Teddy Roosevelt’s Disastrous Journey Down the River of Doubt

In 1913, just a few years after leaving the White House, former president Theodore Roosevelt sought one last great adventure. At fifty-five, restless and still burning with the spirit of conquest that had carried him up San Juan Hill and through the African veldt, Roosevelt agreed to join an expedition into the uncharted wilds of the Brazilian Amazon. It would become one of the most harrowing and near-fatal journeys of his life — the descent of the Rio da Dúvida, or “River of Doubt.”

The trip was meant to be a scientific exploration under the sponsorship of the American Museum of Natural History. Initially, it was planned as a moderate trek through known parts of the Amazon. But when Roosevelt met the famed Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon — a stoic officer famed for mapping Brazil’s interior — the scope changed dramatically. Rondon proposed something far bolder: to chart the mysterious River of Doubt, a tributary of the Madeira River that had never been mapped by Europeans. True to form, Roosevelt agreed instantly.

The expedition departed in December 1913, heading into the deep green maze of the Amazon basin. The team consisted of Roosevelt, his son Kermit, Rondon, a handful of scientists, and a large group of porters and pack animals. Almost immediately, the journey proved far more dangerous than any of them anticipated. The party traveled by mule and canoe through searing heat, relentless rain, and clouds of biting insects. The mules quickly died or were eaten, and the canoes — poorly built for the violent rapids — frequently capsized, destroying supplies and costing lives.

The River of Doubt was a twisting, treacherous waterway filled with whirlpools, hidden rocks, and sharp turns. Every bend threatened disaster. The men had to cut new canoes from trees using dull axes and machetes, a process that drained their strength and morale. Food supplies dwindled to near starvation levels; they survived on palm hearts, river fish, and what few animals they could hunt. Disease soon took hold. Nearly everyone suffered from malaria or dysentery. Roosevelt himself developed a severe leg infection after cutting his shin on a rock, which later became gangrenous. Feverish and hallucinating, he confessed to Kermit that he might not survive.

Tensions mounted within the expedition. One porter murdered another during an argument over stolen food and then fled into the jungle, never to be seen again. The group, already weakened and demoralized, had to decide whether to chase the killer or push onward — they chose survival.

By the time the expedition finally reached civilization months later, they had lost half their canoes, most of their supplies, and several men. Roosevelt had lost nearly sixty pounds and was carried out of the jungle barely conscious. He later admitted that he had come within “a finger’s breadth of death.” His health never fully recovered.

The journey, however, was not in vain. The River of Doubt — later renamed the Rio Roosevelt in his honor — was successfully mapped, its existence confirmed, and its course added to Brazil’s geography. Roosevelt’s ordeal captured the imagination of the public, reinforcing his reputation as a man of unbreakable courage. Yet privately, he knew the trip had nearly killed him.

It was the last great adventure of his life — a fittingly wild and perilous coda to the career of America’s most indomitable explorer-president.

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