The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-23
ROOSEVELT FAMILY ANXIOUS FOR NEWS
 OF EK-PRESlDENT
Message From Interior of Brazil Tells of Disaster
 To Explorers.
Whole Equipment Lost, Pre- sumabIy in Rapids of the
 River of Doubt

l z core RooseveIt's family and friends were anxiously awaiting further ad- vices today regarding the accident by which his party lost it's entire equip ment in the rapids of Brazilian river. While no concern, it was said, was felt for the safety of the former President. it was desirable to learn just how and when the accident occurred and whether the expedition would be abandoned, especially as the party was so far from a base where new equip ment could be acquired
 The news of the Tnishap came in a shore message from Anthony FIala. member of the party. It was dated at Santaren, Brazil. yesterday, and read:
 We have lost everything ip the rapids Telephone my wife of my safety
 Santsrem is in the State of Para. at the confluence of the Tapajos river with the Amazon. and the dispatch was probably sent there by courier.
 The accident in all proba bility oc-- cured on an unknown river which Theod ore Roosevelt, Jr., today said his father, in a. letter to him, had called the Rio Duivata, or River of Doubt
 Col. Roosevelt in a letter written on Jan. 6 from Tapirapoan, in Matto. Grassoa, Brazil, and received last week by Frank M. Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History. said that he. expected to explore this unknown river.
 i've are now about to go into the real wilderness, where we shall have to travel light. and can hardly collect any big animals. he wrote. In a. month or six weeks we shall reach the headwaters of an unexpIored river. If my health continues good, as expect, think it possible that will go down
 
 comes out, taking Kermit, Ffa1a and Cherrie with me, as we'll as Gel. Ron don and one or two of the Brazil1ans- anyrhile the rest of the party, Including Miller, will go straight to Madeira and come down that t05 Ma naos Miller will then collect around Manaos or elsewhere until Kermit, tCherrie and turn up- Itis not pos l sib1e to give a. forecast as to the time that will be required
 What the equipment of Col Roose-s velt's party was to make the trip down this unknown river is largely a. matter of conjecture After leaving the upper Parana and Paraguay riv- l CTS, which flow southward and join the Rio de la Plata, the party had to tra-4 verse the plateau, extending through Paraguay and Brazil, a. trip of 800 miles or so. This the party did safely Ion horseback, according to telegraph advices which came through nine days 1 ago.
 Col Roosevelt does not state in iany of his letters what means of Transportation he would use in de scending the unknown river. It is believed that nothing heavier than lcanoes could have cen carried on the | 500 miles journey on horseback from I the headquartere of the Paraguay to the River of Doubt
 The great danger in descending the streams that flow northward in Brazil to join the Amazon is in the many rapids and falls The plateau, which l is on the average 5000 to 4,000 feet above the sea level, slopes abruptly to the floor of the Amazon valley. For this reason some of the greatest water falls in the world are found in those l tributaries.
 l It is possible that after the expedi- 1 tion lost the equipment the members continued on their way down stream on rafts> OF on foot. It is probable that their journey took them to the ITapajos, and that some members of l the party went on down the river to Santarem or sent messenger ahead to that place.
 The specimens of natural history col leeted by the party On it's trip up the T Parana and Paraguay rivers are safe, I it is understood here as the colonel had indicated that he would ship them I before he entered the. Brazilian wilds. TThe loss in the rapids, outside of food, T sdI1lS, camp HaI0T1A4 ana 1nSlTuIn0ntS, undoubtedly included the birds and
 animals killed, and photographs taken
 from the time the party started on
 the horseback trip over the plateau.
 Col. Roosevelt, according to plans he had marked out, expected to arrive
 next month in Manaos. From there
 hew to start for Madrid to attend the marriage of his son Kermit to
 Miss Belle Willard, daughter of the American Ambassador.
 II