- Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition
The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition was jointly lead by
Theodore Roosevelt andCândido Rondon in 1913-1914 to be the first explorers of the 1000-mile long "River of Doubt" (later renamedRio Roosevelt ) located in a remote area of theBrazil ian Amazon basin. Sponsored in part by theAmerican Museum of Natural History , they also collected many new animal and insect specimens.Roosevelt had originally planned to go on a speaking trip of
Argentina and Brazil, followed by a cruise of theAmazon River . Instead, the Brazilian Government suggested that Roosevelt accompany famous Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon on his exploration of the previously unknown River of Doubt, the headwaters of which had only recently been discovered. Roosevelt, seeking adventure and challenge after his recent defeat for a third term in theWhite House , agreed.Kermit Roosevelt , Theodore's son, had recently gotten engaged to a socialite named Belle and didn't plan on joining the expedition but did on the insistence of his mother to protect his father. The expedition started inCaracerés , a small town on theParaguay River , with 15 Brazilian porters ("camaradas"), the two leaders, Roosevelt's son, and American naturalistGeorge Cherrie . They traveled toTapirapua , where Rondon had previously discovered the headwaters of the River of Doubt. From Tapirapua, the expedition traveled northwest, through dense forests and then later through the plains on top of theParecis plateau . They reached the River of Doubt on February 27, 1914. At this point, due to a lack of food supplies, the Expedition split up, with part of the Expedition following the Jiparana river to theMadeira River . The remaining party then started down the River of Doubt.Almost from the start, the expedition was fraught with problems. Insects and disease such as
malaria weighed heavily on just about every member of the expedition, leaving them in a constant state of sickness, festering wounds and high fevers. The heavy dug-out canoes were unsuitable to the constant rapids and were often lost, requiring days to build new ones. The food provisions were ill-conceived forcing the team onstarvation diets. Native Indiancannibal s (theCinta Larga ) shadowed the expedition and were a constant source of concern - the Indians could have at any time wiped out the expedition and taken their valuable metal tools but luckily they chose to let them pass (future expeditions in the 1920s were not so lucky). One of the "camaradas" murdered another, while a third was killed in a rapid.By the time the expedition had made it only about one-quarter of the way down the river, they were physically exhausted and sick from starvation, disease and the constant labour of hauling canoes around rapids. Roosevelt himself was near death as a wounded leg had become infected and the party feared for his life each day. Luckily they came upon "rubber men" or "
seringueiro s", impoverished rubber-tappers who earned a marginal living from the forest trees driven by the new demand forrubber tire s in the United States. The "seringueiros" helped the team down the rest of the river (less rapid-prone than the upper reaches) and Roosevelt made it home alive to live five more years. Due to the trip, his health never fully recovered. [Millard (2005).]In 1992
Tweed Roosevelt , with the help of 20 men and women, retraced his great grandfather's journey down the River of Doubt.Notes
References
*Roosevelt, Theodore (1914) [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11746 "Through the Brazilian Wilderness"] .
*Baker, Daniel ed. (1993). "Explorers and Discoverers of the World". Detroit: Gale Research. ISBN 0-8103-5421-7
*Millard, Candice (2005). "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey". Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50796-8External links
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/papr:@field(SUBJ+@od1(Roosevelt+River++Brazil++)) The Library of Congress(film footage)]
* [http://www.kshs.org/cool/jaguar.htm Jaguar skin from Roosevelt-Rondon expedition, Kansas Historical Society collections]
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