Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [427]
48 Roosevelt kept TR, Works, 6.283. TR gave his spare pair of shoes to KR, whose own fell apart because of constant immersion in the river.
49 Cherrie accompanied Cherrie, Dark Trails, 305–6. According to Cherrie, TR “had been ill intermittently” since about the middle of Mar., when he began to suffer from fever and dysentery. KR’s diary makes no mention of these earlier ailments, but he too began to worry about the condition of TR’s heart. It was characteristic of TR himself to say nothing of his 27 Mar. bruise except that “the resulting inflammation was somewhat bothersome.” (TR, Works, 6.296.) He was equally reticent about his later sufferings.
50 Together at TR, Works, 6.284; Cherrie diary, 29 Mar. 1914 (AMNH). The phrase “arrow of light” is Cherrie’s.
51 When they descended Cherrie diary, 2 Apr. 1914 (AMNH); Cherrie, Dark Trails, 301.
52 As if in TR, Works, 6.283–86; KR diary, 30–31 Mar. 1914 (KRP).
53 By the time Rondon, Lectures, 101; TR, Works, 6.263.
54 The following day’s Rondon, Lectures, 104; TR, Works, 6.287–88.
55 “Worried a lot” KR diary, 2 Apr. 1914 (KRP).
Biographical Note: Archibald Roosevelt, Jr., in conversation with the author in 1988, speculated that TR “probably had—was born with—a bicuspid aortic valve like Cousin Kim’s [Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.], instead of the normal tricuspid. People with that problem often overcompensate for it in early life, but they get a telltale heart murmur—which is probably what TR’s doctor at Harvard heard when he warned him to lead a sedentary life. They also are susceptible to oral bacteria, which can lead to very high fevers and even endocarditis if the bloodstream is infected.” Both ABR, Jr., and KR, Jr., began to suffer from calcium buildup close to the aortic valve at approximately the same age as TR developed heart trouble on the Dúvida. ABR, Jr., interview, Apr. 1988 (AC).
56 The next morning Rondon, Lectures, 104; TR, Works, 6.290.
57 Rondon took some men The following incident is reported by TR in Works, 6.290–93, and Rondon in Lectures, 105–6, as well as Vivieros, Rondon, 416–17. Supplemental details come from Cherrie diary, 3 Apr. 1914 (AMNH).
58 He was a known For an earlier knife-wielding incident involving Julio, see Millard, The River of Doubt, 91–92.
59 “We must go after” Vivieros, Rondon, 416 (trans. author).
60 “Paixão is following” TR, Works, 6.293. TR spelled Paixão phonetically as “Paishon.”
61 The murdered man TR, Works, 6.295–96.
62 Late the following Cherrie’s memoir of the expedition has caused some confusion among later writers as to when this attack took place. He dates it just after Rondon’s 28 Mar. announcement that the canoes were going to have to be abandoned. However, Cherrie’s diary makes no reference to TR becoming ill before the heart problems that afflicted him on 2 Apr. Millard cites an official report by Dr. Cajazeira stating that TR’s fever struck him around 2:30 P.M. on 4 Apr. (The River of Doubt, 295–96). Rondon and KR confirm that the fever mounted that evening, and that TR lapsed overnight into delirium. (Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929; Rondon, Lectures, 108; KR diary, 4 Apr. 1914 [KRP].) See also TR, Works, 6.296.
63 He had to endure Cherrie diary, 3, 4 Apr. 1914 (AMNH); Rondon, Lectures, 108; TR, Works, 6.296. Cherrie gives TR’s temperature this night as “39.8° (Centigrade).”
64 He became delirious KR diary, 4 Apr. 1914 (KRP); Kermit Roosevelt, Happy Hunting Grounds, 47; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream” (1797).
65 The doctor laced him Millard, The River of Doubt, 295–96.
66 In terror Kermit Roosevelt, Happy Hunting Grounds, 47. The pathetic fallacy implicit in KR’s reference to the “rushing river” and overnight deluge may owe something to his reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s fable “Silence.”
67 “The expedition cannot” Vivieros, Rondon, 418 (trans. author). See also Cherrie, Dark Trails, 253–54 and Rondon-Naylor interview, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 1929. TR told Charles Washburn in Jan. 1915 that he would have shot himself if he felt completely