Theodore Roosevelt

    In 1913 Theodore Roosevelt ran for his third presidency term as a third party candidate. During the campaign he gave a speech that would be the last of his political career and he started off with this, “Friends, perhaps once in a generation, perhaps not so often, there comes a chance for the people of a country to play their part wisely and fearlessly in some great battle of the age-long warfare for human rights.”  On November 5, 1913 Roosevelt lost the election. Shortly after, he had gotten an invitation to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina to further explore the River of Doubt.  Theodore thought that this would be a perfect chance to see his son and he thought that it would prove his strength. In December 1913 Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, Cherrie, Candido Rondon (Britain’s most famous explorer), and four Brazilians left for Argentina.

The expedition was nothing like they thought it was going to be, it was so much worse. They had to abandon their canoes, they lost many pack mules and oxen from starvation and exhaustion which forced them to leave crates filled with supplies. Everyone ended up suffering from the stinging and biting of insects, vicious fevers, and malaria. Colonel Rondon ended up getting attacked by tribesmen known as Cinta Larga while he was hunting one day and killed his dog. They lost a man to the deadly rapids of the river. Roosevelt spent that whole journey in constant fear that he would lose his life and his son’s life. In April 1914 they were rescued, everyone but three men survived the cruel expedition. They had nearly mapped out 1,000 miles of the River of Doubt which was later named Rio Roosevelt along with a branch of the river which was named Rio Kermit. Later that year Theodore wrote a book called “Through the Brazilian Wilderness” which explains his journey.

The whole crew before the expedition

The surviving members of the expedition