Word: rooseveltism
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Just to reach the banks of the River of Doubt, however, Roosevelt and his men had to endure a grueling monthlong journey across the Brazilian Highlands. They lost dozens of pack mules and oxen to starvation and exhaustion and were forced to abandon crates filled with provisions. At the river's edge, Roosevelt had taken stock of what was left and realized that he and his men would have to cut their provisions in half before they launched a single boat...
...swam 15-ft.-long black caimans and razor-toothed piranhas. Each time the men were forced to portage their massive dugouts or hack a campsite out of the thick vegetation on the riverbanks, they were attacked by stinging, biting, disease-carrying insects. Nearly all the men, including Kermit and Roosevelt, fell prey to the suffocating fevers and bone-grinding chills of malaria. The jungle was also home to poisonous snakes. One night a coral snake slithered from under a fallen tree and sank its fangs into Roosevelt's foot. But for his thick leather boots, he would have died...
Also hidden in the rain forest was a group of indigenous tribesmen later known as the Cinta Larga, or Wide Belts. Sophisticated hunters and fierce warriors, they shadowed Roosevelt and his men yet never allowed themselves to be seen. They attacked Colonel Rondon when he was hunting alone and killed his dog. Rondon, who had spent nearly half his life exploring the Amazon and making contact with its most isolated tribes, responded to the attack by leaving the Indians gifts, signs of friendship and respect. As commander of his own regiment, he had ordered his troops when dealing with indigenous...
Even with Rondon's help, the expedition had already lost one man, and the others were at constant risk. Kermit's paddler had drowned in one of the many deadly rapids that studded the river. Kermit, 24, had nearly died in the same accident, and Roosevelt lived in constant fear that he would lose not his own life on this expedition but his son's. Time and again, the men also lost canoes and precious provisions to the rapids. Game and fish eluded them, and they were reduced to searching, often in vain, for Brazil nuts, hearts of palm...
...time the expedition reached what appeared to be an impassable set of rapids--a series of six waterfalls, the last of which was more than 30 ft. high--Roosevelt was gravely ill, and his men were beaten down by exhaustion, hunger and fear. The only man among them who believed that they could get their dugouts through the rapids was Kermit. Having spent much of the past year building bridges, he was extremely skilled with ropes, a talent that had already saved the expedition countless times as it encountered series after series of rapids...