He met Zahm’s acquaintance when the good father was shopping for the expedition’s supplies in the city. Never one to assume a troublesome burden he couldn’t pass off to another, Zahm was immediately taken with the man’s background and hired him on the spot to join and outfit the expedition. Fiala jumped at the chance to once again engage in exploration and redeem his discredited reputation. No concern was wasted on consideration that the frozen region of the arctic is somewhat removed from the steaming jungles of the Amazon.

  In addition to his total ignorance of the survival requirements of travel through tropical wilderness, Fiala’s resume cataloged a questionable if not varied career of adventure. Besides his current store clerking occupation, Fiala was a former lithographic designer, photographer, chemist, cartoonist, head of the art and engraving department of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a trooper in the Spanish-American War. His later arctic adventures were a study in multiple failures in the early 20th century’s age of competition to reach the North Pole. In 1901 he was employed as expedition photographer and second in-command5 for the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition to be the first at the North Pole which ended in failure. His next journey to the far north, the Fiala-Ziegler Expedition in 1903, with Fiala as commander, also ended in failure when poor selection of anchorage, unexpected ice pressure resulting in the sinking his ship and a prolonged two-year stay on the ice nearly caused a mutiny. The expedition’s chief surgeon, Dr. George Shorkley, scathingly remarked:

  “Although the large, splendidly equipped expedition had some bad luck, its failure was mostly due to Fiala's inexperience and ineffective leadership, which allowed indifference and dissension to spread among the many bored and idle men.”6

  This negligent oversight in the critical selection and responsibility of two of the expedition’s key members was the result of Roosevelt’s disinterest in the planning details of the trip. Although typically he was game for any possible emergence of danger, his initial belief was the expedition would be more of a pleasant excursion rather than what was to become a major undertaking. Consequently, Roosevelt’s agreement to relegate the logistics to Zahm, and Zahm’s careless enlistment of Fiala as the chief quartermaster ensured that the wrong equipment and supplies would be procured. Numerous supplies of unnecessary luxuries were purchased. A debate ensued between the team over the type of boats to be used indicating ignorance of the type of terrain and climate that would be encountered. Aside from food supplies, watercraft was the most essential addition to the expedition’s needs as the great majority of the distance being traversed would be on water. Fiala favored light, Canadian freighter-type canoes while Zahm insisted on and purchased two large, bulky and extremely heavy steel-hulled motorboats. In the end, the expedition was forced to abandon the unusable steel boats due to their weight and unsuitability for jungle portage and settle for extremely tipsy and difficult to paddle native-built dugout canoes.

  Fiala wasn’t the only team member newly enlisted by Zahm to relieve the priest of any troublesome exertion, inconvenience or responsibility. A self proclaimed “handyman” seemingly walked through the door and was immediately hired by Zahm to serve as his personal attendant for the expedition. Jacob Sigg, similar to Fiala, had a varied and questionably checkered past and even Zahm considered him to be “absolutely unique.” Having served as an army nurse and cook, he also claimed he was a:

  “courier and interpreter for an Indian princess, had sailed before the mast in many parts of the world, had mined for gold on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and had charge of a gang of men in the construction of a railroad in Bolivia.”7

  He was also a chief engineer in a power plant, operated steam engines in Manitoba, could operate a motorboat, drive a car, use firearms and spoke Spanish and Portuguese. Zahm appeared to have had questionable skills and insight in conducting job interviews for perspective wilderness travel companions. With his trio of rogues, the former President of the United States would embark, along with his son on the most dangerous mission of his life since receiving fire from Spanish mausers in Cuba many years before.

  Frank Harper, Roosevelt’s British private secretary, also was expected to accompany the expedition. However, with a spark of prescience returned home partway into the unexpected and previously unplanned new journey. Dangerous exploration in unchartered wilderness regions was not the forte of the deskbound assistant, accustomed to the soft environment of public affairs and administrative work.

  A Change in Plans; the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition emerges:

  The newly formed team of would be explorers steamed out of Manhattan’s East River on October 4, 1913, aboard the steamship Vandyck with Roosevelt impatiently spending the weeklong trip contemplating the adventures ahead. During their long trip south, Edith, who accompanied the group along with her young cousin for the first leg of the journey, spoke of Roosevelt in a letter to his sister Bamie, “I think he feels like Christian in Pilgrims Progress when the bundle falls from his back, in this case it was not made of sins but of the Progressive Party.” 8

  Before embarking on their great wilderness adventure, Roosevelt linked up with Kermit in Bahia, Brazil, and then continued on his six-week speaking tour through Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile as his team continued up the Paraguay to Corumba to organize the packing of the enormous stock of supplies and await his arrival. Kermit left his construction job to accompany his father with a heavy heart having just received a delayed letter from Belle who was many miles across the Atlantic in Europe. Belle had accepted his marriage proposal, leaving him torn between his overwhelming desire to speed to her but frustrated by his responsibility to look after his father’s safety. Aside from his advancing age and expanding waistline, Roosevelt was not in the type of health necessary for an arduous trip into the unknown. During his presidency, he sustained gunshot wounds from a would-be assassin, a near fatal carriage disaster that left him with a seriously chronic leg wound9 and he was deaf in one ear from a wrestling bout in the White House with a Japanese judo expert. Besides all this, he suffered with poor eyesight since his childhood. Edith’s worries for the safety of her husband and words of concern to Kermit, along with his own worry and devotion to his father, impelled Kermit to participate in the long journey delaying his betrothal and compounding his usually deep and downcast emotions.

  As Roosevelt began his prolonged speaking tour, the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro Muller, offered to assist the expedition. Encouraged by the positive publicity that would emerge from the former American President and his entourage traveling throughout his country, Muller was also aware of the potential advantages a well-provisioned scientific expedition could provide by investigating and documenting some of the unknown regions of the country. Muller proposed two offers that would change the entire nature of the adventure.

  His first suggestion was a change in the course of the expedition’s route from a fairly comfortable collecting excursion through previously traveled territory to a major
exploration undertaking in the unknown regions of the western Matto Grosso. The focus of the trip would be the descent of a wild river whose course, origin and ending were unknown to geographers and was not even depicted on any maps.10 The second suggestion was the enlistment of a Brazilian Army officer who first discovered the isolated river as a seasoned explorer knowing more of this remote region than any other living person, excepting the wild Indians who roamed its dark interior.

  The enlistment of Colonel Candido Rondon was an outstanding but somewhat contrary choice to partner with Roosevelt. His stiff, stern military demeanor was the antithesis of Roosevelt’s easygoing, gregarious personality. Part Indian, he was already a legend in Brazil, having spent many years in the wilderness supervising the installation of a telegraph line across much of the barren interior. His travels were not only notable for surveying and mapping vast areas of the wilderness, but also for his tolerance and humane treatment of many of the warlike tribes of Indians. The addition of a proven leader and wilderness veteran like Rondon provided a much needed balance to the haphazard collection of team members. Roosevelt immediately agreed to the plan alterations and Rondon’s addition, noting:

  “I eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the least-known parts of South America.” 11

  The Adventure Begins:

  Changing the expedition’s route from a mainly benign collecting trip along various known waterways to a serious exploration project into the unknown meant traversing an enormous stretch of barren land across the Brazilian highlands even before reaching the mysterious river. The Roosevelts began their expedition by river steamer on December 9th at the city of Asuncion in Paraguay for a three-day cruise up the Paraguay River later to meet with Rondon at the confluence of the Apa River on Brazil’s southern border. This initial leg of the journey provided a pleasant, leisurely opportunity to loll in the sun on deck and view the occasional settlement or cultivated farm.

  Fishing from the boat, Roosevelt marveled at one species of wildlife that would be an ever-present danger to the expedition in the coming months. Even beyond the vicious South American alligator, the caiman, the piranha imposed a threat to any man or beast that ventured into the countless waterways of much of South America. Although enjoying the diversion of catching these fish, a serious respect was held for the threat they represented. The ubiquitous piranha or cannibal fish infested the freshwater rivers the expedition would travel and according to Roosevelt will “snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; they mutilate swimmers” and “will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. I never witnessed an exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas as they flapped on deck.” 12 Rondon had lost a toe to one of these vile creatures on a previous expedition, and one of his men was severely bitten on his tongue when fishing. Even the naturalist Miller had recently been bitten by one. This preliminary exhibition of savagery portended only one of the many dangers the future would impose on the men.

  After linking-up and first meeting with Rondon and his officers, Roosevelt’s confidence in the trip increased:

  “It was evident that he knows his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he would be a pleasant companion. Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for telegraph-lines and railroads.”13

  Besides Rondon and his enlisted men, his team consisted of three army officers and a Brazilian doctor who would accompany the expedition on the wild river.

  The combined team steamed up the Paraguay to the frontier town of Corumba arriving on December 15 where they met Cherrie and Miller, Sigg and Fiala some six-hundred miles distant from Roosevelt’s original embarkation point. The two naturalists had already independently collected eight hundred specimens of mammals and birds. Their stay at Corumba enabled the assessment and organization of the huge store of supplies that Fiala had procured for the expedition and provided a few days of hunting opportunities for Kermit and his father. Roosevelt, contrary to his background of conservation, killed many of the detested caimans on the trip. The pair also killed anteaters, marsh deer and capybara with Kermit taking a large jaguar with his .405 Winchester.

  Their technique of jaguar hunting used dogs for scenting and following the track with the hunters tagging along behind on horseback. Leaving well before sunup, Roosevelt, Kermit and a string of their Brazilian military party began fording rivers and wading through bog and swamp while traversing jungle lowland. The water-soaked column continued on into the steaming heat of the day, hour after hour they proceeded through island-like stretches of tree-covered land and thorn thicket sometimes swimming the horses and dogs across deep water. The hunters were not deterred by the ever-present swarms of mosquitoes and various stinging insects or caimans lurking on the river banks, nor the danger of schools of piranha being agitated by the horse hooves and the possibility of tangling with an anaconda or poisonous viper. The trip was so arduous that even the dogs were giving out, requiring Kermit to refresh one by throwing water over him. Finally, Roosevelt dispatched a jaguar, high in the forked branches of a tree that was brought to bay by the howling, maddened dogs. On another occasion Kermit went hunting for tapir despite being down with a case of fever. When fording a river, two of his dogs lost the tips of their tails to the ever-present piranhas.

  Another notable episode of their side hunting trips exhibited Roosevelt’s still remarkable stamina, even at the advanced age of 55. They embarked on another early morning jaguar hunt through the stifling jungle on foot, torn by the spines of small palms, bitten by the numerous swarming insects and fire ants, they waded through marshes hip deep. The day-long trek proceeded without any food and produced no game. Fiala later recounted a remarkable sight. Having remained on board their boat, in the late afternoon Fiala heard an Indian call from the jungle depths:

  “’Burroo-gurra-harru,’ he muttered, fell into a corner, and went to sleep. Twenty minutes later another Indian stumbled out of the forest. ‘Plenty work-tired,’ he cried, and fell and also went to sleep. A third Indian came and dropped on the deck.”

  Worried for the safety of the hunters and thinking some major disaster had befallen the group, Fiala organized a relief party as the sun was setting. In a clearing a short distance from the river he came upon one of the Brazilian officers, lying exhausted on the ground, his clothes torn, his face and neck covered with dust and blood.14 He was sent back to the boat in the care of some Indians.

  Continuing on, the rescue party came upon Roosevelt and Kermit dragging another of the Brazilian officers through the jungle. Roosevelt and Kermit’s clothes were in shreds but Fiala noted Roosevelt’s countenance “on his grimy face was a look of warlike determination. All right, Colonel?” asked Fiala, “I’m bully” answered Roosevelt. Although the Brazilians were laid up for days following the ordeal,

  Roosevelt and Kermit continued in a nonchalant manner as if nothing untoward occurred.

  On Christmas Day, the entire expedition, food, equipment, specimens and even K-9 mascots pushed off into the Paraguay for their continuing trip upriver into the Mato Grosso. The comfortable security of civilization waned as the evidence of human settlement became more infrequent and began to fade; as each mile of the turbid waters passed below their keel the dark, foreboding wilderness thickened and insidiously encroached around them.

  Following various detours along minor river tributaries for specimen collecting, hunting and visits to the increasingly sparse ranches, the expedition ended their river journey at Tapirapoan on January 16, the headquarters of Rondon’s Telegraphic Commission. This would begin their long overland journey to the River of Doubt. The country ahead would be traversed by a long pack-train of mules and pack-oxen, similar to Roosevelt and Kermit’s previous safari in Africa.

>   The land was highland wilderness that Rondon had pioneered in past years as he and his men laboriously and at great danger installed his telegraph lines. Heat, insects, starvation and hostile Indians claimed many of the construction crews during the building of the line. Many men were lost and many more simply rejected the danger and privation associated with his command. For Rondon, contact with the Indians and attempting to bring civilization to the warring tribes was equal to the importance of bringing communication to this wild country and even exceeded the safety and comfort of his men. His courage and doggedness within this region over many years established him as one of the preeminent explorers of the Brazilian wilderness but also defined him as an unrelenting driver of his men.

  At the Tapirapoan camp, Fiala and Sigg were charged with the task of sorting the numerous supplies and organizing the near 250 pack-animals. Days were spent in heavy, humid, 91 to 104 degree heat engaged in the onerous process of not only packing but in some cases breaking the half wild live stock that would be their conveyance for the coming weeks. Kermit, anxious to return to his recently betrothed and impatient with any delays, was “ready to kill the whole lot (of pack animals) and all the members of the expedition.”15 Ever the naturalist, Roosevelt observed with amazement the predatory habits of the local wildlife. “We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats that suck the blood of living creatures….”16 Ticks, poisonous ants, wasps, biting flies and gnats were in abundance outside of the camp compound, however the army-ants, insects that he characterized as the most dangerous and aggressive lower-life creatures, drew his special attention. While at Tapirapoan, Cherrie and Miller continued to collect various mammal and bird specimens and up to now, their scientific bag contained about a thousand birds and two-hundred and fifty mammals. As usual, Kermit indulged in his local hunting trips securing an occasional armadillo, coati or agouti to contribute to the scientific enterprise. To expedite the already delayed trip, the baggage was divided and an advance party with Rondon’s subordinate, Captain Amilcar leaving ahead of Roosevelt, Kermit and the main expedition members. The previously collected specimens along with unnecessary baggage would return back down the Paraguay to New York with Harper.