Theodore Roosevelt

            In this PBS article about Theodore Roosevelt and his expedition to find the River of Doubt, it discusses how he got his team together for the job. This safari took him through Kenya, Uganda and many other African countries. His travels began on December 9, 1913, the height of the rainy season in that area. Roosevelt’s crew consisted of his 24- year old son Kermit, Colonel Rondon, George K. Cherrie, Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Dr. Cajazeira, and 16 highly skilled camaradas. The rapids in the river were very strong and actually took someone’s life when he was trying to save Kermit’s canoe. Monkey meat became a part of the men’s diet. Along with the lack of food, the crew went through many other troubles like fevers and getting painful insect bites. Roosevelt got a scrape on his leg from a boulder and had gotten a bad fever which caused him to a near death experience. He had told the rest of the people to go on without him, but they refused and stayed back with him till he was able to heal. On April 27, 1913, Theodore Roosevelt reached the end of the River of Doubt. They discovered over 2,000 species of birds and 500 mammals had been collected for research.