Then they cleverly make the leaders swing round, and
after a long stampede the herd comes panting back to the place it
started from. This, General Wright said, is what Roosevelt was
doing with the multitudes of Radicals who seemed to be headed for
perdition.
Just as he had absented himself in Africa for a year, after
retiring from the Presidency, so Roosevelt decided to make one
more trip for hunting and exploration. As he could not go to the
North Pole, he said, because that would be poaching on Peary's
field, he selected South America. He had long wished to visit the
Southern Continent, and invitations to speak at Rio Janeiro and
at Buenos Aires gave him an excuse for setting out. As before, he
started with the distinct purpose of collecting animal and
botanical specimens; this time for the American Museum of Natural
History in New York, which provided two trained naturalists to
accompany him. His son Kermit, toughened by the previous
adventure, went also.
Having paid his visits and seen the civilized parts of Brazil,
Uruguay, and Argentina, he ascended the Paraguay River and then
struck across the plateau which divides its watershed from that
of the tributaries of the Amazon; for he proposed to make his way
through an unexplored region in Central Brazil and reach the
outposts of civilization on the Great River.
Pages:
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495