Joe Biden on Sunday will be the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon – the vast tropical rainforest that almost killed his predecessor Teddy Roosevelt after leaving office. The visit is part of Biden’s final trip to South America before handing over the White House keys to Donald Trump, who becomes the 47th president of the United States in two months.
Biden, 81, will be in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, en route to Rio de Janeiro, where a two-day G20 summit is to be held.
The Amazon jungle was not a lucky destination for Roosevelt, the 26th US President. When he went on a canoe expedition there in 1914, four years into his tenure of 1901–1909, he had a near-death experience.
Roosevelt, a Republican known for his adventurous spirit, teamed up with Brazilian explorer, Cândido Rondón, to chart the Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt), a tributary in Brazil’s wild center-west in the Amazon Was.
The 760 kilometers (470 mi) long river proved a formidable foe. Several members of Roosevelt’s expedition died, and the former president, then aged 55, contracted malaria and leg infections, which incapacitated him during the final difficult stages.
His great-grandson Tweed Roosevelt said in 1992, in remarks noted by The New York Times, “TR (Teddy Roosevelt) was out of his mind by the end; Rondon left him for dead several times.”
Roosevelt himself, when warned about the dangers by friends at the American Museum of Natural History before leaving on his trip, told them that he had already lived a full life and was ready for the risk. According to Smithsonian Magazine, he said, “I have taken my full share, and if it becomes necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am fully prepared to do so.”
Ultimately, the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition was saved from disaster when they encountered Brazilian rubber-tappers in the jungle, who helped them reach cargo boats and back to the safety of the outside world.
Roosevelt never fully recovered his health, although he and Rondon received praise for mapping the River of Doubt. The former president died in 1919 at the age of 60 due to a blood clot in his lungs. In his honor, the river on which he traveled was renamed the Roosevelt River.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
