1. Theodore Roosevelts: Darkest Journey- The River of Doubt
By: Candice Millard. Jessica Lynn Youmans.
On the 31st of October in 1912, at 5:30pm, in New York
City, at Madison Square Garden. There was still an hour and a
half before the doors were supposed to open, over a hundred
thousand people swarmed outside waiting for the Progressive
Party's last major rally of the Presidential Campaign. Theodore
Roosevelt was the most popular president and vowed to never run
for president again after he won his second term in 1904, but he
went back on his word and decided to run again eight years later
(1912). He was no longer running as a Republican anymore, which
was William Howard Taft, nor was he running as a democrat, which
was Woodrow Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt decided to abandon the
Republican Party and ran as a Progressive was constantly
criticized, which was nicknamed “Bull Moose Party” in honor of
its leaded. The reason for it being criticized was not because
he did not keep his word to not run again, but because a large
amount of people were loyal to him, therefore, both parties and
some American people felt threaten and worried about what he
could do if he was reelected again. Theodore Roosevelt
strategically scheduled this rally a week prior to election
hoping to swing the vote into his favor.
Only two weeks prior Theodore Roosevelt, who has fifty four
years old at the time, got shot at his previous speech. The
shooter was John Schrank, who feared that Theodore Roosevelt was
running a third term to establish a monarchy. Theodore
Roosevelt’s response to being shot was, “It takes more than that

2. to kill a Bull Moose” as he unbuttoned his coat and showed his
blood stained shirt. Theodore Roosevelt’s fear of losing, came
true on the 5th of November 1921, when Woodrow Wilson won by 2.2
million votes.
In February 1913, Roosevelt received a letter from
Argentina, The Museu Social in Buenos Aires to be exact, which
was an institution devoted to the kind of progressive
intellectual agenda and they wanted Theodore Roosevelt to come
be a guest speaker. Aside from Theodore Roosevelt’s political,
financial, and advertisement reasons, he wanted to go see his
twenty three year old son, who had been living and working in
South America for over a year. On the morning of October 4th,
1913, Theodore Roosevelt arrived at Pier Eight, in Brooklyn, New
York. He was preparing to start his journey to South America on
the Vandyck. The prospect of Theodore Roosevelt seeing Kermit,
his 3rd (out of six) child, had helped persuade him to visit
South America. The most important person to convince was
Theodore Roosevelt’s wife, Edith. She felt, as if, she lost her
son, Kermit, when he left to South America and she decided to
travel with her husband and stay for the first few months to
make sure her son was okay.
On October 18th, 1913, The Vandyck arrived in Bahia, Brazil
with Kermit waiting for his parents to arrive. Theodore
Roosevelt only stayed in Bahia long enough for a tour of the
city, to meet the governor, and pick up his son, because he
wanted to be in Rio de Janero, which was the capital, by October

3. Theodore Roosevelts: Darkest Journey- The River of Doubt
By: Candice Millard. Jessica Lynn Youmans.
21st for a meeting with Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Lauro Muller. He was the one who suggested “an unknown river”
named Rio da Duvida, also known as The River of Doubt, to get to
the Amazon instead of their well-thought-out plan. Lauro Muller
offered an alternative route knowing that Theodore Roosevelt
liked mysterious adventures. Theodore Roosevelt accepted, but
because it wasn’t his original plan, he did not require his crew
to stay with him, but surprisingly they choose to, because they
were loyal to Theodore Roosevelt. During this whole process,
Kermit revealed that he wanted to marry Belle Wilson. While
Theodore Roosevelt was ecstatic for his son, Edith was not.
On the morning of December 12th, 1913, after about two
months of being in South America, Theodore Roosevelt finally
completed his official duties and could now fully give himself
entirely to his long, anticipated adventure to the Amazon. Just
before noon on January 16th, 1914 Theodore Roosevelt, reached
Tapirapoan, expecting an organized group of oxen and mules
prepared for a quick departure for The River of Doubt, but he
was shocked to see the complete opposite of that…utter chaos.
Theodore Roosevelt and his men quickly found out how hard this
journey was going to be. They did not have water for over twenty
miles and they would be forced to go seventeen hours without
food. This became to deteriorate the condition of their mules
and oxen.

4. Theodore Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt, and his men became
even more concerned when they found skeletons of mules and oxen
that had either starved to death or been eating during previous
attempts to find the Amazon. Tension started to rise with Father
Zahm and Ronda when Father Zahm, made a racist comment about one
of his men. Theodore Roosevelt decided that Father Zahm was not
prepared to go through the River of Doubt, so he could continue
the trip until they reached the River of Doubt and he would be
“shunted off” to a less dangerous journey.