The Lost City of Z (39 page)

D
ESPITE
F
AWCETT'S
once-enormous fame, many details of his life, like those of his death, have been shrouded in mystery. Until recently, Fawcett's family kept the bulk of his papers private. Moreover, the contents of many of the diaries and correspondence of his colleagues and companions, such as Raleigh Rimell, have never been published.

In trying to excavate Fawcett's life, I have drawn extensively on these materials. They include Fawcett's diaries and logbooks; the correspondence of his wife and children, as well as those of his closest exploring companions and his most bitter rivals; the journals of members of his military unit during World War I; and Rimell's final letters from the 1925 expedition, which had been passed down to a cousin once removed. Fawcett himself was a compulsive writer who left behind an enormous amount of firsthand information in scientific and esoteric journals, and his son Brian, who edited
Exploration Fawcett,
turned out to be a prolific writer as well.

I also benefited from the tremendous research of other authors, particularly in reconstructing historical periods. I would have been lost, for instance, without John Hemming's three-volume history on the Brazilian
Indians or his book
The Search for El Dorado.
Charles Mann's
1491,
which was published not long after I returned from my trip, served as a wonderful guide to the scientific developments that are sweeping away so many previous conceptions about what the Americas looked like before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. I have listed these and other important sources in the bibliography. If I was especially indebted to a source, I tried to cite it in the notes as well.

Anything that appears in the text between quotation marks, including conversation in the jungle from vanished explorers, comes directly from a diary, a letter, or some other written document and is cited in the notes. In a few places, I found minor discrepancies in the quotations between published versions of letters, which had been edited, and their original; in these cases, I reverted to the original. In an effort to keep the notes as concise as possible, I do not include citations for well-established or uncontroversial facts, or when it is clear that a person is speaking directly to me.

A
RCHIVAL AND
U
NPUBLISHED
S
OURCES

4
“no Arts; no Letters”:
Hobbes,
Leviathan,
p. 186.

4
“write a new”:
Los Angeles Times,
Jan. 28, 1925.

8
He was the last:
Though many of Fawcett's expeditions took place after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, he is often categorized as a Victorian explorer. Not only did he come of age during the Victorian period, but he embodied, in almost every way, the Victorian ethos and spirit of exploration.

8
“a man of indomitable”:
Dyott, “Search for Colonel Fawcett,” p. 514.

8
“outwalk and outhike”:
Loren McIntyre, in transcript of interview on National Public Radio, March 15, 1999.

8
“Fawcett marked”:
K.G.G., “Review: Exploration Fawcett,”
Geographical Journal,
Sept. 1953, p. 352.

8
Among them was:
Doyle, notes to
Lost World,
p. 195; Percy Harrison Fawcett,
Ex-
ploration Fawcett,
p. 122. There is little known about the origins of the relationship between Percy Fawcett and Conan Doyle.
Exploration Fawcett
notes that Conan Doyle had attended one of Fawcett's lectures delivered before the Royal Geographical Society. Once, in a letter to Conan Doyle, Fawcett remembered how the author had tried to contact him during the writing of
The Lost World,
but because Fawcett was off in the jungle Nina had been forced to respond. In
The Annotated Lost World,
published in 1996, Roy Pilot and Alvin Rodin point out that Fawcett was “well known to Conan Doyle” and catalog the many similarities between Fawcett and the novel's fictional explorer John Roxton. Interestingly, Percy Fawcett may not have been the only member of his family to influence Conan Doyle's famous literary work. In 1894, nearly two decades before Conan Doyle came out with
The Lost World,
Fawcett's brother, Edward, published
Swallowed by an Earthquake
—a novel that similarly tells of men discovering a hidden world of prehistoric dinosaurs. In an article in the
British Heritage
in 1985, Edward Fawcett's literary executor and the author Robert K. G. Temple accused Conan Doyle of borrowing “shamelessly” from Edward's now largely forgotten novel.

8
“disappear into the unknown”:
Doyle,
Lost World,
p. 63.

9
“Something there was”:
Ibid., p. 57.

9
The ship:
My descriptions of the
Vauban
and life on board ocean liners come from, among other places, the Lamport & Holt brochure “South America: The Land of Opportunity, a Continent of Scenic Wonders, a Paradise for the Tourist;” Heaton's
Lamport & Holt;
and Maxtone-Graham's
Only Way to Cross.

9
“the great discovery”:
Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Feb. 4, 1925, RGS.

10
“What is there”:
Los Angeles Times,
April 16, 1925.

10
“their eyes in”:
Ralegh,
Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana,
pp. 177–78. 10
“thorow hollow”:
Ibid., p. 114.

10
“We reached”:
Carvajal,
Discovery of the Amazon,
p. 172.

11
“Does God think”:
Quoted in Hemming,
Search for El Dorado,
p. 144.

11
“Commend thyself”:
Simón,
Expedition of Pedro de Ursua & Lope de Aguirre,
p. 227.

11
“I swear to”:
Quoted in Hemming,
Search for El Dorado,
p. 144. 11
“It is perhaps”:
Atlanta Constitution,
Jan. 12, 1925.

11
“The central place”:
Brian Fawcett,
Ruins in the Sky,
p. 48.

12
“Not since”:
Colonel Arthur Lynch, “Is Colonel Fawcett Still Alive?”
Graphic
(London), Sept. 1, 1928.

12
“I cannot say”:
Fawcett to Keltie, Aug. 18, 1924, RGS.

12
“is about the only”:
Quoted in Fawcett to Isaiah Bowman, April 8, 1919, AGS.

13
“it would be hopeless”:
Arthur R. Hinks to Captain F. W. Dunn-Taylor, July 6, 1927, RGS.

13
“If with all”:
Fawcett, epilogue to
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 304.

13
“will be no pampered”:
Ibid., pp. 14–15.

13
“We will have to suffer”:
Los Angeles Times,
Jan. 28, 1925.

13
“to harass and”:
Ibid.

13
“the reflection of”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 24.

13
“six feet three”:
Fawcett, epilogue to
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 277.

13
“He is … absolutely”:
Ibid., p. 15.

14
“fine physique”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “General Details of Proposed Expedition in S. America” (proposal), n.d., RGS.

14
“He was a born”:
Fawcett, epilogue to
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 277.

14
“Now we have Raleigh”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 10.

14
“utterly impracticable”:
Dickens,
American Notes,
p. 13.

15
“hearse with windows”:
Ibid., p. 14.

15
“perfect ventilation”:
Lamport & Holt brochure, “South America.”

15
“rather tiresome”:
Fawcett, epilogue to
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 278.

16
“Jack has”:
Ibid., p. 15.

16
“Raleigh will follow”:
Ibid.

16
“We shall return”:
Los Angeles Times,
Jan. 28, 1925.

17
It begins as barely:
My descriptions of the Amazon River are drawn from several sources. They include Goulding, Barthem, and Ferreira,
Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon;
Revkin,
Burning Season;
Haskins,
Amazon;
Whitmore,
Introduction to Tropi cal Rain Forests;
Bates,
Naturalist on the River Amazons;
and Price,
Amazing Amazon.

19
The expedition was:
My descriptions of the 1996 expedition are based on my interviews with James Lynch and members of his team as well as on information from Leal's
Coronel Fawcett.

19
“among the most”:
Temple, “E. Douglas Fawcett,” p. 29.

19
“captured the imagination”:
Daily Mail
(London), Jan. 30, 1996.

19
Evelyn Waugh's:
Heath,
Picturesque Prison,
p. 116.

20
“Enough legend”:
Fleming,
Brazilian Adventure,
p. 104.

20
“than those launched”:
New York Times,
Feb. 13, 1955.

21
“Our route”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 269. 21
Even today:
New York Times,
Jan. 18, 2007.

21
“These forests are”:
Hemming,
Die If You Must,
p. 635.

22
“No one knows”:
Ibid.

22
In 2006, members:
New York Times,
May 11, 2006.

22
“only one and all”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Case for an Expedition in the Amazon Basin” (proposal), RGS.

23
“a corpse piece”:
Quoted in Millard,
River of Doubt,
p. 168.

29
many archaeologists and geographers:
For a much more detailed discussion of the academic debate over advanced civilizations in the Amazon, see Mann's
1491.

30
“counterfeit paradise”:
See Meggers,
Amazonia.

30
“cultural substitutes”:
Ibid., p. 104.

30
“This is the jungle”:
Cowell,
Tribe That Hides from Man,
p. 66.

30
As Charles Mann notes:
Mann,
1491,
p. 9.

30
“the most culturally”:
Holmberg,
Nomads of the Long Bow,
p. 17.

30
“No records”:
Ibid., p. 122.

30
“concept of romantic”:
Ibid., p. 161.

30
“man in the”:
Ibid., p. 261.

30
a more sophisticated:
Mann,
1491,
p. 328.

33
“the callowest”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 110.

34
“Beneath these rocks”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Gold Bricks at Badulla,” p. 223. 34
“As an impecunious”:
Ibid., p. 232.

34
“possessed great abilities”:
From a self-published article by Timothy Paterson, “Douglas Fawcett and Imaginism,” p. 2.

35
“Her unhappy married”:
Ibid.

35
“hateful”:
Fawcett to Doyle, March 26, 1919, HRC.

35
“Perhaps it was all”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 15.

35
“did nothing to”:
Ibid., p. 16.

35
notion of a gentleman:
For details on the Victorian customs and ethos, see the 1865 manual
The Habits of Good Society;
Campbell,
Etiquette of Good Society;
and Bristow,
Vice and Vigilance.

35
“the memorable horror”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 211.

36
“craving for sensual”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Obsession,” p. 476. 36
“a natural leader”:
Girouard,
Return to Camelot,
p. 260.

36
“it takes something”:
From a newspaper article in Fawcett's scrapbook, Fawcett Family Papers. 36

36
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich:
See Guggisberg,
Shop.

36
“The fashion of torture”:
Ibid., p. 57.

36
“to regard the risk”:
Hankey,
Student in Arms,
p. 87.

37
Now, as Fawcett:
Details of Sri Lanka in the 1890s come from various books of the time, including Ferguson,
Ceylon in 1893;
Willis,
Ceylon;
and Cave,
Golden Tips.

37
“Dear me”:
Twain,
Following the Equator,
p. 336.

38
“I'm afraid”:
Fawcett, “Gold Bricks at Badulla,” p. 225. 38
“Did the hound”:
Ibid., p. 231.

38
“Ceylon is a very”:
Ibid., p. 232.

39
“He obviously did”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 16.

39
“the way the ladies”:
Quotation from a newspaper article found in Fawcett's scrap-book, Fawcett Family Papers.

39
“the only one”:
Curieux,
Sept. 26, 1951.

39
“she always had”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 18.

40
“I was very happy”:
Curieux,
Sept. 26, 1951. 40
“My life would”:
Ibid.

40
“a silly old”:
Fawcett to Doyle, March 26, 1919, HRC.

40
“You are not”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 3.

40
“It took me”:
Curieux,
Sept. 26, 1951.

40
“Destiny cruelly”:
Ibid.

40
“Go … and marry”:
Williams, introduction to
AmaZonia,
p. 3. A similar account can be found in Hambloch,
Here and There.

40
“begged her to”:
My interview with Fawcett's granddaughter, Rolette.

40
“I thought I had”:
Curieux,
Sept. 26, 1951.

41
“A particularly beautiful”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, letter to the editor,
Occult Review,
Feb. 1913, p. 80.

41
“lone wolf”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 16.

41
Madame Blavatsky:
See Meade,
Madame Blavatsky;
Washington,
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon;
and Oppenheim,
Other World.

41
“a genius”:
Meade,
Madame Blavatsky,
p. 40.

42
“She weighed more”:
Ibid., p. 8.

42
“the most human”:
Kelly,
Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats,
p. 164.

42
“addicted to table-rapping”:
Oppenheim,
Other World,
p. 28.

42
“I suppose I am”:
Stashower,
Teller of Tales,
p. 405.

43
“For those who”:
Oppenheim,
Other World,
p. 184.

43
“The ceremony commenced”:
Dublin Review,
July– Oct. 1890, p. 56.

44
“At the very time”:
A. N. Wilson,
Victorians,
p. 551.