The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2005

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 6-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 6: “Deliverance”

Part 6, Chapter 28 Summary: “The Rubber Men”

When Ford introduced the Model T and automobiles became popular, there was a rush to the Amazon in search of rubber. However, by 1913, rubber production had shifted to Malaysia, where trees could be planted and cheap labor was at hand. Those rubber tappers in the Amazon, called seringueiros, had to live in the Amazon and they performed brutal and perilous work to get small amounts of rubber for sale. Only the desperate were attracted to this work. These tappers did not expect to see anyone other than hostile Indigenous groups coming from the direction of the expedition.

On April 15, the group spotted a simple house, which was deserted. Next, the group encountered a man named Marques in a canoe. The man quickly paddled to shore. When the group, whose members were filthy and gaunt, explained that they were not hostile, Marques told them to signal that fact with three gunshots and a blow of a bamboo horn. When they encountered another house, they did so. However, the woman there was terrified, mistaking them for Indigenous forces, and fled downriver with her children. There, she told her husband, Honorato, that their home was under attack.

When Honorato went with others to his home, he noticed that these men were not Indigenous. He and the other tappers were hospitable to the group, selling them food and canoes and helping them to hire a guide. The group stayed the night in a house for the first time in months and had a real meal. Millard comments that the men of the expedition were not aware that the reason for their survival was the Cinta Larga’s indecision about whether to attack or remain invisible to them. Since there was no consensus, the group made it through their land.

Part 6, Chapter 29 Summary: “A Pair of Flags”

While the expedition now had access to food, advice, and canoes, there was no hospital available. It would take another 15 days to reach Pyrineus, who was waiting at the confluence of the Aripuanã on Rondon’s orders. Roosevelt’s condition was so concerning that he allowed Dr. Cajazeira to operate on his leg in the rainforest. Cajazeira drained his abscess without the aid of anesthetics. Roosevelt’s condition remained poor, given his infection and malaria. He had lost 55 pounds in three months and was not eating.

Another tapper, Barboso, was extremely generous to the group, providing them with a duck, chicken, and rice, and lending them his boat. Some of the men were getting sick from overeating after starving for so long. The expedition still had to cross a “long and treacherous series of waterfalls” (333). However, the leader of the rubber tappers, Caripe, guided the men to the foot of the falls and showed them how to get through the rapids safely. With the aid of his boat, they were through in a day and a half.

There were several more times in which the boats had to be carried over land and Kermit’s dog was lost on one such occasion. On April 26, the group spotted the tents of Pyrineus’s soldiers. Roosevelt looked up from his weakened state to see the US and Brazilian flags flying over the encampment.

Epilogue Summary

On May 19, 1914, just three weeks after reaching Pyrineus, Roosevelt sailed into New York harbor to cheers. However, his appearance shocked onlookers. He had lost his “legendary vigor” (337) and was thin and drawn.

The enormity of his achievement was such that he was met with skepticism and disbelief by other explorers and a former president of the Royal Geographic Society. Outraged at this reaction, Roosevelt was determined to confront his critics. On May 26, he gave a speech to the National Geographic Society in which he praised Rondon and drew the River of Doubt with chalk. Although Roosevelt was tired and weak, he “left his detractors mute” (340). Cherrie, Miller, Fiala, and Zahm attended the speech and the former president received “thunderous cheers and applause” (339). After attending Kermit’s wedding to Belle in Europe, Roosevelt sailed to England and spoke before the Royal Geographic Society. Once again, he set the record straight, humiliating his detractors and restoring his reputation.

Roosevelt was still suffering the effects of infection and malaria. Despite that, he wanted to fight in World War I. However, President Wilson would not allow it. Instead, his four sons fought in the war. His youngest son, Quentin, died in combat, a fact which devastated Roosevelt, as he had been the one to encourage his sons to enlist. In November 1918, Roosevelt was hospitalized, “so ill he was hardly able to walk or even stand” (343). He stoically accepted the news that he would be confined to a wheelchair. On January 16, 1919, Roosevelt died at home in the presence of his longtime valet. The news of his death seemed impossible to most Americans given his life spirit.

Lyra had died before Roosevelt while surveying a river. True to Rondon’s training, he threw his notebooks to the shore before he drowned. Cherrie died at his home in Vermont at the age of 83 after a long retirement. Rondon, who became a hero in Brazil, lived the longest of all those on the expedition, dying at the age of 92 in 1958. His telegraph line, which had taken such painstaking work, was rendered unnecessary the year it opened as radiotelegraphy replaced it (345). Ironically, the lines were turned into a road that allowed settlers to encroach on Indigenous lands. In 1889, there were 1 million Indigenous peoples living in the Amazon, and only 200,000 by the time of Rondon’s death in 1958. With the incursions, the Cinta Larga became bold, attacking rubber tappers for self-preservation. Outsiders would shoot them on sight. It was not until the 1960s that the first official contact was made between this people and the Brazilian government. In a tense atmosphere, gifts were exchanged at that time.

Kermit’s life unraveled following his father’s death. He and Belle moved to Argentina and had a son, but he was unsatisfied as a banker. His marriage turned unhappy, though Belle stuck with him despite his open infidelity. Like his uncle, Elliott, Kermit developed an alcohol dependency and spent time in a sanatorium. Belle lobbied for him to get a commission during World War II and he was sent to Alaska as a result. There, on June 6, 1943, Kermit died by suicide.

It was not until 1926 that another expedition made it down the River of Doubt and it confirmed the findings of the Rondon-Roosevelt expedition. Millard comments that the Amazon had erased all evidence of the past expedition by then. On March 1, 1919, the Explorers Club of New York invited Cherrie to speak at a memorial to Roosevelt. Cherrie, who was not a natural public speaker, spoke about his friendship with Roosevelt and said that it was impossible not to love him if one knew him. Cherrie was brought to tears.

Part 6-Epilogue Analysis

Despite their poverty, the Brazilian rubber tappers were extremely generous to the expedition. In some cases, they gave them food without charge. They not only sold them boats, but their leader also guided them safely and quickly through a set of rapids. Their help and the decision of the Cinta Larga not to attack the group enabled the expedition’s survival. Still, the group had 15 days to navigate the river before they would reach the meeting point. Roosevelt was in such pain that he consented to surgery in the rainforest without anesthetics. Demonstrating his stoic personality, he tolerated the operation without complaint. The physician drained his abscess, but Roosevelt was battling an infection. Even with that intervention, it was increasingly important to get him to a hospital.

Millard emphasizes that, due to the monumental accomplishment of the Rondon-Roosevelt expedition, other scholars and explorers were skeptical when they heard of it, adding a final twist to The Challenges and Achievements of Exploration. Despite his weakened state when he returned to New York, Roosevelt made a public case for the expedition’s findings and silenced his critics. He did so successfully with his characteristic oratory skills. Later, a 1926 expedition confirmed the findings: Roosevelt and Rondon had put a 1,000-mile river on the map, newly named the Roosevelt. Nevertheless, Roosevelt’s commitment to exploration ultimately took years off his life. He battled the effects of infection and malaria for the next few years and died in 1919. Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was not developed until 1928.

Rondon, who became a Brazilian legend and hero, lived a long life. He most likely resented the irony of the ultimate use of the work of the telegraph commission, which he had headed. As a lifelong advocate for Indigenous peoples, Rondon tried to promote The Importance of Racial Respect and Cooperation in the Amazon. He refused to engage in violence against Indigenous groups even if his life was at risk. He famously instructed his men to die if they must but not to kill. Regardless, the area cleared for the telegraph poles was used to build a road which in turn allowed Brazilians to encroach on Indigenous lands. The impact on Indigenous peoples was devastating, with populations greatly decreasing and relations between Brazilians and the Indigenous peoples deteriorating. In acknowledging these unintended long-term effects of development in the Amazon, Millard implies that not all of the effects of exploration and expansion are beneficial.