The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

Riveting, though over-sensationalized, story of TR's midlife crisis-turned headlong expedition into an uncharted expanse of S. America. Who doesn't like a death-defying, Indian-haunted sojourn down an unknown river? Surprises me that this is apparently the first contemporary examination of the ordeal. ( )

This book is a blend of subjects: a portrait of one of the most colorful of American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, and the expedition he led into the Brazilian rain forest that literally put a major tributary of the Amazon on the map. And it succeeds very well at both. It reminded me quite a bit of Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition that opened up the American West. That book also gave us a portrait of one of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore, in that case Thomas Jefferson, as well as telling us one of the greatest stories of exploration. I have to admit having recently read Ambrose’s book, that left me less impressed with Milliard. The Lewis and Clark expedition is of course the bigger, more important story, and it's a subject that brought out the best in Ambrose, and though her book is very readable, I don’t think she’s a strong prose stylist, and the book doesn’t compare with the best works about exploration and survival or nature I’ve read.

But that’s to raise a perhaps unfairly high bar. And by quite a few measures, this is a strong book. I came into the book knowing little of Theodore Roosevelt, other than knowing he was a thorough-going imperialist and well, war-monger? Militaristic? I’d have said it was only appropriate that his favorite expression was “bully.” This book, though it doesn’t deny that aspect of Roosevelt, does also show his much more appealing side both as naturalist and a man imbued with more than his own share of undaunted courage. Milliard in the beginning of the book quoted someone describing Roosevelt: “When he came into the room it was as if a strong wind had blown the door open.” And she ends with the tribute of a fellow member of the expedition, who said he couldn’t understand “how any man could be brought in close personal contact without Colonel Roosevelt without loving the man.” And after reading this book I could understand why. Milliard also paints a vivid picture of Candido Rondon, the co-leader of the expedition and one of “Brazil’s greatest heroes.”

And the book certainly does well in giving us a sense of a unique habitat. Milliard, who was an editor of National Geographic, is good at choosing the kinds of details that stick with you and gives you a sense of enormous scales. Such as how the Amazon has over 3,000 different species of fish compared to the around 375 of the Missouri and Mississippi combined. And yes, she gives you a description of some of the dangers you might expect--alligators, piranhas, malaria-bearing mosquitoes, hostile natives (who happen to be cannibals.) Although I think if I’m likely to have nightmares, it’ll be inspired by her tales about a species of Amazon river fish called the candiru. Really... don’t ask. It’s a fast and informative read, so certainly if tales of exploration and history at all interest you, this would be worth giving a chance. ( )

Teddy Roosevelt’s visage sits on Mount Rushmore in recognition of his achievements as statesmen, which were impressive. As President he led America as it began to emerge as a world power. He waged war against business monopolies and established the first national park. And his role in settling the Russo-Japanese War earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Roosevelt was more than simply President. He had extensive government service at both the state and federal level. His leadership of an Army unit during the Spanish-American War earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. But at heart he considered himself a naturalist, even though he had abandoned science as a field of study during his first year at Harvard. It was this yearning to explore and understand the natural world that led to his co-leadership of an expedition to Brazil in 1914, a story that is told by Candace Millard in River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey (New York: Doubleday, 2005).

Roosevelt used major physical challenges as a means of coping with significant changes in his life. When his first wife died he went to the Black Hills and worked as a cattle rancher for two years. After nearly two full-terms as President he went on a year-long safari to Africa. Millard describes him as somewhat adrift following his failure in 1912 to regain the presidency he had walked away from in 1908. When he was invited to travel to South America for some speaking engagements he quickly grasped the opportunity to take part in a scientific exploration of an uncharted river in Brazil, a river whose headwaters were known, but whose course and terminus were not, the River of Doubt.

Millard tells this story chronologically, looking back in the lives of the characters when needed to understand the way their past shaped their present. The story is divided into several primary sections: the 1912 election and its effect on Roosevelt; the conceiving and planning of the expedition; the overland phase, a roughly two-month journey to reach the headwaters; and the final two month river descent.

Besides Roosevelt, the two primary characters are his son, Kermit, and his expedition co-commander, the Brazilian Colonel Candido Rondon. Rondon had spent over 20 years in establishing telegraph lines in Brazil’s interior. He was intimately familiar with the nature of the environment they would be traveling through, knowing its many hazards, which included the indigenous people, some of whom were hostile to any other people in the Amazon basin. Kermit Roosevelt had traveled with his father to Africa and saw his role on this journey as one of looking after his father’s physical well-being.

The exploration of the River of Doubt, re-named Rio Roosevelt (today being the Rio Teodoro) was a success as a scientific venture, putting the course of a previously unknown river of 1,000 miles in length on the map of South America. But it was not without risks, small and large, and some people paid for those risks with their lives. Millard has written an exciting account of a little-known adventure in the life of one of America’s most compelling and unique citizens, Teddy Roosevelt, a man whose life really did loom as large as his image does on Mount Rushmore. ( )

”Suddenly the river made a sharp turn, and when they rounded the bend, the men saw a seething cauldron of white water, the prelude to world-class rapids. Surprised by the stark transformation of their placid river, they quickly drove their canoes ashore so that they could decide what to do next from the relative safety of the bank…Stretching before them for nearly a mile was a series of rapids. The river sped ‘with enormous velocity’ through rocks of friable sandstone that had been ‘deeply cut out, smashed to pieces and thrown one on top of the other by the rushing forth of the waters.’” (Page 174)

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt failed to win an unprecedented third term in the White House. By 1913, he had organized a group of men who would accompany him in an exploration of the thousand mile long River of Doubt through Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. In addition to his son Kermit, he was accompanied by Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Brazil’s most famous explorer, naturalist George Cherrie and a team of South American camaradas.

Candice Millard did a remarkable job bringing to light the tremendous feat accomplished by the Roosevelt expedition. Against improbable odds and in a way that left the experts in disbelief, Roosevelt and his crew faced mind-boggling adversity including starvation, disease, drowning, venomous snakes, unremitting whitewater rapids and even murder. And the possibility of being attacked by Indians, evidence of which is just about everywhere they turned. Add to the mix that Roosevelt himself was near death during a good portion of the trip and you have the makings of an astonishing bio.

It’s one thing to tell an adventure story like this in dry non-fiction prose. It’s quite another to put all the facts together in a narrative that fairly sings and has the reader on the edge of their seat from beginning to end. That’s what Millard has done: turned a presidential biography into a page turning thriller, and oh what a ride it is. Very highly recommended. ( )

history, non-fiction ( )