Since childhood Roosevelt had been fascinated by South America, especially the great Amazon rainforest, home to more plant and animal species than anyplace else on earth. Moreover, the Amazon was the last great uncharted wilderness; decades after Roosevelt’s heroes Speke and Livingston traced the course of the Nile and mapped most of interior Africa, large swaths of the Amazon still defied and tantalized explorers and cartographers. Roosevelt had proved himself as a hunter and frontiersman and soldier, but he had never done any real exploring. He couldn’t help wondering if he had the stuff. He had first started thinking seriously about a South American expedition late in his second term as president. John Zahm, a Holy Cross priest connected to Notre Dame University and a philosopher-naturalist whose work Roosevelt admired, visited the president and regaled him with stories of his journeys across the southern continent, and suggested something similar for him.
At that time Roosevelt was already laying plans for his African safari, and he set thoughts of Amazonia aside. But his triumphal 1910 tour of Europe inspired certain South American governments to issue invitations for analogous attention, and as he weighed the invitations he recalled Father Zahm’s suggestion. Letters, telegrams, phone calls, and personal consultations eventually supplied the itinerary: He would travel by ship to Rio de Janeiro, then overland across southern Brazil to Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. On this phase of the trip he would discharge his obligations as former president, Nobel laureate, and famous world figure. Edith would accompany him; Kermit, who was between jobs in Brazil and as eager for adventure as ever, would join them in Bahia. The real fun would begin following a return to Buenos Aires, where he and Kermit would put Edith aboard a ship for home and would head north to Paraguay.
Ascending the Paraguay River into Brazil, they would connect with a couple of American naturalists and a Brazilian expeditionary force headed by one [Colonel Rondon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cândido_Rondon), a famously intrepid veteran of numerous explorations into the wildest parts of the continent. The group would cross the divide separating the waters flowing south into Paraguay and Argentina from those flowing north into the Amazon. They would embark on a voyage down a large river that disappeared off the maps into the unknown vastness of the equatorial rain forest. Gravity dictated that the river’s waters ultimately mingled with those of the main channel of the Amazon, whose course was well charted. But where the mingling took place and what route the river—aptly called the Rio da Dúvida, or River of Doubt-followed between its headwaters and its final destination, no one could say.
Source: T.R., The Last Romantic, pages 738-739
Zealousideal_Many_30 on
Teddy is just built diferent, dude was real defenition of “f*** it we ball ”
ten_frags on
How many chapters are left in the book my guy?
These memes are fantastic!
bisexual_t-rex on
I love the idea that teddy was some sort of Pokemon and constantly went around shouting “bully”
4 Comments
Since childhood Roosevelt had been fascinated by South America, especially the great Amazon rainforest, home to more plant and animal species than anyplace else on earth. Moreover, the Amazon was the last great uncharted wilderness; decades after Roosevelt’s heroes Speke and Livingston traced the course of the Nile and mapped most of interior Africa, large swaths of the Amazon still defied and tantalized explorers and cartographers. Roosevelt had proved himself as a hunter and frontiersman and soldier, but he had never done any real exploring. He couldn’t help wondering if he had the stuff. He had first started thinking seriously about a South American expedition late in his second term as president. John Zahm, a Holy Cross priest connected to Notre Dame University and a philosopher-naturalist whose work Roosevelt admired, visited the president and regaled him with stories of his journeys across the southern continent, and suggested something similar for him.
At that time Roosevelt was already laying plans for his African safari, and he set thoughts of Amazonia aside. But his triumphal 1910 tour of Europe inspired certain South American governments to issue invitations for analogous attention, and as he weighed the invitations he recalled Father Zahm’s suggestion. Letters, telegrams, phone calls, and personal consultations eventually supplied the itinerary: He would travel by ship to Rio de Janeiro, then overland across southern Brazil to Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. On this phase of the trip he would discharge his obligations as former president, Nobel laureate, and famous world figure. Edith would accompany him; Kermit, who was between jobs in Brazil and as eager for adventure as ever, would join them in Bahia. The real fun would begin following a return to Buenos Aires, where he and Kermit would put Edith aboard a ship for home and would head north to Paraguay.
Ascending the Paraguay River into Brazil, they would connect with a couple of American naturalists and a Brazilian expeditionary force headed by one [Colonel Rondon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cândido_Rondon), a famously intrepid veteran of numerous explorations into the wildest parts of the continent. The group would cross the divide separating the waters flowing south into Paraguay and Argentina from those flowing north into the Amazon. They would embark on a voyage down a large river that disappeared off the maps into the unknown vastness of the equatorial rain forest. Gravity dictated that the river’s waters ultimately mingled with those of the main channel of the Amazon, whose course was well charted. But where the mingling took place and what route the river—aptly called the Rio da Dúvida, or River of Doubt-followed between its headwaters and its final destination, no one could say.
Source: T.R., The Last Romantic, pages 738-739
Teddy is just built diferent, dude was real defenition of “f*** it we ball ”
How many chapters are left in the book my guy?
These memes are fantastic!
I love the idea that teddy was some sort of Pokemon and constantly went around shouting “bully”