It is a very short list of books which I have ever mentioned more than once in this blog. This is the first that I have chosen to write about twice other than a couple which I have chosen to discuss in multiple posts centered on brief, compelling segments of such books. But this book is so powerful, interesting, and worthy of extended attention that I chose to write this second post about it. Go get it! Read it! You won't be disappointed!
Theodore Roosevelt In The Dakotas
Most literate Americans will remember that Theodore Roosevelt was a former President of the United States but many might not know that he was also a well respected naturalist and explorer in addition to both his careers in politics and military service. After Roosevelt left the White House in 1909, he ran once more in 1912 as the candidate of the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. He lost that election in a landslide for a variety of reasons including having invited Booker T. Washington to dinner in the White House as the first African American ever given that honor. After this loss, Roosevelt suffered serious depression and eventually decided to go on a long, dangerous adventure in the Amazon. He and his son Kermit had spent a long period on a big game hunting expedition in Africa and both were accustomed to life in extreme physical conditions. Roosevelt went on a tour of several South American countries and was eventually connected with Colonel Candido Rondon who was a Brazilian military officer who also served as the director of the country's effort to design a route for and construct a national telegraph line into the most remote communities of the Amazon Basin. Rondon was also the first person from the developed countries to discover the river he had named The River of Doubt. This river had never been explored and its actual route or the mouth of the river were not known. It was truly and uncharted river which might or might not turn out to be a major branch of the Amazon. Rondon and Roosevelt were installed as co-commanders of what was officially named the Roosevelt Scientific Expedition. They handpicked a group of professional explorers, naturalists, and native laborers to join them on the expedition to float down the River of Doubt and map it's route, study its wildlife, and determine where it actually terminated.
Theodore Roosevelt & Candido Rondon
Candice Millard was an excellent person to write a book about the expedition. She is a former writer and editor for National Geographic and has traveled and performed writing assignments in many of the most remote areas of the world. She is also an excellent researcher and utilized a vast amount of written records about the expedition to complete her book. She depended heavily on the journals of Theodore Roosevelt; Kermit Roosevelt; Colonel Rondon; and, George Kruck Cherrie, an American ornithologist who had several different species of birds and animals named for him because of his work both before and after the Roosevelt Expedition. Cherrie was generally conceded to have been a self-made man who arose to international fame after having gone to work at 12 in a sawmill. Millard also utilized official records of the American Museum of Natural History, the Brazilian government, and communications between the principals of the party and their families and friends.
George Cherrie
The book does an excellent job of describing the near disasters and one or two actual disasters which struck the group and their 19 native laborers on this trip into a thousand mile long river filled with unmet local tribes including some of which practiced cannibalism; the many dangerous species of flora and fauna along the river; and, most importantly, the myriad deadly and debilitating diseases of the unexplored jungle. Along the trip, the expedition discovered that they had been very inadequately supplied with equipment and food for the trip by the old friend Roosevelt had allowed to act as the purchaser of equipment. They lost their canoes one by one, eventually carved out dugouts similar to those used by the local tribes. One by one, they became infected with deadly Amazonian diseases and Roosevelt was nearly dead by the end of the trip. In fact, his disease required several months of recuperation after the trip before he was back to full health. Their native workers had also been poorly chosen and one actually murdered their most qualified native worker. He then absconded into the jungle to be seen one more time and being abandoned to the jungle by the two leaders. Another native worker drowned in one of the many cataracts along the river. One very dangerous tribe of natives made contact with the expedition and killed Rondon's favorite dog before deciding in their somewhat archaic method of decision making to allow the expedition to pass through their territory without further molestation. By the time the expedition managed to make contact with Brazilian rubber gatherers near the end of their trip, they were starved nearly to death, left with only the most minimal clothing and equipment, and probably would have perished if they had been required to remain on the journey for just a few more days.
If you like books about exploration, discovery, adventure, and success in the face of nearly impossible odds, this is the book for you. It is a relatively easy and engrossing read. It will hold your attention from cover to cover and will give you a close look at one of the most interesting presidents ever to live in the White House. It is also likely to leave you with the impression that Theodore Roosevelt was capable of performing tasks which most, if not all, of the subsequent occupants of the White House would never attempt.
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