The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-06-04
PUT RIVER ON MAP
coLeHhL ROOSEVELT GIVES
eRApHIc STORY OF PERILs
~ WILDs OF BRAZIL.
ALL THE MAPS ARE WRONG
Reassorts His Claims to Discovery Of
River DuVIda In Address Before
NatI1naI Geographic soeiety-Rlver
Is a. Long as the EIbe.

Washington, May 27. - Theodore
Roosevelt last night gave an extended
account of his discovery of the Duvida
river, CE river of doubt, before the Ma
tonal Geographic society in this city.
he declared that the river is as long
as the Elbe and is not shown on any
map. AS result of his explorations,
Colonel Roosevelt declared that all of
the maps of the country he traversed
are wrong
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, If it had not been
for the deeds of Portuguese and to
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.
TO take an infinitely less import
ant instance, l could have done moth
ing in South America if it 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. 1t 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
rivers except the mouths. and in the
case Of the river of which am going
to speak what they did say about the
mouth was entirely wrong.
Il did not go down to South Amer
lea with any intention of making such
an exploration as this~
When go of on trip do not like
to make pictures for myself Of what
l am going to do, because l do not
know, but 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 l got to Rio Janeiro, Mr..
Iauro 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 60 up the Para
quay and then down into the Amazon.
but that he thought he had something
which would appeal to me much
moR'; that the telegraphic commits
sion which had been working in the
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 chat they had found the sources
OF ttFo rivers running north, which
went they did not know where,
Che of those rivers, the smaller,
was called the Pineapple. The other,
and larger one, was caller the Du-
vida the River Of Doubt, because they
did aot know where it went out He
told me that the head OF the tele-
graihic commission, Colonel Rondon,
who had for 25 years been engaged
In fine work of exploring that wild
western wilderness of Brazil, would, If
desired, accompany me, down that
river and see where 1t came out, and
he said:
Now, we will be delighted to have
you Go it, but, of course, you must
understand, we cannot tell you any,
thing ct what will happen, and there
will be nome surprises not necessarily
pleasant l said Well, by George,
that is jtlst 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 l wish that
the Brazilian ambassador were here
to report to his government what /
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
Z years.
I'VE would not have known the ex.
lstence of the headwaters Of this river.
We could not have crossed the high
land wilderness at all If it had not
been for the work Of that commission.
ALI 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
pay some recognition-would give
some recognition-to the really re-
markable work that has been done by
Colonel Rondon and his associates of
the Brazilian telegraphic commission
during the last seven years-work