The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey
by Candice Millard, New York: Broadway Books, 2005.
Smarting from a humiliating loss in the 1912 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt reacted as he often had when besieged by grief, frustration, anger, or boredom. He set out on an adventure that would challenge his strength, endurance, and ingenuity– a journey down an uncharted Amazon tributary. This excursion would truly be his darkest adventure, for it was carelessly conceived, and recklessly and impulsively executed with all the makings of a catastrophe. Supplies and equipment were generally inappropriate, food provisions difficult to transport, and the explorers unprepared for the extreme hardships presented by the dense jungle and a wild-running river. The expedition would come perilously close to claiming the lives of all the travelers.
The 1912 election had been a major turning point in Roosevelt’s political career. When the Republican Party refused to support him instead of the incumbent William Howard Taft, Roosevelt angrily bolted, beginning his own party, the Progressives (or Bull Moose); he consequently split the Republican vote, basically guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate. Roosevelt knew that because he had sabotaged Republican plans, “he would be reviled by many and then ignored by all…the worst death he could imagine.” Devastated by the extent of his loss, Roosevelt bitterly observed that the American people “have a way of erecting a triumphal arch, and after the conquering hero has passed beneath it, he may expect a shower of bricks on his back at any moment.”
Roosevelt’s habitual remedy for great disappointment, heartbreak, and frustration was a repeating pattern; he would launch himself into a difficult project that would test him “to his outermost limits…losing himself in punishing hardship and danger.” He managed to turn an invitation to Latin America into an opportunity to visit the Amazon River and some of its tributaries because he believed the area to be “a naturalist’s Shangri-la.” Grasping the chance to immerse himself in his avocation, he arranged for an old acquaintance, Father John Augustine Zahm, to plan the journey—including choosing the route, organizing the transportation, and ordering provisions and equipment. Zahm did not have a great deal of experience in South America; his ability as a leader can be questioned by his hiring of Anthony Fiala to be the expedition’s quartermaster. Fiala had a “bad history” of Arctic exploration, and little experience south of the equator. If Roosevelt had followed Zahm’s planned route, even the odd the selections of unqualified planners could have been harmless; “ the expedition’s intended route, although strenuous, was relatively well known and not particularly dangerous.”
However, when the Brazilian government gave Roosevelt an aide, Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, the ex-president saw a new challenge. Rondon, while heroically commanding an extremely hazardous telegraph line project, had discovered “one of the great remaining mysteries of the Brazilian wilderness—all but unknown to the outside world—the Rio da Duvida [the River of Doubt].” The more Rondon spoke of the great unforeseen challenges and dangers in this river, the more Roosevelt knew that this was the expedition he wanted to pursue. “…a descent of the [river]…would be audacious. Not only was the river unmapped—its length and direction unknown and each whirlpool, rapid, and waterfall a sudden and potentially deadly surprise—but it coursed through a dense, tangled jungle that had a dark history of destroying the men who hoped to map it.” He could actually become an full-fledged explorer.
With a quixotic enthusiasm, Roosevelt launched into his project with “an appalling amount of luggage” and equipment, requiring a small army of porters, and a long line of mules and oxen. Just to reach the River of Doubt would require traveling 400 miles through Brazilian Highlands, “passing through open plains, scrub forest, barren desert, and dense jungle….” The heavy-duty boats that had been ordered for the original excursion, were too cumbersome for the newly planned expedition. So demanding was the long approach to the river, that it became clear that the group would have to be divided, several people being sent back in order to conserve supplies. Animals were dying from exhaustion, lack of water, and inadequate food. After the main body of the expedition finally reached the River of Doubt, it soon became clear that their situation was very serious. “After months of inattention, Roosevelt had now come face to face with the acute logistical shortcomings and rapidly escalating risks that his own casual approach to the expedition and its route had produced.”
A major portion of Millard’s book deals with the expedition’s struggle for survival. It was a hazardous race against starvation. Much of the provisions had been lost in the capsizing and splintering of boats; they had no idea of what types of edible items were available for them in their surroundings. Whirlpools, rapids, and waterfalls were constant threats; accidents forced the group to stop several times so that they could carve out new dugout boats, an exercise that consumed at least four days. Mosquitoes carried diseases such as malaria and yellow fever, and piums, small black flies, would descend in swarms, sucking blood and leaving nasty red bites. In addition, there were dangers from Indians, the Cinta Largas (wide belts), who were known to be cannibalistic.
At his lowest point in this journey, Roosevelt asked his son to leave him behind. The former president had become very sick with malaria and an infection, which was the result of his injuring a leg which had been seriously damaged years before. Unable to move on his own, Roosevelt felt that he should commit suicide with a lethal dose of morphine rather than jeopardize the entire mission, which was already close to disaster.
The expedition, ultimately successful in that it reached the work areas of several rubber gatherers, returned to civilization in May of 1914 on a much humbler note than it had left. Roosevelt was enraged when he returned to the United States to find that his reported journey was “met not with praise, but with skepticism and disbelief.” Ever the aggressor, even when in poor health, Roosevelt, lectured the National Geographic Society with irrefutable evidence of his exploration. “Roosevelt had won again. He had humiliated his enemies, defended his expedition, and restored his reputation.” Yet there remained a dark cloud over the entire affair, for Roosevelt’s seeking glory emphasized weaknesses that had nearly killed him and jeopardized his entire party: an obsession with burying failure and loss through reckless attempts at heroism. Pursuing an ideal, he had hurtled with foolhardy enthusiasm into a challenge which he had not understood. The descent of the River of Doubt was dark because of its danger and mystery, but also because of the shortcomings in character and judgment which clouded the expedition.
Ted Odenwald and his wife have lived in Oakland for 39 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust.