Percy Fawcett and the search for the 'Lost City Of Z'

The difficulties are great and the tale of disasters a long one, for the few remaining unknown corners of the world exact a price for their secrets

One last time he would follow the jealously guarded handful of hints, hunches and half-clues he’d amassed during a colourful career, to risk life and loved ones on a quixotic quest for the elusive citadel he referred to only as ‘Z’.

A 'classic gentleman explorer'

Schooled as a classic gentleman explorer by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London, former military man Fawcett briefly worked as a spy in Morocco before accepting his first Amazon assignment in 1906: to survey the vague and violent border between Bolivia and Brazil. Despite atrocious conditions and ever-present mortal danger, he completed his mission in a year (half the expected time).

During the following two decades he survived six equally horror-ridden expeditions into the Amazon – tracing the Rio Verde to its source, exploring the Peruvian borderland and making contact with numerous tribes – and three years active service on the Western Front during the worst of World War I.

While his expedition partners – who variously included experienced outdoorsmen such as polar explorer James Murray, and tough guys like towering Australian boxer Lewis Brown – withered in the woeful conditions, Fawcett powered on, seemingly immune to the myriad ailments that beset the body in the Amazon.

The dogs and pack animals he took with him invariably died, as did several of his human colleagues, but he never sugarcoated the dangers. Party members who couldn’t keep pace would be abandoned, he explained, before the rest of the expedition was put at risk.

Although often accused of lacking empathy for companions, Fawcett demonstrated a level of compassion, understanding and respect for the Amazon’s indigenous peoples that was well ahead of his time. He attempted to learn local languages and risked his life numerous times to avoid bloodshed.

If with all my experience we can't make it, there's not much hope for others

After his initial achievements as an extreme surveyor, Fawcett’s post-war, anthropologically orientated expeditions were less successful, and by the time he returned from an ill-advised solo attempt to find Z in 1921, he was bankrupt, struggling even to pay the £3 RGS annual membership fee.

His endeavours hadn't earned him money, but they had won the respect of fellow explorers and those who live vicariously through them. Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to write The Lost World after reading Fawcett's field notes detailing his Amazonian exploits, and adventure writer H Rider Haggard was a personal friend.

Colonel T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) even asked to join his next expedition. Wary of what Lawrence would cost, however, doubtful about the desert man’s adaptability to jungle exploration, and possibly concerned that the celebrity of such a companion would eclipse his own role in any discoveries made, Fawcett preferred the thought of taking his eldest son on a mission that would make a man of him.

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Jack jumped at the chance to accompany his father on one of the adventures he’d heard so much about, so long as his best mate Raleigh Rimmell came too. Here were two strapping lads, “both strong as horses and keen as mustard” as Fawcett enthused, whose services were essentially free – their only fee a share of the spoils should they actually discover a city of gold at the end of the rainforest. But, even with such budget-friendly companions, the expedition needed backers, and the RGS was reluctant to splash the cash.

Savvy media man George Lynch came to the rescue, garnering sponsorship through an American press consortium by promising updates would be provided to their papers (including the New York World and Los Angeles Times) via a system of 'Indian' runners relaying reports from the explorers as they advanced through the jungle.

People were used to farewelling major expeditions and then hearing nothing for years, but this quest would be broadcast to the world in near-live fashion, and it generated much excitement. Fawcett’s eccentricity and colourful history, combined with his young companions’ Hollywood looks, made them perfect reality media stars, and the public was seduced by this modern search for El Dorado.

Cities of gold

Explorers and treasure hunters had been searching South America for El Dorado for centuries. From their earliest rapacious advances into the New World, Iberian conquistadors had removed hoards of gold from Mexico and the southern continent, but their thirst was insatiable and they continued to salivate over a mythical metropolis so rich the king was ritually covered in suits of powdered gold (El Dorado means ‘gilded man’).

Later, bandeirantes (Portuguese-Brazilian fortune hunters) continued the search, followed by modern explorers of Fawcett's ilk – the real-life inspiration for popular fictional figures including Indiana Jones. And not all of these escapades were fruitless. In 1911, American academic and explorer Hiram Bingham captured the world's attention with his sensational rediscovery (aided by locals) of the lost Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes. There was no gold, but it was an archeological treasure trove that electrified interest in the region's people and past.

Fawcett’s theories about an ancient settlement hidden in the Brazilian Amazon formed over years, as he chanced upon unexplainable pottery shards in the darkest depths of the jungle and gained an appreciation of the complexity and size of the indigenous cultures he encountered.

While scouring forgotten documents in the recesses of Rio de Janeiro’s National Library, he discovered a manuscript written by a bandeirante – possibly João da Silva Guimarães – describing the ruins of a once-great city, which the author had found in 1753. This tattered piece of paper stoked his lethal obsession and ultimately sealed his fate.

Off the chart

Sailing from England to America with Jack in late 1924, Fawcett exuded confidence, yet inwardly he was wracked by paranoia. What if his rivals beat him to Z? The rich American explorer Dr Alexander Hamilton Rice, with a light aircraft at his disposal, and the native Brazilian Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, who worked for government and had guided Theodore Roosevelt along the Amazonian River of Doubt, both had ambitions in the area. To muddy his tracks and conceal clues, the cagey colonel concocted a code for writing down grid references and kept his exact route top secret.

The Fawcetts met Rimmell in New York, where they discovered Lynch had blown a fifth of their expedition fund on illegal booze and prostitutes in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Fortunately, millionaire oil magnet JD Rockefeller Jr had read about their quest, and replenished the kitty. Lynch was dispatched to London in disgrace, and the explorers continued by boat to Rio de Janeiro.

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By February 1925, the party was in São Paulo, visiting a snakefarm to pick up a load of anti-venom serum. From here they travelled by train, heading west towards the Paraguay River along the Brazil-Bolivia border, to Corumbá. Aboard the Iguatemi, the party then cruised the Paraguay, São Lourenço and Cuiabá rivers to reach the outpost of Cuiabá, which Rimmell described as a “God forsaken hole… best seen with eyes closed”. Here, they bought provisions and pack animals, and impatiently waited for the dry season.

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When Fawcett judged the time was right, they set off. Several native guides acted as porters for the first, easiest section of the expedition, before returning to Cuiabá with the promised dispatches for the newspapers.

Jack Fawcett and Rimmell’s first taste of the jungle was crossing the cerrado, dry and comparatively easy terrain, but it brought home how tough the trip was going to be. Fawcett senior drove them through savage heat at an unforgiving pace, covering up to 15 miles a day, and the young men had a brutal introduction to the Amazon’s insects.

Rimmell’s foot became infected from bites, he rapidly lost weight and his ardour for the adventure began cooling. Jack, however, demonstrated a similar constitution to his father, almost reveling in the adversity.

By the banks of the Manso River, Fawcett forged ahead and the party was separated overnight, leaving the boys fearful that their leader had been captured or killed by Kayapo Indians. They were reunited the next morning, however, and Fawcett subsequently consented to several days rest at the super-remote Rio Novo ranch of Hermenegildo Galvão, an infamously brutal cattle farmer who lived deep in the forest.

A month after leaving Cuiabá, they reached Bakairi Post, a tiny government garrison on the very edge of the known map. Here, the excited younger men met their first true tribespeople, even engaging in a singing session with them using a ukulele they’d brought along.

On 20 May, the day after Jack turned 22, the men left the last hint of civilization. Nine grueling days later, they reached Dead Horse Camp, where Fawcett had been forced to shoot his ailing pack animal and retreat on a previous expedition. From here they entered utterly unexplored territory, heading towards the River of Death. This region was home to tribes such as the Kayapo, Suyá and Xavante, who harboured a violent hatred of intruding white men after their murderous mistreatment at the hands of rubber barons and soldiers, and the suffering they’d endured as epidemics of disease devastated their societies following first contact.

The guides would go no further, and they began heading back to Cuiabá with expedition reports and letters for loved ones. Percy Fawcett wrote to his wife, and Jack’s mother, Nina: “You need have no fear of failure.” The three men were never seen again.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann is a lively read detailing the backstory to the 1925 expedition, and subsequent attempts to locate the explorers. There's also a film version of David Grann's The Lost City of Z, starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Tom Holland. Pat Kinsella specialises in adventure journalism as a writer, photographer and editor

This article first appeared in the April 2017 issue of BBC History Revealed