Esta postagem vista listar os livros sobre o Coronel Fawcett e as expedições que foram realizadas para tentar localizá-lo.
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Hermes Leal - Coronel Fawcett - A verdadeira história do Indiana Jones
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Luiz Galdino - A cidade perdida: nas pegadas do coronel Fawcett
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Brazilian Adventure - Peter Fleming
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Edição Brasileira - Uma aventura no Brasil - Peter Fleming - Editora Marco Zero. 1996
In
1930, Peter Fleming answered an advertisement in the Times of London’s ‘Agony
Column’, seeking for brave adventurers to engage on a voyage to Brazil, there
to seek the truth about the disappearance of Col. Percy Fawcett. At that time a
literary editor for The Spectator, Fleming was almost immediately hooked by the
prospect and signed on.
Unlike,
Fawcett’s narrative, which resounds with doom and grim determination in the
face of adversity, Fleming’s tale is a completely different beast. Fleming is a
product of his time; an almost Bertie Wooster-like character, self-deprecating,
wryly amused and unwilling to take himself too seriously. Even through the most
desperate straits of his travels there is a solid vein of dry humour colouring
the re-telling, and this makes for vivid and very entertaining reading. As an
indication of his puckish nature, he even imitates the classic photograph of
Fawcett in the frontispiece of his own book, hands in pockets and complete with
the classic pipe.
Fleming
(younger brother of the far more self-important Ian Fleming and a far better
writer) never did find out conclusively what happened to Fawcett, but after
3,000 miles and the discovery of a new river tributary of the Amazon, he pens a
thrilling, amusing and highly entertaining narrative of his failed attempt full
of interesting observations.
Brazilian Adventure is a book by
Peter Fleming about his search for the lost Colonel
Percy Fawcett in the
Brazilian jungle. Fawcett along with his son and another companion had disappeared while searching for the
Lost City of Z in 1925. Fleming was working as literary editor for
The Times when he answered a
small ad
asking for volunteers to join an expedition to find out what had
happened to Fawcett. The story of Fleming's 1932 expedition is told in
Brazilian Adventure.
Despite a great deal of fanfare, the expedition seems to have been
very poorly organized and Fleming and his companions do not seem to have
done much preparation, not even bothering to learn
Portuguese.
The expedition, commanded by an eccentric American "Major George Lewy
Pingle" (in reality, an alias for Captain J. G. Holman), eventually made
its way to the
Araguaya river and proceeded down it, blasting away at any creature that moved.
When the expedition reached the
Tapirapé River,
which Fawcett was known to have traveled, the group broke up, with
Major Pingle refusing to go any farther. Fleming and two other
colleagues resigned from the expedition and headed up river alone. After
some difficult traveling, they were forced to turn back without
discovering anything about the fate of Fawcett.
The third part of the book describes Fleming and his friends racing Major Pingle and the loyalists down the Araguaya and
Tocantins rivers to the
Amazon River and the port of
Belém,
from where they could get a ship home. This part of the journey
actually has a purpose, whereas it is difficult to believe that members
of the expedition were really serious about the search for Fawcett.
The book is a light and amusing read and Fleming writes well,
although he is very much a product of his time and class. The book's
claim to fame is that it is, in the word of the author, "honest," in the
sense that it lampooned earlier works of travel literature, such as the
sometime over-the-top descriptions of daring-do found in Colonel
Fawcett's writings. For this reason it is often considered a classic of
travel literature, along with Fleming's next two books,
One's Company: A Journey to China in 1933 (published in 1934) and
News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir (1936) which were widely read by the public and influential with other travel writers.
Peter Fleming was the brother of
Ian Fleming, author of the
James Bond thriller series.
-------------
Letters, manuscripts, and other records written by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett were compiled by his son, Brian, in
Lost Trails, Lost Cities (Funk & Wagnalls, 1953; also titled
Exploration Fawcett).
In this chronicle, the Colonel detailed his adventures in Mato Grosso,
South America, as he searched for the ruins of an ancient lost city ("I
call it 'Z' for the sake of convenience," he wrote) between 1906 and
1925. Though his journal ended with his strange disappearance sometime
after 29 May 1925, his story continued long after.
Other books about the Fawcett saga quickly followed. George M. Dyott searched for Fawcett and wrote an account in
Man Hunting in the Jungle: Being the Story of a Search for Three Explorers Lost in the Brazilian Wilds
(The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1930). Waggish travel writer Peter Fleming
wrote of his search for Fawcett -- and his criticism of Dyott -- in
Brazilian Adventure (Scribner's, 1933). Robert Churchward collected his observations of all the fuss in
Wilderness of Fools: An account of the Adventures in Search of Lieut-Colonel P. H. Fawcett (Routledge, 1936), and later, and in a children's book,
Explorer (Thomas Nelson, 1957).
Fawcett's interest in the occult insured that more speculative
accounts of his adventures would ensue. Fawcett had in his possession a
black basalt stone idol, given him by none other than Sir H. Rider
Haggard. He wrote, "I could think of only one way of learning the secret
of the stone image, and that was by means of psychometry -- a method
that may evoke scorn by many people but is widely accepted by others who
have managed to keep their minds free from prejudice." The
psychotometrist, holding the idol in the dark, told Fawcett of "a large
irregularly shaped continent stretching from the north coast of Africa
across to South America... Then I see volcanoes in violent eruptions,
flaming lava pouring down their sides, and the whole land shakes with a
mighty rumbling sound... The voice says: 'The judgment of Atlanta will
be the fate of all who presume to deific power!' I can get no definite
date of the catastrophe, but it was long prior to the rise of Egypt, and
has been forgotten -- except, perhaps, in myth." Fawcett asserted that
"the connection of Atlantis with parts of what is now Brazil is not to
be dismissed contemptuously, and belief in it -- with or without
scientific corroboration -- affords explanations for many problems which
otherwise are unsolved mysteries." (
Lost Trails, Lost Cities, pp. 15-17)
In a letter to his son Brian, Colonel Fawcett wrote of the city he sought:
I expect the ruins to be monolithic in character,
more ancient than the oldest Egyptian discoveries. Judging by
inscriptions found in many parts of Brazil, the inhabitants used an
alphabetical writing allied to many ancient European and Asian scripts.
There are rumors, too, of a strange source of light in the buildings, a
phenomenon that filled with terror the Indians who claimed to have seen
it.
The central place I call "Z" -- our main objective -- is in a valley
surmounted by lofty mountains. The valley is about ten miles wide, and
the city is on an eminence in the middle of it, approached by a
barrelled roadway of stone. The houses are low and windowless, and there
is a pyramidal temple. The inhabitants of the place are fairly
numerous, they keep domestic animals, and they have well-developed mines
in the surrounding hills. Not far away is a second town, but the people
living in it are of an inferior order to those of "Z." Farther to the
south is another large city, half buried and completely destroyed.
Of this information, Brian Fawcett wrote, "At that time I questioned
none of this, even if I felt a shade of wonderment as to how he came out
so pat with the details about 'Z.' I had no idea in those days how much
was based on research, how much on personal knowledge, and how much on
the babblings of clairvoyants; but the thought of what he might find
thrilled me considerably." (
Ruins in the Sky, p. 48)
Margaret Lumley Brown recorded some of her correspondences with Fawcett in her book
Both Sides of the Door: A Psychological Sketch
(1918, under the pen name "Irene Hay"). It was her interest in the lost
continent of Atlantis that compelled her to write the Colonel. In a
reply dated 9 September 1924 Fawcett wrote:
Your query suggests that you have been getting
communications purporting to be of an Atlantean nature. Such is not
impossible as Atlantis is very much "in the air" just now. Such
communication might certainly come through sensitives; that is to say
waves of released information are picked up, or a deliberate plan is
being developed. Are you by any chance getting strange characters? I
happen to know a good many of these, albeit I am only aware of the
meaning of very few. Such evidence would be very interesting, a good
deal more so than general statements. If you are not, try to get them...
To attempt to get into communication with an Occult Community depends
so absolutely upon the Hierarchy of the latter as to be very improbable.
You could never be quite sure that you were not being deluded without
other proof of some kind. It might however occur if conditions were
suitable and a purpose were being served -- for mere curiosity probably
not... Psychics may give very genuine information, but it has to be
carefully sifted as there are so many cross currents, particularly when
not in trance. Time of course they know nothing about. In fact it is
subject to acceleration and retardation by laws they know nothing about.
I may be in London before long and if you are in touch with anything
Atlantean might possibly be able to help you."
In another letter dated 12 October 1924 he wrote:
No doubt Atlantean dress varied a good deal, as does
national dress in Europe and changed frequently through the ages of its
development and decline. During what one may call the post-catastrophic
period, men wore a species of short full knickerbockers, sandals, a hat
rather suggestive of the biretta and were naked from the waist up.
Climate of course permitted this. Hair was a long thick bob reaching to
the shoulders. Women wore a robe suggesting Grecian style hanging from
the shoulders, sandals, very long hair controlled by a fillet -- usually
of gold -- and a necklace of square cut stones varying in nature but
usually blue in the upper classes -- a stone that I am doubtful if we
know today. But it may have been blue diamond (were that not so rare),
for it was extremely fiery. Relics of these people still exist and
statuary and some relief work in good preservation shows this dress very
clearly. Colour of dress was fawn, yellow or white and the texture was
extremely silky. But it was neither cotton nor silk of the silk worm. I
do not think your experiences should be abandoned but rather carefully
controlled. They will certainly not lead to any disagreeable quality of
the World of Effects. On the contrary you may be assisting the purposes
of the occult Hierarchy in some way, for "Atlantis" is destined not
before long to revolutionise many branches of science and bring religion
to its senses.
In his book
Mysteries of Ancient South America (1947), Harold Wilkins expressed one commonly held theory regarding the fate of the colonel:
No one knows what happened to the Fawcetts -- father
and son -- and young Mr. Rimell. In fact, the Matto Grosso swamps and
jungles are such queer places, with records of white men detained by
Indian tribes for twenty-five or thirty years and then returning to
civilisation, that one would not deem it impossible, if improbable, that
Colonel Fawcett himself is still alive, perhaps in the recesses of the
White Mountains, or the hinterland of the Serra do Roncador, even today,
1945. (p. 67)
Subsequent Fawcett "sightings" were inevitable. In April 1933, a
Dominican missionary, relating what an Indian woman told him, said, "The
Fawcett party are held prisoners in a camp between the Rios Kuluesene,
Kuluene, and Das Mortes. Colonel Fawcett has been forced to marry a
daughter of an Indian chief." In July of the same year, Monsignor
Coutouran reported a statement made by Signor Virginio Pessione, who
visited an estate on the Rio São Manoel, many miles northwest of Dead
Horse Camp (Fawcett's last know camp). Pessione said that an Indian
woman of the Nafucua tribe told him, "When my son was still at the
breast, there arrived in my village three white men and Indians,
descending the Kuluene in a large canoe. One white man was tall, old,
and blue-eyed, also bearded and bald. Another was a youth, said to be
the son of the first; the third was of greater age. The elder wore a
felt hat and colonel helmet ... About a year ago I saw them last." In
1934, an American missionary, Paul Guiley, saw a young boy with white
skin, blue eyes, and close-cropped hair, and was told that the child was
a son of one of the Fawcett party. Another missionary, Marthe Moennich,
told the same story in a book she published in 1942. Soon, it seemed
every Indian boy in the area born with fair skin was said to be
Fawcett's son.
In April 1933, a theodolite compass belonging to Fawcett was found
near the camp of the Bacaari Indians in the Mato Grosso. The excellent
condition of the compass led Fawcett's wife Nina to believe he was still
alive. In a letter to Wilkins dated February 1940, she wrote:
To me that is reason to believe that Colonel Fawcett
was still alive and working with his surveying instruments -- in the
Mato Grosso jungle -- as recently as April 1933. My husband was then
alive and working, and probably had a certain amount of freedom, though
under constant surveillance of the Indian tribe which, I believe,
captured them about 1926 or 1927, and with those people they were
obliged to remain.
Nina Fawcett's optimism was no doubt reinforced by the claim that she
received telepathic messages from her husband as late as 1934. By 1952,
Harold Wilkins (
Secret Cities of Old South America, pp. 21-22)
believed he had the true story of the fate of the Colonel. According to
his unnamed German informant, who visited an Indian village near the
Xingu River, east of Dead Horse Camp, in 1932. After insistently
questioning the chief about Fawcett, the chief left for several hours
and returned:
The door of the hut opened. He carried a torch in one
hand. In the other, he had a bag made of some sort of tree bark. He
loosened the strings with his mouth. Then he said: "You, my blood
brother, ask me of Colonel Fawcett. El Colonel was good man. He,
too, was my blood brother ... I now show you something, but you must
swear on white man's God to keep silent the name of me and my tribe..." I
solemnly promised. "Look!" said the chief. He drew forth from the sack a
small and horribly shrunken head. I started back in horror and nausea. The features were those of Colonel Fawcett!
Fawcett's son Jack, he was told, had broken one of the tribe's
taboos, the penalty for which was death, and Fawcett died in his
defense. No mention was made of Raleigh Rimmell, but in 1949, a man
named Ehrmann reported that he saw the shrunken heads of both Jack
Fawcett and Raleigh Rimmell.
In Brian Fawcett's book,
Ruins in the Sky (Hutchinson Ltd.,
London, 1957), he wrote of his two visits to Brazil to probe the
disappearance of his father and further investigate the existence of the
ancient city "Z." These expeditions were prompted by the supposed
discovery of Col. Fawcett's bones in a forest grave between the Kuluene
and Tanguro Rivers. The bones were found by Orlando Vilas Boas, who
claimed that the explorer was murdered by the Kalapalo Indians. (The
bones were examined by both Brian Fawcett and by the Royal
Anthropological Institute, who agreed that they couldn't have been the
Colonel's remains.) In 1952, Brian Fawcett visited the Kalapalos, where
he met with Vilas Boas, but found only dubious tales of his father's
demise. He also flew in search of "Z" and the legendary
Sete Cidades, or "Seven Cities," only to find limestone formations that had eroded to resemble ancient cities. He wrote:
Was I right in coming to this conclusion? Was it not
possible that here in fact were remains of a very ancient occupation
site -- a huge metropolis of some forgotten civilization? No, we had
seen clearly enough how the thin top soil had gradually fallen away to
disclose a belt of conglomerate, and we had seen the progressive erosion
of this until it culminated in the seven pseudo 'cities.' The
formation, probably deltaic, incorporated those convincing courses of
masonry; wind and rain had slowly carved them up into the semblance of
manmade edifices. Sete Cidades, the city linking Brazil with
Atlantis, was an illusion. My father had believed implicitly in its
genuineness, and I wondered if he would have pursued his quest to his
undoing had he visited it before the fatal expedition. (pp. 295-295)
And what of the city "Z?"
Yes, it was all here, exactly as described -- from
the strategically placed forts by the river to the pectinated summits of
the cliffs, it was all here -- but our vantage point showed us clearly
enough that man had no part in its making... Thirty years is a long
time. Had so many years not passed since my father's disappearance I
might have felt more bitter than I did about the futility of his fate
and that of the others -- three lives lost or ruined in the quest for an
objective that never existed in fact... One part of my mission was
accomplished; I now know the secret of the Brazilian 'Lost Cities.' (pp.
300-301)
Brian Fawcett also heard various tales containing details concerning
his father's disappearance. An Austrian by the name of Richter "claimed
that my father was prisoner of a tribe in the Chaco, and had sired
twenty daughters and eight sons, the eldest of which always carried a
golden spear." There was also a Brazilian with a German name "writing
weird and wonderful articles in a popular weekly, claiming that my
father and brother were 'advanced souls' who were worshipped as gods by
the Indians, and who were actually alive in a subterranean city called
Matatu-Araracauga, in the Roncador section of Mato Grosso. There were
several of these underground cities in Brazil, where dwelt the great
spiritual avatars who ruled the world's events, and from these secret
places issued flying saucers to make global reconnaissance flights." (p.
276)
In his journal, Fawcett wrote, "In the forests were various beasts still unfamiliar to zoologists, such as the
milta,
which I have seen twice, a black doglike cat about the size of a
foxhound. There were snakes and insects yet unknown to scientists; and
in the forests of the Madidi some mysterious and enormous beast has
frequently been disturbed in the swamps -- possibly a primeval monster
like those reported in other parts of the continent. Certainly tracks
have been found belonging to no known animal -- huge tracks, far greater
than could have been made by any species we know." (
Lost Trails, Lost Cities, p. 187) were elaborated upon by others:
In the Beni Swamps of Madre de Dios, Fawcett saw
snake tracks which led him to estimate their length up to 80 feet. In
the Beni also, the Colonel saw an animal he believed might be Diplodocus,
the 80-foot reptile of twenty-five tons. This animal he thought might
still be in existence as it was an eater of aquatic plants, which grow
profusely in this region. The Diplodocus story is confirmed by
many of the tribes east of the Ucayali, a region covered by Clark.
(Louis Gallardy in the introduction to The Rivers Ran East by Leonard Clark, Funk and Wagnals, 1953)
Irish medium and psychic Geraldine Cummins strayed yet further from reality in
The Fate of Colonel Fawcett: A Narrative of His Last Expedition
(The Aquarian Press, 1955; reprinted: ISBN 0-7873-0230-9) by using her
special powers to solve the mystery. Cummins reported in 1936 that she
was receiving mental messages from Fawcett. She said that he had found
relics of Atlantis in the jungle but was ill and semiconscious. After
four such messages, Fawcett fell silent until 1948, at which point he
reported his own death.
Things get stranger. In
The Secrets of the Mojave: The Conspiracy Against Reality
(7th edition, compiled by an entity calling itself "The Group" and
edited by "Branton," published on the Internet of course), relate the
revelations from "'Commander X', the mysterious anonymous U.S.
Intelligence official who has revealed much about 'inside' government
knowledge of alien civilization both beyond and beneath the earth."
Commander X writes:
Of all the countries on the face of the Earth, none
is more mysterious, or less explored, than is Brazil. Miles upon miles
of this country have never been set foot upon by white man. In these
areas live whole tribes of savage Indians whose civilizations are said
to be akin to those existing at the time of the Stone Age. Many of those
who have dared venturing into these pockets of unexplored jungle have
never come out. Perhaps the case of Colonel Fawcett will be familiar to
readers as an example of what I mean. He supposedly was captured by a
tribe of wild Indians while in search of a 'hidden city' said to be
located in the confines of the dense jungle. Before his death, Dr.
(Raymond) Bernard had sent this writer many personal letters regarding
his findings related to...under- ground civilization(s). We quote from
these communications in the following:
I arrived in Brazil in 1956 and have been carrying on
my research since I met a Theosophical leader who told me about the
subterranean cities ... that exist in Brazil. He referred to Professor
Henrique de Souza, president of the Brazilian Theosophical Society, at
Sao Lourenco in the state of Minas Gerais, who erected a temple
dedicated to Agharta, which is the Buddhist name of the subterranean
World. Here in Brazil live Theosophists from all parts of the world, all
of whom believe in the existence of the subterranean cities.
Professor de Souza told me that the great English explorer Colonel
Fawcett is still alive, living in a subterranean city in the Roncador
Mountains of Matto Grosso, where he found the subterranean city of
Atlanteans for which he searched, but is held prisoner lest he reveal
the secret of his whereabouts.
He (Col. Fawcett) was not killed by Indians as is commonly believed.
Professor de Souza claimed he has visited subterranean cities, including
Shamballah, the world capital of the subterranean empire of Agharta. I
then went to Matto Grosso to find the subterranean city where Fawcett is
claimed to be living with his son Jack, but failed to do so. I then
returned to Joinville in the state of Santa Catarina, and there
continued my research.
Our explorer J.D. (name on file - Commander X), who is a mountain
guide of the Mystery Mountain near Joinville (where there is supposed to
be an entrance), said that several times he saw a luminous flying
saucer ascend from the tunnel opening that leads to a subterranean city
inside the mountain, in which he heard the beautiful choral singing of
men and women, and also heard the 'canto galo' (rooster crowing), a
universal symbol indicating the existence of subterranean cities in
Brazil. He said that the saucer was so luminous that it lit up the night
sky and converted it into daylight. On one occasion he met a group of
subterranean men outside the tunnel. They were short, stocky, with
reddish beards and long hair, and very muscular. When he tried to
approach them, they vanished. Often he saw strange illuminations in this
area at night which were probably produced by flying saucers (We use
the name 'Mystery Mountain,' rather than reveal the true name of the
mountain, so that unwanted outsiders will not come here to locate it).
Throughout my many years of research I have accumulated a vast amount of
data which would indicate that these entrances to subterranean cities
abound throughout the region.
And so on. It might be added that Fawcett & Son are still living,
as "they possess remarkable longevity when compared with the longevity
of surface humans." Commander X notes that he knew "an explorer named
N.C. who said that he had visited a tunnel near Rio Casdor and had met a
beautiful young woman appearing to be about 20 years of age. She spoke
to him in Portuguese and said that she was 2,500 years old. He also met a
bearded subterranean man."
Atlantis, flying saucers, and hollow earth theorists have seized
Fawcett's tale, but not all of the later investigations were of such a
speculative nature. In 1999, the BBC broadcast a special, "The Bones of
Colonel Fawcett," a segment of the
Video Diaries series. The show
recounted the efforts of Benedict Allen, self-described "maverick
adventurer," as he retraced the steps of Fawcett with a camcorder. Jane
Hughes wrote of the program in London's
Sunday Independent (28 February 1999):
In 1927, a US Navy commander found Indians wearing a
nameplate from one of the colonel's cases as an ornament, but 16 further
expeditions failed to discover his fate, although it is claimed that
his bones are housed in a museum in Rio de Janeiro. The last attempt,
led by a New York banker and a Brazilian businessman in 1996, was
aborted after 12 of the 16-man team were taken hostage by the Calapalo
and released in return for Jeeps and boats. However, Allen claims to
have finally uncovered the truth.
Allen managed this feat by trading with the Kalapalo Indians a Yamaha
80 outboard motor for the needed information. The Kalapalo, with a
memory that spanned 70 years, informed him that Fawcett had camped near
their village and then departed the next day to continue his journey,
despite their warnings of danger. Five days later they spotted smoke in
the jungle. “They followed the trail, found where he had camped - then
nothing, the forest was undisturbed," Allen said. "And that’s all they
said they knew about Fawcett. They wouldn’t speculate further. The
inference is that they were killed by other Indians. At the time there
was a group called the Iaruna, who had a raiding party sweeping through
the area.” The Kalapalo chief, Vajuvi, showed Allen the site of the
grave from which Fawcett's alleged bones were taken. The bones, he said,
were actually those of his grandfather. Vajuvi explained that in 1951
Villas Boas had approached the tribe, asking them to dig up the bones of
the tallest Indian they knew, with the intent to pass them off as
Fawcett’s remains.
Since his disappearance in 1925, more than a dozen expeditions have
tried to follow Colonel Fawcett's footsteps into the Mato Grosso. None
have succeeded. A movie, "Manhunt in the Jungle" (1958, USA, 79 min,
directed by Tom McGowan and written by Sam Merwin Jr. and Owen Crump),
fictionalized George Dyott's search for the missing Colonel. Filmed in
the jungles of Brazil in glorious Warnercolor, it starred Robin Hughes
as Dyott and James Wilson as Fawcett. A 1991 pulp-style novel by Rob
MacGregor,
Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils (Bantam Books,
1991), had the archaeologist-adventurer following Fawcett into the lost
city of Z. There is also "AmaZonia: A Stage Play in the Footsteps of
Colonel Fawcett," written and directed by Misha Williams (yet to be
staged). According to Williams, "Hollywood and the BBC have approached
the Fawcett family on many occasions over the last sixty years for the
rights (and the blessing) for a such a project. The family have always
denied them access to the large secret archive of Fawcett's diaries,
letters and papers that tell the real story. This was for a very good
reason. Brian Fawcett was very careful when writing his best selling
work 'Exploration Fawcett' to leave out eighty percent of the real
facts. He believed the media and the public were not ready for them.
Brian used the more adventurous bits of his father's notes and wove them
into a very entertaining and memorable 'autobiography.' The really
crucial material he saved in a old trunk for posterity... At last
everything, all the tantalizing gaps in the Fawcett Saga, are now about
to be filled. And what a story! More astonishing than even an Indiana
Jones fiction. There is even evidence about the outcome of the fatal
expedition and what actually happened to Fawcett, his son Jack and
Raleigh Rimell. More importantly their actual objective was not what the
public were led to believe."
Drawings by Brian Fawcett and the photograph are taken from Lost Trails, Lost Cities, Funk & Wagnalls, 1953 and Ruins in the Sky , Hutchinson Ltd., 1957.
© Copyright 2000 by Larry Orcutt.
_______________________________
Colonel
Percy Fawcett
He charted the wilderness of South
America, but then disappeared without a trace.
"Do you know anything about
Bolivia?" asked the President of the Royal Geographical Society
to Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett early in 1906. The Colonel
replied that he didn't and the President went on to explain
the tremendous economic potential of South America and also
the complete lack of reliable maps. "Look at this area!" he
said, pushing a chart in front of Fawcett, "It's full of blank
spaces because so little is known of it."
The President went on to
explain that the lack of well-defined borders in South America
was leading to tension in that region. Much of the area was
'rubber country' where vast forests of rubber trees could be
tapped to provide the world's need for rubber and generate revenue
for countries like Bolivia and Brazil. The lack of defined borders
could lead to war. An expedition to mark the borders could not
be led by either a Bolivian or a Brazilian. Only a neutral third
party could be trusted with the job and the Royal Geographical
Society had been asked to act as a referee.
Now the President of the
Society wanted to know if Fawcett was interested in the position.
It would be a dangerous job. Disease was rampant there. Some
of the native tribes had a reputation for savagery. Without
hesitation, though, the Colonel took the job.
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett
was born in 1867 in Devon, England. At the age of nineteen he
was given a commission in the Royal Artillery. He served in
Ceylon for several years where he met and married his wife.
Later he performed secret service work in North Africa. Fawcett
found himself bored with Army life and learned the art of surveying,
hoping to land a more interesting job. Then in 1906 came the
offer from the Society: His ticket to adventure.
The Colonel arrived in La
Plaz, Bolivia, in June of 1906 ready to start his expedition.
After a disagreement with the government over expenses ,Fawcett
started into the heart of the continent to begin the boundary
survey. He quickly found that just getting to the area where
he was to be working would be an ordeal in itself. The trail
lead up a precipitous path to a pass in the mountains at 17,000
feet. It took him and his companions two hours to go four miles
and climb 6,000 feet. The pack mules would struggle up the path
30 feet at a time, then stop, gasping for breath in the thin
air. The party was afraid that if they overworked the animals,
they would die.
Hostile People
Arriving at the town of
Cobija, Fawcett quickly got a taste of how difficult life was
in the interior of South America. Disease was common and he
was told that the death rate in the town was nearly fifty percent
a year. Cut off from the outside world, many depressed inhabitants
sought comfort by abusing alcohol. One night one of the local
army officers became enraged by his subordinate's refusal to
join him in a card game. Drunk, the officer drew his sword and
went after the man, injuring him. When another soldier tried
to assist the injured man the officer turned on him, chasing
him around a hut. The fellow sought refuge in Fawcett's room,
but the officer followed him inside.
"Where is that dirty so-and-so?"
the officer roared. "Where have you hidden him?"
When Fawcett reprimanded
the officer for chasing unarmed men with his sword, the officer
cursed at the Colonel and drew his revolver. Fawcett grabbed
the man's wrist and struggled with him, finally forcing the
gun from his hand.
Bolivia
was a lawless frontier is those days, much like the American
West had been a half century before. Fawcett, in fact, met an
American gunslinger named Harvey. The red-bearded, silent man
was quick with his revolver and sure with his aim. Harvey, a
bandit, had found the United States too civilized and dodged
the Texas Rangers, working his way down through Mexico into
South America. He had held up a mining company in a neighboring
country, and there was a large reward on his head. Boliva had
no extradition law, however, and he was safe in this new frontier.
Colonel Fawcett was appalled
by treatment of the native South American Indians. Although
slavery was illegal, rubber plantation owners would often organize
trips into the jungle for the purpose of capturing slaves to
be used as rubber collectors. Some of the tribes, in return,
became quite hostile toward those of European decent. Fawcett
believed that if you treated the Indians with kindness and understanding,
you would receive kindness in return. During a trip up the Heath
River to find its source in 1910, Fawcett had a unique opportunity
to test his theory.
He and his group had been
warned off traveling up the Heath because the tribes along it
had a reputation for unrestrained savagery. "To venture up into
the midst of them is sheer madness," exclaimed an army major.
Fawcett went anyway.
After a week paddling up
the river, the party rounded a bend and ran straight into an
Indian encampment perched on a sandbar. The natives were as
surprised as the expedition. "Dogs barked, men shouted, women
screamed and reached for their children" Fawcett recalled. The
natives hid in the trees while the group grounded their canoes
on the sandbar. Arrows whizzed by the men or fell around them.
Fawcett tried some peace overtures using native words he had
learned, but the message didn't seem to be getting through.
Then he had an idea. One of the group was seated just beyond
arrow range and was told to play his accordion. The man sang
"A Bicycle Made for Two", "Suwannee River", "Onward Christian
Soldiers" and other tunes. Finally Fawcett noticed the lyrics
had changed to "They've-all-stopped-shooting-at-us." Sure enough,
the singer was right. Fawcett approached the natives and greeted
them. Gifts were exchanged as a sign of friendship.
Not all contacts with the
Indians ended so well. During a trip down the Chocolatal River,
the pilot of the boat Fawcett was traveling on went off to inspect
a nearby road. When he didn't come back Fawcett found him dead
with 42 arrows in his body.
Dangerous Animals
People were only one of
the dangers of the jungle. The animal kingdom was another. One
night while camped near the Yalu River ,the Colonel was climbing
into his sleeping bag when he felt something "hairy and revolting"
scuttle up his arm and over his neck. It was a gigantic apazauca
spider. It clung to his hand fiercely while Fawcett tried to
shake it off. The spider finally dropped to the ground and walked
away without attacking. The animal's bite is poisonous and sometimes
fatal.
Vampire bats were also a
nuisance in some remote areas. At night these creatures would
come to bite and lap up blood from sleepers. Fawcett reported
that though they slept under mosquito nets, any portion of bodies
touching the net or protruding beyond it would be attacked.
In the morning they would find their hammocks saturated with
blood.
Near Potrero, wild bulls
became a problem for one of Fawcett's expeditions. The group
was traveling in an ox cart which gave them some protection.
Even so, the group was attacked by three bulls one day. They
managed to drive them off only after killing one animal and
riddling the other two with bullets. On that same trip Fawcett
was fifty yards behind the rest of the group when a big red
bull appeared between him and the cart. The Colonel wasn't carrying
a rifle and there were no trees or other places to seek refuge.
Fawcett was able to get past the animal, as it snorted, lashed
its tail and tore up the ground, by moving slowly while fixing
it with a a hopefully hypnotic stare.
Snakes
were also a constant threat too. Once while traveling with a
Texan named Ross, they were attacked by a seven-foot long "Bushmaster,"
a deadly poisonous snake. The men leapt out of the way as the
Texan pulled his revolver, putting two slugs through the ugly
head of the creature. On close examination Ross realized the
snake had bitten him, but the fangs had sunk into his tobacco
pouch. His skin showed two dents where the fangs had pressed
against him, but never broke through. His skin was wet with
venom. The pouch had saved his life.
Fawcett often found it necessary
to swim rivers in order to get a rope across for hauling equipment
over. The Colonel had to be very careful there were no cuts
or open sores on his body that might attract piranha fish. Swarms
of these fish have been known to strip the flesh off a man in
minutes if he was unlucky enough to fall into the water were
they where congregated. One of Fawcett's companions lost two
fingers to them while washing his blood stained hands in the
river.
Though not poisonous, the
giant
anaconda is probably the most
feared snake in the jungle. Fawcett had a run-in with one not
long after he arrived in South America. In his diary he noted:
"We were drifting easily along the sluggish current not far
below the confluence of the Rio Negro when almost under the
bow of the igarit'e [boat] there appeared a triangular head
and several feet of undulating body. It was a giant anaconda.
I sprang for my rifle as the creature began to make its way
up the bank, and hardly waiting to aim, smashed a .44 soft-nosed
bullet into its spine, ten feet below the wicked head."
The boat stopped so that
the Colonel could examine the body. Despite being fatally wounded,
"shivers ran up and down the body like puffs of wind on a mountain
tarn." Though they had no measuring device along with them,
Fawcett estimated the creature was sixty-two feet in length
and 12-inches in diameter.
Indifferent Nature
Colonel Fawcett probably
came closest to death during his trips not from human or animal
agents but from the geography of the land itself. While traveling
down the uncharted Madidi River by raft, his expedition encountered
a series of dangerous rapids. With each the speed of the rafts
increased until they were rushing down the river uncontrolled.
Finally, the river widened and the velocity slowed.
The crews had just given
a sigh of relief when they rounded a steep bluff and the roar
of a waterfall filled their ears. One of the rafts was able
to make it to shore, but Fawcett's was caught in the current.
With the water too deep to use a pole to snag the bottom and
turn away, the raft shot over the drop.
Fawcett later recounted,
"...the raft seemed to poise there for an instant before it
fell from under us. Turning over two or three times as it shot
through the air, the balsa crashed down into the black depths."
The group survived, but
lost much of their equipment. "Looking back we saw what we had
come through. The fall was about twenty feet high, and where
river dropped the canyon narrowed to a mere ten feet across;
through this bottleneck the huge volume of water gushed with
terrific force, thundering down into the a welter of brown foam
and black-topped rocks. It seemed incredible that we could have
survived that maelstrom!"
During a trip to map the
Rio Verde River and discover its source, Fawcett came face to
face with starvation. The expedition started well: The land
around the mouth of the river had plenty of game and the group
took what they estimated to be three weeks worth of food with
them. Then the expedition was forced to abandon their boats
because of rapids, and had to continue up the riverbank on foot.
Because the expedition needed
to minimize the weight they would carry, Fawcett decided to
bury some of his equipment and 60 gold sovereigns (worth about
$300) in metal cases near where they landed. Fawcett was amazed
when years later stories came to him about a "Verde Treasure"
that had been left behind by his expedition. The story had been
retold and embellished so many times that the size of the treasure
had been magnified to 60,000 gold sovereigns. The Colonel was
particularly amused because the story never mentioned the fact
the he had retrieved the cases after the trip was over. He was
sure the story would attract future would-be treasure hunters.
As
they walked upriver the water, which had been clean, turned
bitter and no fish could be found. Then game also seemed to
disappear. Soon the supplies they carried were exhausted. For
ten more days the group pressed on, despite only having consumed
some bad honey and a few bird eggs. Finally, the found the source
of the river and charted it (
left).
Freed from the responsibility
of charting the river, Fawcett tried to figure out the quickest
route to somewhere they could get food. Deciding the best chance
was to go over the Ricardo Franco Hills, the group tried to
work their way up canyons that would lead them to the top.
The hills were flat-topped
and mysterious. They looked like giant tables and their forested
tops were completely cut off from the jungle below. When Fawcett
later told
Conan Doyle about these hills,
the writer pictured the isolated tops populated with surviving
dinosaurs. Doyle used these hills as the location for his famous
novel The Lost World.
The expedition quickly found
that crossing the hills was futile, and returning the way they
had come impossible. Colonel Fawcett instead decided to follow
the direction the streams in the region were flowing, hoping
that it would get them out. Days passed and no food. One of
the expedition's Indian assistants lay down to die, and only
the prodding of Fawcett's hunting knife in his ribs got him
moving again.
After twenty days without
food, the group was at its limit. Fawcett prayed audibly for
relief. Then fifteen minutes later a deer appeared 300 yards
away. Fawcett unslung his gun. The target was too far away and
his hands were shaking, but,in a miracle the Colonel could only
attribute to a higher power, the bullet found its mark, killing
the deer instantly.
The group consumed every
part of the deer: skin, fur and all. The expedition's fortune
had turned and within six days they were back in a town with
the Verde trip only a bad memory.
For the first three years
Fawcett had worked for the Boundary Commission charting the
region. When that job came to an end, Fawcett retired from the
military and continued exploring on his own, financing the trips
with help from newspapers and other businesses. After returning
to England to serve in World War I, the Colonel was again drawn
back to the South American jungle. As time went on, he became
more and more interested in the archaeology of the region. In
total he made seven expeditions into wilderness between 1906
and 1924.
The Final Expedition
Finding reliable companions
for his trips had always been a problem, but by 1925 his oldest
son, Jack, had reached an age where he could join his father
in the field.
Fawcett, by examining records
and sifting through old stories, had become convinced that there
was a large, ancient city concealed in the wilds of Brazil.
Fawcett called this city "Z" and planned an expedition that
consisted of himself, his son, Jack, and a friend of Jack's.
Fawcett had always preferred small expeditions that could live
off the land, thinking that a small group would look less like
an invasion to the Indians and therefore be less likely to be
attacked. The route was carefully planned.
Fawcett, concerned with
others, left word that should they not return, a rescue expedition
was not to be mounted. He felt that it would be too dangerous.
On May 29th, 1925, a message
was sent from Fawcett to his wife, indicating that they were
ready to enter unexplored territory. The three were sending
back the assistants that had helped them to this point and were
ready to go on by themselves. Fawcett told his wife "You need
have no fear of failure..." It was the last anyone ever heard
of the expedition. They disappeared into the jungle never to
be seen again.
Despite Fawcett's wishes,
several rescue expeditions tried to find him, but without success.
Occasionally there were intriguing reports that he'd been seen,
but none of these were ever confirmed.
So what happened to Colonel
Fawcett? What danger that he had eluded in the past had gotten
him this time? Hostile Indians? A giant anaconda? Piranhas?
Disease? Starvation? Or was it, as one tale told, he'd lost
his memory and lived out the rest of his life as a chief among
a tribe of cannibals?
In 1996 an expedition was
put together by René Delmotte and James Lynch look for traces
of Fawcett. It didn't get far. Indians stopped the group, threatened
their lives, and detained them for some days. They were finally
released, but $30,000 worth of equipment was confiscated. Even
seventy years after his disappearance, it seems the jungle is
still too dangerous a place for anyone to follow in Colonel
Percy Fawcett's footsteps.
KEY CONCEPTS
- To most people, the Amazon forest is the quintessential case of pure nature slowly being destroyed as humans intrude.
- In
fact, what seems pristine has itself been shaped by humans. In some
areas the forest is secondary growth that took hold when native peoples
were wiped out by their encounters with Europeans. The author and his
colleagues have found extensive pre-Columbian ruins. Communities had a
self-similar or fractal structure in which houses, settlements and
clusters of settlements were organized in similar ways.
- Thus,
the history of the Amazon is rather more interesting than usually
thought. The environmental challenge is not only to preserve unspoiled
wilderness but also to recover the techniques of sustainable farming and
forestry that the ancestors of the region’s present inhabitants
developed.
Sites:
http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/biblio.htm
