The River of Doubt (49 page)

Chapman had known Cherrie
Ibid.

Cherrie received
George Cherrie,
Dark Trails
(New York, 1930).

Besides his reluctance
Chapman,
Autobiography of a Bird Lover
.

$150 per month
Paul H. Douglas,
Real Wages in the United States, 1890–1926
(Boston, 1930), table insert.

As extra insurance
Frank Chapman to Henry Fairfield Osborn, June 24, 1913, AMNH.

This division of labor
Frank Chapman to Henry Fairfield Osborn, Aug. 1, 1913, AMNH.

“prepared with the utmost”
Henry Fairfield Osborn, “Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist,”
Journal of the American Museum of Natural History
, Jan. 1919.

On the morning of October 4, 1913
Unnamed newspaper, Oct. 5, 1913, TRC.

As soon as Roosevelt
New York Times
, Oct. 5, 1913.

Among those waiting
Although Roosevelt would not be visiting his country, Minister Federico Alfonso Pezet of Peru also went to the pier to wish the former president a safe trip and assure him that “a most cordial welcome awaited him if any change of plans would cause him to enter Peruvian territory.” (Unnamed newspaper, Oct. 5, 1913, TRC.)

For the ambassadors
As Roosevelt gave Brazil’s Ambassador Don Domicio da Gama’s hand a vigorous shake, he said, “Good-bye, Mr. Ambassador,” then reassured him, “I’ve changed that sentence.” Da Gama must have been relieved to hear those words. Two months earlier, Roosevelt had sent copies of the speeches he intended to give in South America to each of the ambassadors. Well aware that they were concerned that he would discuss the Monroe Doctrine, which was a highly sensitive topic throughout the continent, Roosevelt had set nerves on edge by declaring, “That is exactly what I am going to talk about.” (Chapman, introduction to Theodore Roosevelt,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
[New York, 1924]; Frank Chapman,
Autobiography of a Bird Lover
[New York, 1933].)

A few weeks before
Lemuel Quigg had been in South America twenty years earlier, and he admitted that “things must have changed immensely since then,” but he predicted that attitudes toward the United States had not. “From Venezuela, on either coast, to Patagonia, they were against the Monroe Doctrine. They did not at all understand it,” he wrote. To South Americans, he explained, the doctrine meant “that we assumed the position of patron and that we were entitled to step in and say who should or who should not run for President, and that
we arrogated to ourselves functions of that kind. I predict that you will find this notion everywhere you stop, and … you will have the damnedest time explaining the Monroe Doctrine that any man ever had since Socrates undertook his defense.” (Lemuel Quigg to TR, Sept. 24, 1913, TRP.)

“bubbling like a frying-pan”
TR to KR, Feb. 14, 1913, TRC.

“I should regard it”
TR to George Otto Trevelyan, Oct. 1, 1911, in
Letters
, vol. 7.

Kermit spoke Arabic
Will Irwin, ed., Introduction to
Letters to Kermit from Theodore Roosevelt
(New York, 1946).

“the soul of a poet”
Author’s interview with Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of the late Kermit Roosevelt.

“He is very interested”
KR to Belle Willard, 1912, KBRP.

“For there is neither”
William Roscoe Thayer,
Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography
(Boston, 1919).

Concerned that his son
TR to KR, April 20, 1913, TRC.

“Unless things go”
KR to TR, July 31, 1913, KBRP.

“Twice it was”
KR to Belle Willard, Sept. 15, 1912, KBRP.

“for the Indians are up”
KR to Belle Willard, Oct. 10, 1912, KBRP.

That summer, Kermit
KR to TR, July 31, 1913, TRP.

“Kermit was a very”
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
All in the Family
(New York, 1929).

“tremendously homesick”
KR to TR, 1913, KBRP.

Her name was Belle
Unnamed newspaper, Jan. 15, 1913, KBRP.

Petite and blonde
New York Times
, Jan. 4, 1913, KBRP. Belle’s father owned the highly fashionable Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.—a luxurious establishment just down the street from the White House, which had become a landmark in the capital’s social and political life. The hotel had been one of Ulysses S. Grant’s favorite places to have an after-work cigar when he was in office. Julia Ward Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the Willard in 1861, and Martin Luther King, Jr., would write parts of his historic “I Have a Dream” speech there a century later. Even Alice Roosevelt, Theodore’s older daughter, was known to drop by the Willard on occasion, where she scandalized patrons in the hotel dining room by smoking in public.

Kermit had met Belle
Belle had been in Paris, ensconced in opulent comfort at the Hotel Astoria on the Champs-Élysées, that summer when she had received news of Kermit’s fall from the bridge. She had been relieved to hear that he had recovered fully, but she could not resist teasing him just a little. “I am glad to hear that you are quite well again. Broken ribs, and knee caps and ‘other injuries,’ especially other injuries, sounded very serious and I had visions of long weeks of suffering flat on your back, instead of which you’ve apparently been having glorious sport, hunting and riding etc.—so much for sympathy waisted! [sic]” (Belle Willard to KR, n.d., KBRP.)

“No letter from”
KR to Belle Willard, March 1913, KBRP.

“I don’t want”
KR to Belle Willard, Dec. 1912, KBRP.

Kermit planned
to Bahia is present-day Salvador.

“It won’t be anything”
TR to KR, June 23, 1913, in
Letters
, vol. 7.

“a sort of grim pride”
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., to KR, Sept. 9, 1913, KBRP.

“I have not been able”
Quoted in Sylvia Jukes Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady
(New York, 1980).

“all right again”
KR to Edith Roosevelt, Aug. 1913, KBRP.

“Father needs”
Quoted in Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
.

“sphinx-like silence”
Ibid.

“I can but”
Edith Roosevelt to KR, Sept. 14, 1913, KBRP.

frantic telephoning
John Zahm,
Through South America’s Southland
(New York, 1916).

Jacob Sigg
Ibid.

At 1:00 p.m.
George Cherrie,
Diary
, Oct. 11, 1913, AMNH.

“I think he feels”
Edith Roosevelt to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, Oct. 15, 1913, TRC.

“If we have”
TR to Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Oct. 8, 1913, TRC.

“Ask [Gilbert] Grosvenor”
John Zahm to Albert Zahm, Oct. 17, 1913, CAZA 4/09.

Most days she
TR to Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Oct. 8, 1913, TRC.

Twenty-five years old
Unnamed newspaper, Jan. 3, 1913, TRC.

Lately, she had become
Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
.

“Margaret has proved”
TR to Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Oct. 8, 1913, TRC.

Margaret was looking forward
Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
.

The men of the
Zahm,
Through South America’s Southland
.

“I am pleased”
TR to Frank Chapman, Oct. 15, 1913, TRP.

“The Colonel’s friendly”
George Cherrie,
Dark Trails
(New York, 1930).

During the voyage
Ibid.

“Dear Belle”
KR to Belle Willard, n.d., KBRP.

15 percent
Michael Goulding, Ronaldo Barthem, and Efrem Ferreira,
The Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon
(Washington, D.C., 2003).

The river’s mouth
Ibid.

When the two
The Nazca Plate continues to slide under South America at the geologically lightning-fast pace of eight to ten centimeters per year.

The potential political
Donald F. O’Reilly, “Rondon: Biography of a Brazilian Republican Army Commander,” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1969.

Rio de Janeiro
In the mid-1950s, Brazil decided that it needed a capital in the interior of the country, so it began building a city named Brasilia in the cool, arid highlands. Construction began in 1956, and the capital was moved from Rio to Brasilia four years later.

A week earlier
TR to Lauro Müller, Oct. 14, 1913, TRP.

The forty-eight-year-old
Theodore Roosevelt,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
(New York, 1914).

On October 4
Todd A. Diacon,
Stringing Together a Nation
(Durham, N.C., 2004).

Rondon had not been
Amilcar Botelho de Magalhães,
Impressão da Commissão Rondon
.

Rondon had accepted
Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon,
Lectures Delivered on the 5th, 7th, and 9th of October, 1915
(Rio de Janeiro, 1916).

“The fact is,”
Magalhães,
Impressão da Commissão Rondon
.

“The ordinary traveller”
TR,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
.

Müller, a sophisticated
Ibid.

“Colonel Roosevelt”
George Cherrie,
Dark Trails
(New York, 1930).

Rondon had stumbled
Ibid.

When he was told
Rondon,
Lectures
.

Francisco de Orellana
Anthony Smith,
Explorers of the Amazon
(Chicago, 1990).

“eating nothing but leather”
Gaspar de Carvajal,
The Discovery of the Amazon
, trans. Bertram T. Lee, ed. H. C. Heaton (New York, 1934).

Once on the river
Smith,
Explorers of the Amazon
; Edward J. Goodman,
The Explorers of South America
(Norman, Okla., 1972).

Thirteen years later
Smith,
Explorers of the Amazon
.

Colonel Teles Pires
TR,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
.

“Now, we will”
New York Times
, May 27, 1914.

Osborn was thunderstruck
Henry Fairfield Osborn, “Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist,”
Journal of the American Museum of Natural History
, Jan. 1919.

Roosevelt’s admission
TR to Frank Chapman, Nov. 4, 1913, in
Letters
, vol. 7.

“In a word”
Frank Chapman, introduction to TR,
Through the Brazilian
Wilderness
, 1924. (Chapman used the river’s current name: Rio Roosevelt.)

“If they had the slightest”
Ibid.

“last chance to be”
Quoted in Edward Wagenknecht,
The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt
.

“The little boy”
Corinne Roosevelt Robinson,
My Brother Theodore Roosevelt
, (New York, 1921).

In 1909
The American physician Frederick Albert Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole first, but most historians credit Peary and Henson with the accomplishment.

“Tell Osborn”
Osborn, “Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist”; Henry Fairfield Osborn,
Impressions of Great Naturalists
(New York, 1924), TRC.

“Father Zahm is”
Chapman, introduction to TR,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
, 1924.

“most eager to begin”
John Zahm to Albert Zahm, Nov. 16, 1913, CAZA 4/09.

Brazilians who had
traveled Chapman, introduction to TR,
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
, 1924.

When Roosevelt’s party
Cherrie,
Dark Trails
.

“appalling amount of luggage”
Leo E. Miller, In the Wilds of South America (New York, 1918).

“I loathe state-travelling”
TR to Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Dec. 10, 1913, TRC.

“As you will see”
John Zahm to Albert Zahm, Nov. 27, 1913, CAZA 4/09.

“continuous ovation”
John Zahm to Albert Zahm, Dec. 12, 1913, CAZA 4/09; “Roosevelt’s Visit to South America,”
American Review of Reviews
, July 1914.

Roosevelt had offered Colombia
Thomas Bailey,
A Diplomatic History of the American People
, 10th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1980).

He wrote to his
Quoted in Kathleen Dalton,
Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life
(New York, 2002).

“Don’t you know”
Jose Custodio Alves de Lima, “Reminiscences of Roosevelt in Brazil,” Brazilian American, Jan. 29, 1927.

“The human multitude”
Quoted in
North American Review
, March 1914, TRC.

“As soon as”
John Zahm,
Through South America’s Southland
(New York, 1916).

“I love peace”
Ibid.

While in Buenos Aires
Sylvia Jukes Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady
(New York, 1980).