Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-06-04

Washington, May 27.-Col Theo-
dore Roosevelt appeared before the
National Geographic society last night
and gave an account Of his discovery
Of river in Brazil Mr.. Roosevelt
declared that the River Duvida. or
river Of doubt, is as long as the Elbe
and is not on any map. All the maps
wrong, said Mr.. Roosevelt, and will
not be right until the results Of his
explorations are recorded by the car
tographers.
Mr.. Roosevelt's address was in part
as follows:
Hardly ever can you do anything
Of note, except by building on what
has been done by your predecessors
work. Columbus could not have dis
covered America, IL 1t had not been
for the deeds of Portuguese and to a
less extent Of Spanish sailors, from
the days of Prince Henry the Naviga-
tor on. Peary could not have discov-
cred the North pole If there had not
been for generations men who had been
pushing far northward the limits Of
knowledge Of the polar regions.
ITO take an infinitely less import
ant instance, / could have done moth
Ing in South America If 1t had not
been for the work done by scores of
other men during the years that
passed, and especially during the last
seven or eight years.
Here Is the Amazon river. II was
descended and discovered for the first
time nearly four centuries ago by the
early Spanish explorers, whose feats
were so phenomenal that they make
all the work of all of us who have
anything on that river today seem
child's play in comparison. l say that,
meaning 1t literally.
THE people who went up and down
the Amazon speedily discovered the
mouths of a number of rivers. One,
two and three centuries elapsed before
they discovered anything about those
case of the river of which ! am going
to speak what they did say about the
mouth was entirely wrong.
Il did not 20 down to South Amer
lea with any intention Of making such
an exploration as this.
When go off on trip do not like
to make pictures for myself Of what
am going to do, because l do not
know, but l had supposed that our trip
would chiefly be geological trip. and
went primarily for the American
Museum of Natural History with that
end in view.
When ! got to Rio Janeiro, Mr..
Lauro Mueller, who visited US last
year, and who is the minister Of for
eign affairs OF Brazil, told me that, Of
course, they would help me to do what
/ wished, which was to go up the Para
quay and then down into the Amazon,
but that he thought he had something
which would appeal to me much
more; that the telegraphic commits
sion which had been working In the
western portion of Brazil had found
that the best existing maps were total
ly wrong, that the whole region would
have to be remapped after the discov-
cries OF the telegraphic commission,
and that they had found the sources
Of two rivers running north, which
went they did not know where.
"One OF those rivers, the smaller.
was called the Pineapple. The otheB
and larger one, was caller the Du-
vida, the River of Doubt, because they
did not know where 1t went out. He
told me that the head of the tele-
graphic commission, Colonel Rondon,
who had for 25 years been engaged
In the work Of exploring that wild
western wilderness Of Brazil, would, IL
l desired, accompany me, down that
river and see where 1t came out, and
he said
Now, we will be delighted to have
you do It, but. of course. you must
understand, we cannot tell you any
thing Of what will happen. and there
will be some surprises not necessarily
pleasant | said. Well, by George.
that is just what would like to do
to make the try and see what would
happen down that river
And now here / want, with all the
emphasis possible--and wish that
the Brazilian ambassador were here
to report to his government what I
say-I want with all the emphasis pos
sible to attest that everything that we
did this year was a sequel to and
was conditioned upon what the tele-
graphic commission OF Brazil, under
Colonel Rondon and his associates,
had done during the preceding seven
years.
I'VE would not have known the ex-
istence Of the headwaters of this river.
We could not have crossed the high
land wilderness at all II 1t had not
been for the work OF that commission.
All that we did was to put the cap on
the pyramid of which they had laid
deep and broad the foundations.
81 greatly wish that this body would
nav some recoRnition-Would give