Hour 5 Test

Roosevelt and River of Doubt

Teddy Roosevelt and the River of Doubt
In December of 1993 Teddy Roosevelt and his son, Kermit Roosevelt, reached South America. Roosevelt took this trip shortly after he lost the presidency race. The foreign minister of Brazil offered Roosevelt a chance to explore an unmapped river in a rainforest. Roosevelt accepted the offer. Kermit who was engaged to the daughter of the U.S. ambassador of Spain did not want to go on this expedition for it would delay his wedding. His mother asked him to go because she was concerned about her husband’s health and the hardships of the expedition.
Before the Expedition, which would later be known as Roosevelt-Rondo Scientific Expedition; Roosevelt met up with Candido Rondo an explorer who spent most of his life exploring the Amazon River. From the start of the expedition was a disaster. Three months into the expedition Roosevelt was cut on the boulder and the wound was infected. Later he got malaria and thought he was a burden to his group. Roosevelt thought of killing himself with a lethal dose of morphine. His son Kermit convinced him to stop.
Through out the expedition the Roosevelt and his crew faced many hardships. They faced deadly rapids, one man drowned in the rapids. Also they faced disease. Kermit also later on got malaria himself. Along the way Roosevelt faced Indian attacks and more. At one point they faced six rapids impossible to cross. Kermit used a series of ropes to lower the canoes down the rapids.
In mid-1994 Roosevelt was taken to civilization on stretchers to a hospital. From there he recovered.