Despite all of these efforts, the loaded dugouts still sank so low in the river that the camaradas had to tie long bundles of burity-palm branches to their sides to help improve their buoyancy. Roosevelt was concerned about riding so heavily in the swift water, but he had adopted a philosophical attitude about the danger that he faced on the River of Doubt. “If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the loads by eating the provisions,” he wrote. “If we met with accidents, such as losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with Indians, or if we
...more
We're all going to die anyway, so why be fussed?
