6 He had already Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 438. For a detailed account of this hunt, see TR, Works, 6.63–92.
7 He had not found TR, Works, 6.77. Cruising up the Paraguay, TR became agitated when he heard some sailors shooting at birds from the bow of the Riquelme. “By George, this thing must stop.” And so it did, on his order. Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 424.
8 a tiny man Rondon was five foot three. Millard, The River of Doubt, 73.
9 Roosevelt had met up Rondon, Lectures, 15ff.; TR, Works, 6.50. In 1927, José Alves de Lima, a minor diplomat and memorialist, claimed to have “selected” Rondon as TR’s guide long before Müller did. (Alves de Lima, “Reminiscences of Roosevelt in Brazil.”) The boast is implausible. However, TR was certainly aware of Rondon’s existence, and value as a consultant, before arriving in Rio. TR to Lauro Müller, 14 Oct. 1914 (TRC).
10 It had been he TR, Works, 6.xiii–xvi, 10; Rondon, Lectures, 10–12. Several alternative expeditions, all plotted by Rondon, were offered to TR, in case he declined to explore the Dúvida.
11 Cândido Rondon was TR, Works, 6.xiv, 73.
12 a mysterious river Ibid., 6.xiv. Rondon discovered the Dúvida in 1909.
13 Roosevelt would advertise Ibid., 6.10.
14 Müller could not have Even before meeting Müller, TR praised him, on the basis of information supplied by Elihu Root, as “one of the men to whom this entire western hemisphere must look up.” Alves de Lima, “Reminiscences of Roosevelt in Brazil.”
15 Müller dreamed of building Armelle Enders, “Theodore Roosevelt explorateur: Positivisme et mythe de la frontière dans l’expediçào cíentífica Roosevelt-Rondon au Mato Grosso et en Amazonie,” Nuevo Mundo Mundo Nuevos (http://nuevomundo.revues.org/), 2 Feb. 2005, 3–5. Müller’s dream of an inland capital was realized in 1960 with the building of Brasília. For TR’s two major South American addresses on the Monroe Doctrine, see The Outlook, 14, 21 Mar. 1914.
16 “I want to be the first” Rondon interviewed by Douglas O. Naylor in The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929.
17 “I have already” Osborn, “Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist,” Natural History, 19.1 (Jan. 1919). See also Osborn to TR, 26 Dec. 1913 (“I shall hear with the greatest relief of your arrival in Manaos”), AMNH.
18 his six colleagues TR may be seen posing with his colleagues en route to Rio in a contemporary documentary, Theodore Roosevelt—The River of Doubt, available online at http://www.loc.gov/. The movie, titled with extracts from Through the Brazilian Wilderness, includes footage of many of the episodes described in this and the following chapter.
19 Cherrie and Miller, in TR, Letters, 7.754. Their official employer, Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum, was considerably less enthusiastic. Millard, The River of Doubt, 60.
20 Roosevelt had told TR, Works, 6.xiv–xv.
21 Kermit, of course TR, Letters, 7.756; KR to Belle Willard, n.d. (KRP); Millard, The River of Doubt, 276–77. EKR, worried about her husband’s safety in the jungle, had been instrumental in persuading TR to take KR with him. KR to ERD, Nov. 1913 (ERDP).
22 At daybreak The following account of TR’s New Year hunt is based on TR, Works, 6.110–14.
23 Rondon was used For an excellent short biography of Rondon in English, see Todd A. Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation: Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon and the Construction of a Modern Brazil, 1906–1930 (Durham, N.C., 2004).
24 He was about TR, Works, 6.50–51.
25 not entirely believable Miller, In the Wilds, 196–97.
26 Roosevelt tried to Cherrie, Dark Trails, 282; TR, Works, 6.112.
27 He relaxed Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 450.
28 The great river Rondon, Lectures, 33–34; TR, Works, 6.70.
29 Now that he saw TR, Works, 6 passim.
30 One evening this Rondon, Lectures, 33–44; Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 449–50. Rondon and Zahm both mention TR’s rapturous reaction to this sunset, and agree that he observed it from the deck of the Nioac, a day or two after his São Lourenço hunt. Yet he, puzzlingly, dates it back to 14 Dec. 1913, when he was still aboard the Riquelme. (TR, Works, 6.58–59.) Possibly there were two such “evenings of extraordinary splendor and beauty.”
31 As far as Kermit KR to EKR, 12 Jan., 8 Feb. 1914; Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, passim; John Cavanaugh, “Father Zahm,” Catholic World, Feb. 1922. Zahm’s gushy prose style is unreadable now, but his breadth of scholarship continues to impress. He is venerated at his alma mater for enriching its theological curriculum with scientific studies (symbolically, he made Notre Dame the nation’s first electrically lit college campus), and for endowing it with his personal Dante collection, one of the top such archives in the United States.
32 Kermit did not know Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 428; TR estate tabulation file, 7 Mar. 1920 (SCR).
33 Father Zahm was sorry KR diary, 6–7 Jan. 1914 (KRP); Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 460; TR, Works, 6.xv; Millard, The River of Doubt, 34.
34 Roosevelt spent his last This paragraph paraphrases TR’s own account in Works, 6.123–24.
35 A gasoline launch George Cherrie diary, 6–7 Jan. 1914.
36 The two commanders TR, Works, 6.128; Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 43. The military-propaganda aspects of the expedition are noted by Armelle Enders in “Theodore Roosevelt explorateur,” 1.
37 Rondon’s “commission” See Dominichi M. de Sá, Magali Romero Sá, and Nísia Trindade Lima, “Telegraphs and an Inventory of the Territory of Brazil: The Scientific Work of the Rondon Commission (1907–1915),” História, Ciêncas, Saúde-Manguinhos, 15.3 (July–Sept. 2008), http://www.scielo.br/. Commission members not named were Dr. Euzébio de Oliveira (geologist), Henrique Reinisch (zoologist), Dr. Fernando Soledade (entomologist), Arnaldo Blake de Sant’anna (taxidermist), Frederico Hoehne (a botanist of international repute), Lieutenants Alcides Lauriodó and Joaquin Mello Finho (general duty), and Thomaz Reis (cinematographer).
38 Roosevelt’s team For Fiala’s disastrous record as an Arctic explorer, see Millard, The River of Doubt, 31–32. KR, a natural linguist, had found himself thinking in Portuguese for at least six months. KR to ERD, 2 June 1913 (ERDP).
39 his Swiss servant For more on the mysterious Sigg, see Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 463, 498–500, and Millard, The River of Doubt, 46–47.
40 an opportunity to hunt KR diary, 8–10 Jan. 1914 (KRP); TR, Works, 6.129, 132–45; Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 462.
41 After dinner TR, Works, 6.136.
42 At first sight Ibid., 6.155ff.; Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 474; Miller, In the Wilds, 225.
43 It did not look TR, Works, 6.156; Cherrie diary, 18 Jan. 1914 (AMNH); TR, Works, 6.151.
44 Roosevelt had begun TR, Letters, 8.905; TR, Works, 6.160. TR’s tent came complete with a floor rug.
45 Rondon and Lyra Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 36; Millard, The River of Doubt, 34.
46 This was too much Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 43; Cherrie, Dark Trails, 247; TR, Works, 6.224. The resignations of Hoehne, Soledade, Blake de Sant’anna, and Reis became formal on 23 Jan. 1914. Reinisch stayed with the expedition. De Sá et al., “Telegraphs.”
47 On 19 January TR, Works, 6.160. TR mentions only one Canadian canoe here. There were in fact two, as he confirms on page 300.
48 Sixty-four other TR, Works, 6.160, 163; Vivieros, Rondon, 388; Rondon, Lectures, 37.
49 If the Dúvida Miller, In the Wilds, 240.
50 We were now TR, Works, 6.161.
51 He left Robert Bridges to cut Bridges did not do so.
52 Next morning TR, Works, 6.168.
53 The command detachment Rondon, Lectures, 38; Miller, In the Wilds, 226; KR diary, 29 Jan. 1914 (KRP).
54 A daily camp rhythm Miller, In the Wilds, 230; Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 378; TR, Works, 6.169–70; Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929
.
55 “one felt” Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 479.
56 By now Kermit KR to EKR, 12 Jan., 8 Feb. 1914 (KRP); Miller, In the Wilds, 225. It is possible that Lizzie was the “giant land turtle” mentioned in TR, Works, 6.
57 Zahm was alarmed Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 479–80; Vivieros, Rondon, 389.
58 Relief for him Miller, In the Wilds, 227; TR, Works, 6.173–74. Despite Zahm’s eagerness to travel ahead in a caminhão, he objected bitterly to having to sit next to its black driver. Vivieros, Rondon, 389.
59 Kermit was not KR diary, 26 Jan. 1914 (KRP); TR, Works, 6.49; Vivieros, Rondon, 389–90. Zahm’s attitude toward South American Indians may be intimated from his description of the Guarani as “noble redmen” who had been “gathered by the Jesuits into the most interesting theocratic community of which there is any record.” He praised “the childlike docility with which they submitted to the guidance of their father-priests.” Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 393, 397.
60 he had himself founded Enders, “Theodore Roosevelt explorateur,” 6–8, analyzes Rondon’s complex philosophy as the patron and protector of Brazilian Indians. For an exhaustive discussion of his education in the teachings of Comte, see Fernando Correia da Silva, “Cândido Rondon: Explorer, Geographer, Peacemaker, 1865–1958,” http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/. Positivism is still a strong religious force in Brazil.
61 When Roosevelt first TR, Works, 6.183–84.
62 The great cascade Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, 496; TR, Works, 6.181–88; Vivieros, Rondon, 393.
63 compared to Niagara Morris, The Rise of TR, xxiv.
64 Father Zahm had Vivieros, Rondon, 394.
65 The Serviço de Proteção’s Ibid.
66 When the two colonels Ibid., 394–95 (trans. author). See also Rondon, Lectures, 46–49.
67 Every American member Memo, 1 Feb. 1914, preserved in KRP. “Dr. Zahm had gotten much on TR’s ‘nerves.’ ” (Cherrie diary, 3 Feb. 1914 [AMNH].) KR rejoiced in Zahm’s dismissal, on the grounds that he was “thoroly [sic] incompetent and selfish.” (KR diary, 30 Jan. 1914 [KRP].)
68 “Cat very sad” KR diary, 1, 2 Feb. 1914 (KRP); KR to Belle Willard, 31 Jan. 1914 (KRP). KR’s proposal and Belle’s acceptance letters are quoted in Millard, The River of Doubt, 51–52 and 67–68.
69 He took what consolation In his diary, KR uses the Portuguese word moribundia (dying) to describe his spells of depression.
70 The rain thinned TR, Works, 6.192, 94; Rondon, Lectures, 77; Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929.
71 Meanwhile the Papagaio The language of this sentence is mostly TR’s in Works, 6.188–89.
72 Father Zahm salvaged Rondon, Lectures, 49–50; TR, Works, 6.195.
73 There followed KR diary, 3–6 Feb. 1914 (KRP); TR, Works, 6.198; Frank Chapman in TR, Works, 6.xviii.
74 Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller Cherrie diary, 6 Feb. 1914 (AMNH); TR, Works, 6.195; Miller, In the Wilds, 231–32. The Canadian canoes were left behind because they became heavy in the rain. Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 41.
75 The carts were TR, Works, 200–201; KR to EKR, 8 Feb. 1914 (KRP).
76 Groups of Nhambiquaras Cherrie diary, 23 Feb. 1914 (AMNH); Miller, In the Wilds, 232; TR, Works, 6.209.
77 Hard rain This paragraph summarizes KR diary, 3–23 Feb. 1914 (KRP); Miller, In the Wilds, 234–37; TR, Works, 6.196–228; Vivieros, Rondon, 393–99.
78 Fiala nearly drowned Cherrie diary, 8 Feb. 1914 (AMNH). See also Millard, The River of Doubt, 114–15.
79 Books were classified TR, Works, 6.231; Vivieros, Rondon, 400.
80 The three Brazilian Miller, In the Wilds, 231; TR, Works, 6.231.
81 sketched out a title page Bishop, TR, 2.363.
82 their Gi-Paraná colleagues Amílcar, Miller, Oliveira, and Mello.
83 Seven shovel-nosed TR, Works, 6.231–33; KR diary, 25 Feb. 1914 (KRP).
84 The inscrutable river Cherrie diary, 26 Feb. 1914 (AMNH); Miller, In the Wilds, 23. See Millard, The River of Doubt, 172 on the coloration of Amazonian tributaries—the milky, the black, and the clear.
85 Goodbyes were exchanged Cherrie diary, 27 Feb. 1914 (AMNH); TR, Works, 6.233–34. Aside from the 6 principals, the expedition force consisted of 2 solders, 8 “regional volunteers,” and 6 laborers. All were highly paid for their dangerous work.
86 Then with a parting Miller, In the Wilds, 241–42.
CHAPTER 16: ALPH, THE SACRED RIVER
1 Epigraph Robinson, Collected Poems, 16.
2 “We were quite” TR, Works, 6.233.
3 He noted the date Ibid.
4 There were so Miller, In the Wilds, 206.
5 Roosevelt found himself Vivieros, Rondon, 407 (“corrente escura, volumosa, porque era plena estação das águas”).
6 “Kermit landed” TR, Works, 6.234–35.
7 The jungle was lovely Descriptive passages in this chapter adhere closely to those of TR in Through the Brazilian Wilderness. (TR, Works, 6.233ff.) Details supplied by Rondon, Cherrie, and Kermit Roosevelt are attributed when important.
8 Roosevelt had the TR, Works, 6.236; KR diary, 27 Feb. 1914 (KRP); Vivieros, Rondon, 408.
9 He studied TR, Works, 6.237.
10 a big affluent KR diary, 28 Feb. 1914 (KRP); TR, Works, 6.237.
11 “very good eating” TR, Works, 6.239.
12 After twenty kilometers Rondon, Lectures, 72–73.
13 Curls, falls, ponds TR, Works, 6.241. Rondon named these rapids Navaitê, after a tribe of Indians thought to be living in the area.
14 There was nothing Rondon, Lectures, 74; TR, Works, 6.242–43; KR diary, 3 Mar. 1914 (KRP).
15 The next one TR, Works, 6.243–44. The camaradas were classified as “regional volunteers” by the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission, and highly paid for their trouble.
16 On the morning Cherrie diary, 11 Mar. 1914 (AMNH); Rondon, Lectures, 79.
17 There were spells Rondon, Lectures, 77; TR, Works, 6 passim.
18 When he floated Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929. Rondon added: “He was what we Brazilians call a pandego (man of constant good humor).”
19 “I never saw” Ibid.
20 descent into the TR, Works, 6.245; Rondon, Lectures, 79. Rondon listed 114 survey stations along the Dúvida.
21 By midday The following account synthesizes the sometimes conflicting testimonies of TR in his Works, 6.257–59, and Rondon in his Lectures, 80–83, supplemented by Vivieros, Rondon, 409–10.
22 Rondon ordered Rondon, Lectures, 80.
23 Kermit and Simplício clambered TR’s account, based on what KR told him, makes no mention of Simplício’s presence on the upturned boat.
24 All of this Cherrie, Dark Trails, 289.
25 “Well, you have” Rondon, Lectures, 81.
26 He no longer made Ibid.
27 It was clear Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 43, notes that Rondon suppressed his rage against KR in later published accounts of the expedition, no doubt to avoid distressing TR.
28 AQUI PERECEU Rondon, Lectures, 83; Vivieros, Rondon, 410.
29 To him, it said Rondon, Lectures, 83; Vivieros, Rondon, 410; TR, Works, 6.259.
30 The portage began Rondon, Lectures, 86; TR, Works, 6.260–61.
31 Rondon examined Candice Millard has revealed that the Indians living alongside the Dúvida in 1914 were the cannibalistic Cinta Larga. Millard, The River of Doubt, 223–31.
32 Later that TR, Works, 6.260.
33 Every dispensable possession Ibid., 6.262–63.
34 “Our position” Ibid., 6.264; Rondon, Lectures, 87–88; Cherrie diary, 16 Mar. 1914 (AMNH); TR, Works, 6.264.
35 Rondon decided Millard, The River of Doubt, 154–62 and passim; Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929.
36 On behalf Cherrie diary, 18 Mar. 1914 (AMNH); Rondon, Lectures, 87–89; TR, Works, 6.267. According to Armelle Enders, it was actually Lauro Müller’s idea to
honor TR in this way. Enders, “Theodore Roosevelt explorateur,” 9.
37 Roosevelt was taken TR, Works, 6.268.
38 There was little Cherrie diary, 19 Mar. 1914 (AMNH); Cherrie, Dark Trails, 297.
39 One morning Rondon, Lectures, 92. Millard, The River of Doubt, 245 misdates this conversation.
40 “First of all” The following dialogue is quoted in Vivieros, Rondon, 411 (trans. author). See also Rondon, Lectures, 91–92, and Diacon, Stringing Together a Nation, 44–45.
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