Colonel Roosevelt (157 page)

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.

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.