The Lost City of Z

NOTES

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, Exploration 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.

44 “I transgressed again”: Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 116.

44 In the late 1860s: See Stanley, How I Found Livingstone; and Jeal, Livingstone.

45 “E. M. Forster once”: Pritchett, Tale Bearers, p. 25.

45 “wild-man that eats”: Edward Douglas Fawcett, Swallowed by an Earthquake, p. 180.

45 “most venturesome”: Edward Douglas Fawcett, Secret of the Desert, p. 206.

46 “possibly thinking”: Ibid., p. 3.

46 “strange ruins”: Ibid., p. 49.

46 “we would-be”: Ibid., p. 146.

46 “I was overcome”: Ibid., p. 195.

46 “He won’t”: Ibid., p. 237.

46 “Everywhere about me”: Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 116.

47 “the city has vanished”: Walters, Palms and Pearls, p. 94.

47 “old Ceylon is”: Fawcett to Esther Windust, March 23, 1924, PHFP.

47 “a geography militant”: Conrad, “Geography and Some Explorers,” p. 6.

49 One person who: Steve Kemper’s 1995 account, “Fawcett’s Wake,” provided to author.

49 For ages, cartographers: Information on the history of maps and geography is drawn largely from Wilford, Mapmakers; Brown, Story of Maps; Sobel, Longitude; Bergreen, Over the Edge of the World; and De Camp and Ley, Lands Beyond.

50 “with every kind”: Quoted in Brehaut, Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages, p. 244.

50 “I, Prester John”: Quoted in Bergreen, Over the Edge of the World, p. 77.

50 “to the dearest son”: Quoted in De Camp and Ley, Lands Beyond, p. 148.

51 “the Discovery of”: Wilford, Mapmakers, p. 153.

51 Finally, in the nineteenth: For information on the history of the RGS, see Mill, Record of the Royal Geographical Society; Cameron, To the Farthest Ends of the Earth; and Keltie, “Thirty Years’ Work of the Royal Geographical Society.”

52 “collect, digest”: Mill, Record of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 17.

52 “There was not”: Francis Younghusband, in “The Centenary Meeting: Addresses on the History of the Society,” Geographical Journal, Dec. 1930, p. 467.

52 “[It] was composed”: Keltie, “Thirty Years’ Work of the Royal Geographical Society,” p. 350.

53 Richard Burton espoused: For information on Burton, see Kennedy, Highly Civilized Man; Farwell, Burton; and Lovell, Rage to Live.

53 “I protest vehemently”: Quoted in Farwell, Burton, p. 267.

53 “looked as if a tiger”: Quoted in Lovell, Rage to Live, p. 581.

53 “Explorers are not”: David Attenborough, foreword to Cameron, To the Farthest Ends of the Earth.

53 “What you can”: Quoted in Kennedy, Highly Civilized Man, p. 102.

54 “who sit in carpet slippers”: Ibid., p. 103.

54 “B is one of those men”: Ibid., p. 169.

54 “gladiatorial exhibition”: Ibid., p. 124.

54 “By God, he’s killed”: Quoted in Moorehead, White Nile, pp. 74-75.

54 A cousin of Charles Darwin’s: See Gillham, Life of Sir Francis Galton; Pickover, Strange Brains and Genius; and Brookes, Extreme Measures.

55 “no man expressed”: Quoted in Pickover, Strange Brains and Genius, p. 113.

55 “A passion for travel”: Ibid., p. 118.

55 “from north and south”: Quoted in Driver, Geography Militant, p. 3.

56 “So great is the heat”: Quoted in Cameron, To the Farthest Ends of the Earth, p. 53.

57 “There is very little”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 14, 1921, RGS.

58 It was February 4, 1900: The date was identified in a 1901 letter from the War Of fice to the secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, while the location of the hotel was mentioned in Reeves’s Recollections of a Geographer, p. 96.

58 Billboard men: For descriptions of London at the turn of the century, see Cook, Highways and Byways in London; Burke, Streets of London Through the Centuries; Sims, Living London; Flanders, Inside the Victorian Home; and Larson, Thunderstruck.

59 On the corner: For details about the RGS building on Savile Row, see Mill, Record of the Royal Geographical Society.

59 In his late thirties: My descriptions of Reeves and his course are drawn largely from his memoir, Recollections of a Geographer, and his published lectures, Maps and Map-Making.

60 “How well I”: Reeves, Recollections of a Geographer, p. 17.

60 “He had an innate”: Francis Younghusband, foreword to ibid., p. 11.

60 “the society of men”: Galton, Art of Travel, p. 2.

60 “If you could blindfold”: Reeves, Maps and Map-Making, p. 84.

61 “He was extremely”: Reeves, Recollections of a Geographer, p. 96.

61 what the Greeks called: Bergreen, Over the Edge of the World, p. 84.

61 There were two principal: For further information about the role that these manu als played in shaping Victorian attitudes, see Driver, Geography Militant, pp. 49-67.

61 “It is a loss”: Freshfield and Wharton, Hints to Travellers, p. 2.

61 “Remember that”: Ibid., p. 5.

“Had we lived”: New York Times, Feb. 11, 1913.

62 In 1896, Great Britain: McNiven and Russell, Appropriated Pasts, p. 66.

62 “savages, barbarians”: Freshfield and Wharton, Hints to Travellers, p. 435.

62 “the prejudices with”: Ibid., pp. 445-46.

62 “it is established”: Ibid., p. 422.

62 As with mapping: Information on the “tools” used by early anthropologists is derived largely from the 1893 edition of Hints to Travellers and the 1874 handbook prepared by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Notes and Queries on Anthropology.

62 “Where practicable”: Freshfield and Wharton, Hints to Travellers, p. 421.

62 “It is hardly safe”: Ibid.

62 “emotions are differently”: Ibid., p. 422.

63 “Notwithstanding his inveterate”: Ibid., p. 58.

63 “We, the undersigned”: Ibid., p. 6.

63 “Promote merriment”: Ibid., p. 309.

63 “A frank, joking”: Ibid., p. 308.

63 “constantly pushing and pulling”: Ibid., p. 17.

64 “Use soap-suds”: Ibid., p. 18.

64 “Afterwards burn out”: Ibid., p. 21.

64 “Pour boiling grease”: Ibid., p. 20.

64 “This can be done”: Ibid., p. 225.

64 “To prepare them”: Ibid., p. 201.

64 “take your knife”: Ibid., p. 317.

65 “If a man be lost”: Ibid., p. 321.

65 “Choose a well-marked”: Ibid.

65 “with great credit”: Ibid., p. 96.

65 “The R.G.S. bred me”: Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Nov. 2, 1924, RGS.

67 “There were the Prudent”: Fleming, Brazilian Adventure, p. 32.

68 More feared than piranhas: Millard, River of Doubt, pp. 164-65.

69 “Many deaths result”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 50.

70 “ hush-hush”: Brian Fawcett to Brigadier F. Percy Roe, March 15, 1977, RGS.

71 It was the perfect: Details of Fawcett’s time working for the British Intelligence Office are drawn from his Morocco diary, 1901, Fawcett Family Papers.

71 “nature of trails”: Ibid.

71 In the nineteenth century: See Hefferman, “Geography, Cartography, and Military Intelligence,” pp. 505-6.

71 British authorities transformed: My information on the Survey of India Depart ment and its spies comes primarily from Hopkirk’s books The Great Game and Tres passers on the Roof of the World.

72 “some sort of Moorish”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Journey to Morocco City,” p. 190.

72 “The Sultan is”: Fawcett, Morocco diary.

72 In early 1906: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 18-19.

72 Famous for his keen: See Flint, Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria; and Muffett, Empire Builder Extraordinary.

73 “[He] was lashed”: Muffett, Empire Builder Extraordinary, p. 19.

73 “bore holes”: Ibid., p. 22.

73 “Do you know”: For the conversation between Fawcett and Goldie, see Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 18-20.

74 “Destiny intended me”: Ibid., p. 20.

74 “toughs, would be”: Ibid.

74 a thirty-year-old: Fawcett used a pseudonym for Chivers in Exploration Fawcett, calling him Chalmers.

74 “They were all”: Ibid., p. 21.

74 Since the canal’s: Enrique Chavas-Carballo, “Ancon Hospital: An American Hospital During the Construction of the Panama Canal, 1904-1914,” Military Medicine, Oct. 1999.

75 “How strange”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 26.

76 “a marvelous effect”: Freshfield and Wharton, Hints to Travellers, p. 12.

76 “A mule’s load”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 159.

76 Christopher Columbus had: My descriptions of the Amazon rubber boom and the frontier come from several sources, including Furneaux, Amazon, pp. 144-66; Hemming, Amazon Frontier, pp. 271-75; and St. Clair, Mighty, Mighty Amazon, pp. 156-63.

76 In 1912, Brazil alone: Author’s interview with Aldo Musacchio, co-author of “Brazil in the International Rubber Trade, 1870-1930,” which was published in From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000, ed. Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, and Zephyr Frank (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006).

76 “No extravagance”: Furneaux, Amazon, p. 153.

77 “the most criminal”: Quoted in Hemming, Amazon Frontier, pp. 292-93.

77 “My heart sank”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 41.

78 “from ‘nowhere’ ”: Ibid., p. 89.

78 “as proper as”: Price, Amazing Amazon, p. 147.

78 “Government? What”: Quoted in Fifer, Bolivia, p. 131.

78 “Here come”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 95-96.

78 In one instance: See Hardenburg, Putumayo.

78 “In some sections”: Ibid., p. 204.

79 “It is no exaggeration”: U.S. Department of State, Slavery in Peru, p. 120.

79 “so manyof them”: Ibid., p. 69.

79 “the wretched policy”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Survey Work on the Frontier Between Bolivia and Brazil,” p. 185.

79 “the great dangers”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 515.

79 “He could smell”: Ibid., p. 64.

80 “He has his choice”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 4, p. 91.

80 “the most ferocious”: Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, p. 40.

80 “there was an unpleasant”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 131.

80 In addition to piranhas: For descriptions of the animals and insects of the Amazon, see Forsyth and Miyata, Tropical Nature; Cutright, Great Naturalists Explore South America; Kricher, Neotropical Companion; and Millard, River of Doubt.

80 The German explorer-scientist: Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, pp. 112-16.

81 “One shock is sufficient”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 50.

81 “carry no hope”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 3, p. 498.

81 “It was one”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 84.

82 “We lived simply”: Costin to daughter Mary, Nov. 10, 1946, Costin Family Papers.

82 “Inactivity was what”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 94.

82 “Monkeys are looked”: Ibid., p. 47.

82 “is against man”: Ibid.

83 “[Mosquitoes] constitute”: Price, Amazing Amazon, p. 138.

83 “The piums settled”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 59.

83 “The Tabanacame singly”: Ibid., p. 49.

83 “Attacked in hammocks”: Ernest Holt diary, Oct. 20, 1920, ADAH.

84 according to one estimate: Millard, River of Doubt, p. 250.

85 “a couple of crossed”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 89.

85 “When [the Kanichana]”: Métraux, Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Western Matto Grosso, p. 80.

85 “The head and the intestines”: Clastres, “Guayaki Cannibalism,” pp. 313-15.

86 “court assassination”: C. Reginald Enock, letter to the editor, Geographical Journal, April 19, 1911, RGS.

87 “It was trying”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 73.

87 “Their bodies [were] painted”: Ibid., p. 87.

87 “One ripped through”: Ibid.

87 “I had observed”: Ibid., p. 83.

87 Still, two of the men: Fawcett, “Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 523.

87 “I was tempted”: Ibid., p. 43.

87 “Unless he had”: Keltie to Nina Fawcett, Dec. 1, 1913, RGS.

88 “the healthy person”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 55.

91 “professional burglar”: Malcolm, Silent Woman, p. 9.

92 Many of the diaries: Quotations from diaries and logbooks come from the private papers of the Fawcett family.

94 “Are you game?”: See Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 116-22. For further information on the journey, see Fawcett’s “Explorations in Bolivia” and his four-part series “In the Heart of South America.”

95 “When… the enterprising traveler”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 2, p. 491.

95 “Time and the foot”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 122.

95 Conan Doyle reportedly: Doyle, notes to Lost World, p. 195. The other place commonly said to have inspired the novel’s setting is Mount Roraima in Venezuela.

95 “What’ll we do”: For details of their conversation, see Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 120-21.

96 “Starvation sounds almost”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 3, p. 549.

97 “The rain forest”: Millard, River of Doubt, p. 148.

97 “the aquatic equivalents”: Forsyth and Miyata, Tropical Nature, p. 93.

97 Nearly a month after: Thirty-eight years later, it was revealed that Fawcett and his men had actually been several miles from the principal source. Brian Fawcett noted that “my father would have been bitterly disappointed.”

98 “How long could”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 122.

98 “The voices of”: Ibid., p. 121.

98 “Starvation blunts one’s”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 4, p. 89.

98 “[An ambush], in spite”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 110.

98 “For God’s sake”: Ibid., p. 124.

101 “the most remarkable”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Case for an Expedition in the Amazon Basin” (proposal), April 13, 1924, RGS.

101 “This area represents”: Ibid.

101 “get the survivors”: Ibid.

102 “glorious prospect”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 108.

102 “I wanted to forget”: Ibid., pp. 108-9.

103 “Deep down”: Ibid., p. 109.

103 “prison gate”: Ibid., p. 138.

103 “a very uncertain”: Nina Fawcett to Joan, Jan. 24, 1946, Fawcett Family Papers.

103 “subject my wife”: Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Oct. 3, 1911, RGS.

103 He had once shown: Nina Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 6, 1946, Fawcett Family Papers.

103 “I felt relieved”: Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 24.

104 “riotous democracy”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, Dec. 5, 1933, Fawcett Family Papers.

104 “They have had”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 30, 1913, RGS.

104 “I, personally, am”: Nina Fawcett to Harold Large, April 12, 1926, Fawcett Family Papers.

104 She learned how: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 16.

104 “interesting to those”: Nina Fawcett, “The Transadine Railway,” n.d., RGS.

104 “equality… between man”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Dec. 6, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

“Some day perhaps”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, Jan. 6, 1911, RGS.

“Daddy gave us”: Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 30.

105 “By the look of it”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Gold Bricks at Badulla,” p. 234.

105 “the real apple”: Author’s interview with Fawcett’s granddaughter.

105 “Never forget us”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Jack Going to School,” 1910, Faw cett Family Papers.

106 “A leader of men”: Fawcett to Nina Fawcett, April 12, 1910, Fawcett Family Papers.

106 “He was probably”: Stanley Allen, New Haven Register, n.d., RGS.

106 “I have for years”: Barclay to David George Hogarth, Sept. 1, 1927, RGS.

106 60 percent of: Larson, Thunderstruck, p. 271.

106 “a diseasebred”: Edward Douglas Fawcett, Hartmann the Anarchist, p. 27.

106 “Of the Houses”: Ibid., p. 147.

107 “ ‘The lure of ”: Quotations from newspaper articles found in Fawcett’s scrap-book, Fawcett Family Papers.

107 “regions which have”: Suarez, Lembcke, and Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 397.

107 “a great seeker”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 24, 1910, RGS.

107 “What I hope”: Suarez, Lembcke, and Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” pp. 396-97.

108 “I must tell you”: Ibid.

108 “I am a rapid”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 5, 1914, RGS.

108 “He was fever-proof”: Thomas Charles Bridges, Pictorial Weekly, n.d.

108 “a virtual immunity”: Furneaux, Amazon, p. 214.

108 “perfect constitution”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 10, 1910, RGS.

108 “What amazed me”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 178.

109 “the conviction that”: Barclay to David George Hogarth, Sept. 1, 1927, RGS.

109 “I am in the hands”: Fawcett to Esther Windust, March 24, 1923, PHFP.

109 “prepared to travel”: “Colonel Fawcett’s Expedition in Matto Grosso,” Geographi- cal Journal, Feb. 1928, p. 176.

109 “By the way”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, Oct. 9, 1921, RGS.

109 “Such journeys”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 2, 1912, RGS.

109 “hopeless rotter”: From scrapbook, Fawcett Family Papers.

109 “Why he would not”: Dyott, Man Hunting in the Jungle, p. 120.

109 “The strain has”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Bolivian Exploration, 1913-1914” (proposal), n.d., RGS.

110 “I have no mercy”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 24, 1913, RGS.

110 “I am very glad”: Keltie to Fawcett, Jan. 29, 1914, RGS.

110 Born in Glasgow: For details about Murray, see Riffenburgh, Nimrod; Niven, Ice Master; “Captain Bartlett Has No Views,” Washington Post, July 6, 1914; Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic; and Murray and Marston, Antarctic Days.

110 “Pulling, you are”: Murray and Marston, Antarctic Days, p. 88.

111 “He is an admirable man”: Fawcett to Keltie, Oct. 3, 1911, RGS.

111 “I had had rheumatism”: Murray and Marston, introduction to Antarctic Days, p. xvi.

111 “barren regions”: Fawcett, letter to the editor, Travel, n.d., RGS.

112 “A tough bugger”: Author’s interview with Michael Costin.

112 “It’s impossible”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 144.

112 “Several mules with”: James Murray diary, Oct. 2, 1911, NLS.

112 “We were all”: Costin to daughter Mary, Nov. 10, 1946, Costin Family Papers.

113 “We awoke to find”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 150.

113 “Surely an iron-bound”: Ernest Holt diary, Nov. 10, 1920, ADAH.

113 “The animals themselves”: Rice, “Further Explorations in the North-West Amazon Basin,” p. 148.

113 “My strength quite”: For this quotation and all others from Murray on the 1911 expedition, see his diary, part of the William Laird McKinlay Collection at the National Library of Scotland.

115 “I thought that”: Holt diary, Nov. 22, 1920, ADAH.

116 As Costin warned: Costin to daughter Mary, Nov. 10, 1946, Costin Family Papers.

117 “greatest cruelty that faithless”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 114.

117 “Every party”: Mrs. Letheran to Fawcett, Oct. 30, 1919, Fawcett Family Papers.

117 “the motive power”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Occult Life,” p. 93.

117 “There is no disgrace”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 163.

117 “Civilization has”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Renegades from Civilization,” n.d., Fawcett Family Papers.

118 “On such an expedition”: Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, p. 303.

118 “It develops into”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 60.

119 “Being unarmed”: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

120 “By this time”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 169.

121 “I will not detail”: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

121 “You know that”: Murray diary, Nov. 17, 1911, NLS.

121 “Murray is”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 31, 1911, RGS.

123 “I understand that”: Keltie to Fawcett, June 11, 1912, RGS.

123 “Everything that could”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 2, 1912, RGS.

123 “did not neglect”: Keltie to Hugh Mill, March 1, 1912, RGS.

123 “I am sure”: Keltie to Fawcett, June 1, 1912, RGS.

123 “So far they”: Fawcett to Keltie, May 10, 1912, RGS.

124 “What a dreadful”: Keltie to Fawcett, March 7, 1912, RGS.

124 “It’s hell”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 153.

124 “He and Costin”: Ibid., p. 154.

124 in June 1913: On Murray’s disappearance, see Niven, Ice Master.

129 In 1910: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 387.

129 “The moment”: Carvajal, Discovery of the Amazon, p. 438.

129 “Retire! Retire!”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 3, p. 552.

130 “One of these”: Costin to daughter Mary, n.d., Costin Family Papers.

130 Over the years: Costin’s and Fawcett’s recollections differ in some minor details.

130 Fawcett, for instance, remembered one of his colleagues eventually taking him across the river in a canoe.

130 “The Major made”: Costin to daughter Mary, n.d., Costin Family Papers.

130 “On climbing the opposite”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 3, p. 552.

130 “[Fawcett] disappeared”: Costin to daughter Mary, n.d., Costin Family Papers.

131 “[They] helped us”: Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 388.

131 “The men are”: Ibid.

131 “After a few minutes”: Costin to daughter Mary, n.d., Costin Family Papers.

131 “a most intelligent”: Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 388.

131 “There are problems”: Fawcett to RGS, Oct. 15, 1909, RGS.

132 “Without any hesitation”: Costin to daughter Mary, Nov. 10, 1946, Costin Family Papers.

132 “Whenever he came”: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

132 “I know, from persons”: Suarez, Lembcke, and Fawcett, “Further Explorations in Bolivia,” p. 397.

132 “standing deliberately”: Nina to Keltie, 1909, RGS.

133 “His encounter with”: Nina Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Jan. 11, 1911, RGS.

133 There was, however: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

133 “He did not wish”: Ibid.

133 “we could see”: Ibid.

134 “Food problems”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 171.

134 “[The Echojas] would”: Ibid., p. 149.

134 “I sucked, whistled”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 2, p. 495.

134 “With illness and disease”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 168-69.

135 “In 99 cases”: Fawcett, “In the Heart of South America,” pt. 4, p. 92.

135 Though some of the first: For details on the first encounter between Native Americans and Europeans and on the Las Casas and Sepúlveda debate, see Huddleston, Origins of the American Indians; Todorov, Conquest of America; Pagden, European Encounters with the New World; and Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions.

135 “The Spanish have”: Quoted in Columbia University, Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, pp. 526-27.

135 “Are these not men?”: Quoted in Pagden, European Encounters with the New World, p. 71.

135 “pretending to be”: Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, p. 12.

135 “the simplest people”: Ibid., pp. 9-10.

136 “Is there any notable”: British Association for the Advancement of Science, Notes and Queries on Anthropology, pp. 10-13. These racist views toward Native Americans were by no means limited to the Victorians. In 1909, the scientific director of the São Paulo Museum, Dr. Hermann von Ihering, contended that because Indians contribute “neither to labour nor to progress,” Brazil had “no alternative but to exterminate them.”

136 many Victorians now: For my descriptions of Victorian attitudes on race, I’ve drawn on several excellent books. They include Stocking, Victorian Anthropology; Kuklick, Savage Within; Stepan, Idea of Race in Science; and Kennedy, Highly Civilized Man.

136 “ quasi-gorillahood”: Quoted in Kennedy, Highly Civilized Man, p. 133.

137 “ sub-species”: Ibid., p. 143.

137 “these poor wretches”: Quoted in Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, p. 105.

137 “firmness”: Quoted in A. N. Wilson, Victorians, pp. 104-5.

137 eugenics, which once: Victoria Glendinning, Leonard Woof: A Biography (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 149.

137 “children in mind”: Quoted in Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, p. 157.

137 lost tribes of Israel: According to the Bible, in 722 B.C., the Assyrian army carried away and dispersed ten tribes from the northern Israelite kingdom. What happened to them has long mystified scholars. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Antonio de Montezinos, a Sephardic Jew who had escaped the Inquisition, claimed that he had found the descendants of the tribes in the Amazon jungle-that land “where never mankind dwelt.” Some of the Indians, he reported, had said to him in Hebrew, “Hear O Israel! The Lord Our God the Lord is One.” The influential European rabbi and scholar Menasseh ben Israel later endorsed Montezinos’s account, and many believed that the Indians of America, whose origins had long confounded Westerners, were in fact Jews. In 1683, the Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, said that he was “ready to believe” that the Indians were indeed “of the stock of the Ten Tribes.”

137 These theories were also picked up by the Mormons, who believed the Indians had originated, in part, from a migration of Jews.

137 “There are all sorts”: Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1925.

137 “jolly children”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 170, 201.

138 “savages of”: Ibid., p. 215.

138 “My experience”: Ibid., p. 49.

138 “roasted over”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Bolivian Exploration, 1913-1914,” p. 225.

138 “elaborate ritual”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 203.

138 “plain proof”: Ibid., p. 170.

138 “He knew the Indians”: Thomas Charles Bridges, Pictorial Weekly, n.d.

138 “He understood them”: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

138 “mental maze”: Kennedy, Highly Civilized Man, p. 143.

138 “There are three”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 95.

139 “white as we”: Quoted in Babcock, “Early Observations in American Physical Anthropology,” p. 309.

139 “men, women and”: Quoted in Woolf, “Albinism (OCA2) in Amerindians,” p. 121.

139 “very white”: Carvajal, Discovery of the Amazon, p. 214.

139 “Nietzschean explorer”: Hemming, Die If You Must, p. 78.

140 “Probably none of us”: Fawcett, “Bolivian Exploration, 1913-1914,” p. 222.

140 “They slipped in”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 199-200.

140 “Don’t move!”: Costin, Daily Chronicle (London), Aug. 27, 1928.

140 “I myself made”: Ibid.

140 “Our friendship”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 199.

141 They had befriended: The renowned Swedish anthropologist Baron Erland Nor-denskiöld later reported that Fawcett had “discovered an important indigenous tribe that… has never been visited by the white man.”

141 “We do not”: Bowman, “Remarkable Discoveries in Bolivia,” p. 440.

141 “Perhaps this is why”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 173.

141 “The tribe is also”: Fawcett, “Bolivian Exploration, 1913-1914,” p. 224.

141 “intractable, hopelessly brutal”: Ibid., p. 228.

141 “brave and intelligent”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 200.

142 “Wherever there are”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Memorandum Regarding the Region of South America Which It Is Intended to Explore” (proposal), 1920, RGS.

142 “roads” and “causeways”: Ibid.

142 There was, for instance: For details on Henry Savage Landor, see Hopkirk’s Trespassers on the Roof of the World and Landor’s Everywhere and Across Unknown South America.

142 “I did not masquerade”: Landor, Across Unknown South America, vol. 1, p. 14.

143 “In Xanadu”: Quoted in Millard, River of Doubt, p. 3.

143 “I am going very slowly”: Church, “Dr. Rice’s Exploration in the North-Western Valley of the Amazon,” pp. 309-10.

143 “We look upon”: H.E., “The Rio Negro, the Casiquiare Canal, and the Upper Orinoco,” p. 343.

144 “probably the first surgical”: Royal Geographical Society, “Monthly Record,” June 1913, p. 590.

144 one occasion they mutinied: New York Times, Sept. 7, 1913.

144 “He is a medical”: Keltie to Fawcett, Jan. 29, 1914, RGS.

144 “as much at home”: New York Times, July 24, 1956.

144 “Explorers are not”: Fawcett to RGS, Jan. 24, 1922, RGS.

145 “Keep your ears open”: Keltie to Fawcett, March 10, 1911, RGS.

145 “I see he even”: Quoted in Millard, River of Doubt, p. 338.

145 “a pure fake”: Ibid., p. 339.

145 “no mountaineer can”:Quoted in Hopkirk, Trespassers on the Roof of the World, p. 135.

145 “unintelligible”: New York Times, Oct. 6, 1915.

145 “for an elderly man”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 3, 1915, RGS.

145 “I do not wish”: Fawcett to Keltie, April 15, 1924, RGS.

145 “a humbug from”: Fawcett to Keltie, Sept. 27, 1912, RGS.

146 “counted in with”: Fawcett to Keltie, April 9, 1915, RGS.

146 In 1900, Rondon: Millard, River of Doubt, p. 77.

146 “gentlemen, owing to”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Case for an Expedition in the Amazon Basin” (proposal), April 13, 1924, RGS.

146 “the idea of”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 231.

146 “I think you worry”: Keltie to Fawcett, Jan. 29, 1914, RGS.

146 “sure to go out”: Ibid.

147 “prove to be”: Bingham, introduction to Lost City of the Incas, pp. 17-18.

147 “the pin-up of”: Hugh Thomson, Independent (London), July 21, 2001.

148 “The great lord”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 97.

149 So, according to: For details, see Hemming’s definitive account, The Search for El Dorado. Also see Wood, Conquistadors; Smith, Explorers of the Amazon; and St. Clair, Mighty, Mighty Amazon.

149 “gleaming like”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 101.

149 As fanciful as these: The theologian Sepúlveda would later dismiss the “ingenuity” of the Indians, such as the Aztecs and the Incas, by saying “animals, birds, and spiders” can also make “certain structures which no human accomplishment can competently imitate.”

149 “Some of our soldiers”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 7.

149 “like something from”: Ibid., p. 45.

149 “Because of many reports”: Carvajal, appendix to Discovery of the Amazon, p. 245.

150 “Cinnamon of the most”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 111.

150 “The butcher Gonzalo”: Ibid., p. 112.

151 “like mad men”: Carvajal, Discovery of the Amazon, p. 172.

151 “either die or see”: Ibid., p. 171.

151 “went in as far”: Ibid., p. 213.

151 “as the brown waters”: St. Clair, Mighty, Mighty Amazon, p. 47.

152 “more rich and bewtifull cities”: Ralegh, Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, p. 111.

152 “more desirous”: Quoted in Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh, p. 494.

152 “God knows”: Ibid., pp. 504-5.

152 His skull was: Adamson and Folland, Shepherd of the Ocean, p. 449.

152 “Some, contrary to nature”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 63.

152 “Oh, diabolical plan!”: Ibid., p. 42.

152 “They marched like”: Ibid., p. 172.

153 “exaggerated romance”: Fawcett to Arthur R. Hinks, n.d., RGS.

153 “All that night”: Carvajal, Discovery of the Amazon, p. 202.

153 “many roads” and “fine highways”: Ibid.

154 “great quantity of maize”: Ibid., p. 211.

154 “cities that glistened”: Ibid., p. 217.

154 “there was a villa”: Ibid., p. 201.

154 “full of lies”: Carvajal, introduction to Discovery of the Amazon, p. 25.

155 “Both the General”: Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 134.

155 “they had seen”: Ibid., p. 133.

155 “introduction of small-pox”: Typed extracts from Fawcett’s correspondence, Faw cett to Harold Large, Oct. 16, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

155 “the greatest secrets”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 173.

158 “incited by the insatiable”: My translation of the document was checked against the more authoritative translation done by Richard Burton’s wife, Isabel, which is included in his second volume of Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil.

“It was difficult”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 10.

“It feels genuine!”: Brian Fawcett to Nina and Joan, Feb. 6, 1952, Fawcett Family Papers.

161 “Of course experienced”: Keltie to Fawcett, Dec. 11, 1914, RGS.

161 “finger on important”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 3, 1915, RGS.

161 “Fear not”: Quoted in The New York Times Current History: The European War, vol. 1, August-December 1914, p. 140.

161 “in the thick”: Fawcett to Keltie, Jan. 18, 1915, RGS.

161 “one of the most”: Cecil Eric Lewis Lyne, “My Participation in the Two Great Wars” (unpublished memoir), RAHT.

161 “was probably the nastiest”: Henry Harold Hemming, “My Story” (unpublished memoir), IWM.

161 “Fawcett and I”: Lyne, “My Participation in the Two Great Wars.”

161 One day Fawcett: Ibid.

162 wearing a long: See John Ramsden’s first American edition of Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and His Legend Since 1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 372.

162 “queer garments”: For Fawcett’s encounter with Churchill, see Lyne, “My Participation in the Two Great Wars.”

162 “Filth & rubbish”: Quoted in Gilbert, Churchill, p. 332.

162 “He is very well”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, March 2, 1916, RGS.

162 “So you can imagine”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, April 25, 1916, RGS.

163 “If you only knew”: Fawcett to Edward A. Reeves, Feb. 5, 1915, RGS.

163 A bulletin: “Monthly Record,” Geographical Journal, Oct. 1916, p. 354.

163 “the dream of his life”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, March 11, 1916, RGS.

163 “I possess the medal”: Fawcett to Keltie, Jan. 15, 1920, RGS.

164 It was the Battle: For descriptions of the war, see Gilbert, Somme; Ellis, Eye-Deep in Hell; Winter, Death’s Men; and Hart, Somme.

164 “at least provides”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 66.

164 “Tell me”: Huntford, Shackleton, p. 599.

165 “Dante would never”: Cecil Eric Lewis Lyne diary, RAHT.

165 “burnt up”: Ellis, Eye-Deep in Hell, pp. 66-67.

165 “He was troubled”: Nina Fawcett to Keltie, March 3, 1917, RGS.

165 The war had claimed: Mill, Record of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 204.

165 “He was a good fellow”: Fawcett to Keltie, n.d., 1917, RGS.

165 “of purely unselfish”: Davson, History of the 35th Division, p. 43.

165 “If you can imagine”: “British Colonel in Letter Here Tells of Enormous Slaughter,” in Fawcett’s scrapbook, n.d., n.p., Fawcett Family Papers.

166 “Is that you, boy?”: Stashower, Teller of Tales, p. 346.

166 “She loved you so”: Fawcett to Doyle, March 26, 1919, HRC.

167 “He and his intelligence”: Hemming, “My Story.” Henry Harold Hemming was also the father of John Hemming, the celebrated historian who later became the director of the Royal Geographical Society.

167 Or, as he told: Fawcett to Doyle, March 26, 1919, HRC.

167 “many times in France”: Washington Post, March 18, 1934.

168 “full of the hidden”: Letter to the editor, Times (London), July 4, 1936.

168 “It is a little”: Keltie to Fawcett, April 7, 1915, RGS.

168 “I am getting older”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 23, 1918, RGS.

168 “Knowing what these”: Fawcett, letter to the editor, Travel, 1918.

168 “the whole business”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 23, 1918, RGS.

168 “Many thousands must”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 209.

168 “now quite an inch”: Nina Fawcett to Large, May 19, 1919, Fawcett Family Papers.

168 “We all went”: Ibid.

169 “I had a ripping”: Jack Fawcett to Large, Oct. 2, 1924, Fawcett Family Papers.

169 “able and willing”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 277.

169 “This is mine”: Ibid.

169 “At school it was”: Ibid.

169 “hidden feeling”: Nina Fawcett to Joan, Dec. 14, 1952, Fawcett Family Papers.

169 “no favourites”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, Dec. 5, 1933, Fawcett Family Papers.

170 “My elder brother”: Brian Fawcett to Brigadier F. Percy Roe, March 15, 1977, RGS.

171 “the general practitioner”: Dyott, On the Trail of the Unknown, p. 141.

171 “I cannot induce”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 260.

171 “one of the world’s”: Schurz, “Distribution of Population in the Amazon Valley,” p. 206.

171 “an extremely original”: Quoted in Rob Hawke, “The Making of a Legend: Colonel Fawcett in Bolivia” (thesis, University of Essex, n.d.), p. 41.

171 “He is a visionary”: Arthur R. Hinks to Sir Maurice de Bunsen, Feb. 26, 1920, RGS.

171 “I do not expect”: Hinks to Keltie, Dec. 31, 1923, RGS.

171 “Remember that I”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 17, 1925, RGS.

172 “Never mind what”: Keltie to Fawcett, Dec. 11, 1914, RGS.

172 “rather queer”: Hinks to Keltie, Dec. 31, 1923, RGS.

172 “I don’t lose”: Fawcett to Keltie, April 15, 1924, RGS.

172 “an opportunity to grow”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 209.

173 “the difficulty of”: Rice, “Rio Negro, the Casiquiare Canal, and the Upper Orinoco,” p. 324.

174 “The results”: Swanson, “Wireless Receiving Equipment,” p. 210.

175 “A large, stout”: Rice, “Rio Negro, the Casiquiare Canal, and the Upper Orinoco,” p. 340.

175 “dress, manners, and”: Ibid., p. 325.

175 “There was no alternative”: Rice, “Recent Expedition of Dr. Hamilton Rice,” pp. 59-60.

175 “We could hear”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22, 1920.

175 “skedaddled”: Fawcett to Keltie, July 18, 1924, RGS.

175 “rather too soft”: Fawcett to Keltie, April 9, 1924, RGS.

176 “it is quite”: RGS to de Bunsen, March 10, 1920, RGS.

176 On February 26: My description of the meeting between Fawcett and Rondon is drawn largely from Leal’s Coronel Fawcett, pp. 95-96.

176 “it is a matter”: Fawcett to Secretary, War Office, Feb. 17, 1919, WO 138/51, TNA.

176 “The higher rank”: Fawcett to the Secretary of the Army Council, Aug. 8, 1922, WO 138/51, TNA.

176 “instant attention”: Quoted in Hemming, Die If You Must, p. 14.

177 Undeterred, Fawcett: In Exploration Fawcett, both Brown and Holt are given pseudonyms. The former is referred to as Butch Reilly and the latter as Felipe.

177 “I’m flesh and blood”: Ibid., p. 214.

178 In the 1870s: Hobhouse, Seeds of Wealth, p. 138.

178 “The electric lights”: Furneaux, Amazon, p. 159.

178 “impoverished and backward”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, pp. 212-13.

178 “Lat x+4 to x + 5”: Nina Fawcett to Large, June 10, 1921, Fawcett Family Papers.

178 May “protection” be: Jack Fawcett to Fawcett, March 3, 1920, Fawcett Family Papers.

178 “get alarmed at”: Fawcett to James Rowsell, June 10, 1921, TNA.

178 “I am going to”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 2, 1920, RGS.

179 “More than half ill”: Holt diary, Oct. 24-26, 1920, ADAH.

179 “giving me”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 218.

179 “It was rather”: Ibid., p. 192.

179 “It is awful”: Holt diary, Nov. 18, 1920.

179 “Never mind me”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 217.

179 “There was nothing”: Ibid.

180 “The exit from Hell”: Holt diary, Nov. 17, 1920.

180 “What does it mean”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Jan. 26, 1921, Fawcett Family Papers.

180 “Col. Fawcett’s expedition”: Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Anglo-Brazilian Chronicle, April 2, 1932.

180 “You are a strong”: Harriett S. Cohen to Holt, Jan. 28, 1921, ADAH.

181 “Unfortunately we live”: Fawcett to Holt, Aug. 18, 1921, ADAH.

181 “After close association”: Holt diary, Aug. 17, 1921.

181 “convinced I am”: Fawcett to Esther Windust, March 5, 1923, PHFP.

181 “I longed for the day”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 222.

181 “the prospects of returning”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 4, 1920, RGS.

182 “Loneliness is not”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 238.

182 “I must return”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 235.

183 “It’s up to you”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 16.

183 “[Lawrence] may be”: Fawcett to Harold Large, March 26, 1919, Fawcett Family Papers.

184 “of faith, courage”: Fawcett to Esther Windust, March 5, 1923, PHFP.

184 “I want to go”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 16.

184 “unsatisfied and unsettled”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

184 “both strong as”: Fawcett to Large, Feb. 5, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

184 “I can only say”: Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, April 4, 1924, RGS.

185 “All water has”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Nov. 26, 1922, Fawcett Family Papers.

185 “The situation is”: Fawcett to Large, Oct. 16, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

185 “My man actually”: Nina Fawcett to Large, July 18, 1919, Fawcett Family Papers.

185 “I wish you”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 29, 1923, RGS.

185 “P.H.F. was in”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Aug. 14, 1922, Fawcett Family Papers.

185 “My father’s impatience”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 275.

186 “Archeological and ethnological”: Fawcett to Large, Oct. 16, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

186 “the money wasted”: Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 29, 1921, RGS.

186 “men of science”: Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 208.

186 “all the skepticism”: Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 1, 1924, RGS.

186 “going to see”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 18, 1922, RGS.

186 “The valley and city”: Mrs. Letheran to Fawcett, Oct. 9, 1919, Fawcett Family Papers.

186 “the treasures of”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Planetary Control,” p. 347.

186 “a trifle unbalanced”: George Miller Dyott to Arthur R. Hinks, June 24, 1927, RGS.

186 “scientific maniac”: Stanley Allen, New Haven Register, n.d., RGS.

186 “mental storms”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Obsession.”

186 “The Mining Syndicate”: Fawcett to Large, Oct. 19, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

186 “It seemed as”: Jack Fawcett to Windust, Dec. 2, 1924, PHFP.

187 “A short time”: Jack Fawcett to Windust, Oct. 28, 1924, PHFP.

187 “The capacity for love”: Fay Brodie-Junes to Nina Fawcett, n.d., Fawcett Family Papers.

187 “the Gods will”: Fawcett to Large, Oct. 19, 1923, Fawcett Family Papers.

188 “a supply of bombs”: New York Times, Oct. 4, 1924.

188 “the whole method”: New York Times, Aug. 12, 1924.

188 “highly respectable man”: Fawcett to Hinks, Dec. 23, 1924, RGS.

188 “to get into touch”: Jack Fawcett to Windust, Oct. 28, 1924, PHFP.

189 “the finest exploration”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 4, 1925, RGS.

189 “We have known”: Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 12, 1925.

190 “I judge from Lynch’s”: Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 4, 1924, RGS.

190 “a modern Columbus”: Fawcett to Keltie, Oct. 10, 1924, RGS.

190 “The R.G.S. bred me”: Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 2, 1924, RGS.

190 “If they don’t”: Nina Fawcett to Large, March 31, 1927, Fawcett Family Papers.

190 “Not a sum”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 17, 1925, RGS.

190 “In some ways”: Fawcett to Keltie, Feb. 4, 1925, RGS.

190 “a fine young fellow”: Reeves, Recollections of a Geographer, p. 98.

190 “I shall rejoice”: Fawcett to Keltie, Nov. 10, 1924, RGS.

191 “In two years’ time”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 46.

191 “[He] succumbed”: Fawcett to Hinks, Dec. 23, 1924, RGS.

191 “must have suffered”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 17, 1925, RGS.

191 “the plan can”: Isaiah Bowman to Rockefeller, Jan. 3, 1925, AGS.

192 “He did precipitate”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 17, 1925, RGS.

192 “I am a great believer”: Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 25, 1924, RGS.

192 “the honour of immortality”: Fawcett to Bowman, Dec. 15, 1924, AGS.

194 In 2004: New York Times, Dec. 29, 2006.

196 Although he made: Nina Fawcett to Arthur R. Hinks, Nov. 17, 1927, RGS.

196 “would preserve a higher”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Proposal for a S. American Expedition,” April 4, 1924, RGS.

197 “At least forty million”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 278.

197 “No Olympic games”: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 1925.

197 “Aren’t the reports”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 280.

197 Brazilian authorities: Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Feb. 4, 1925, RGS.

198 “They do not want”: Ibid.

198 “We have met”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 7, 1925, RGS.

198 the daughter of: Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 22.

198 “I became acquainted”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 279.

198 “[The colonel] and Jack”: Ibid.

198 “[Raleigh] is much”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

198 “I suppose after”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 279.

198 “I don’t intend”: Ibid.

199 “A whole lot”: Ibid., p. 281.

199 “A snake-bite which bleeds”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3, 1925. According to snake experts today, it is actually not possible to determine if a snake is poisonous simply based on whether the wound bleeds.

199 “I saw some quite”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 279.

199 “The lavatory”: Ibid., p. 281.

200 “I am now”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

200 “Raleigh is a funny”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 283.

200 “a desperate villain”: Ibid., p. 281.

200 “On Wednesday night”: Ibid., p. 282.

201 “almost big enough”: Raleigh Rimell to Dulcie Rimell, March 11, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

201 “Cuyaba will seem”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 281.

201 “Daddy says”: Ibid., p. 282.

201 “a God forsaken hole”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

201 Fawcett wrote: Fawcett to Harold Large, March 20, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

201 “Raleigh’s feet”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 284.

201 “[What] a hell”: Ibid., p. 283.

201 Raleigh boasted that: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

202 “We are feeding”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 283.

202 “We intend to buy”: Ibid., p. 280.

202 “The horses being”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

203 “This is nothing”: Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1925.

203 “I have seen no reason”: Fawcett to Nina, March 6, 1925, RGS.

203 “Progress slow”: Royal Geographical Society, “Dr. Hamilton Rice on the Rio Branco,” p. 241.

204 “If not over”: Stevens, “Hydroplane of the Hamilton Rice Expedition,” pp. 42- 43. Interestingly, in 1932, Stevens, while flying in a hot-air balloon, became the first photographer to capture the moon’s shadow on the earth during a solar eclipse. In 1935, he also broke the world record for the highest ascent in a balloon-a record that wouldn’t be surpassed for another twenty-one years.

205 “The palms below”: Ibid., pp. 35-36.

205 “the congratulations”: Royal Geographical Society, “Dr. Hamilton Rice on the Rio Branco,” p. 241.

205 “Those regions”: New York Times, Aug. 24, 1924.

205 “The Brazilian jungle”: New York Times, July 11, 1925.

205 “communication by radio”: Royal Geographical Society, “Dr. Hamilton Rice on the Rio Branco,” p. 241.

205 “Whether it is”: Ibid.

205 “[A prospector] and”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 284.

206 “into a world”: Ahrens to Nina Fawcett, July 10, 1925, RGS.

206 “an excellent initiation”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 289.

206 “fish were literally”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1925.

206 “Daddy had gone”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 286.

206 “[Jack] has evidently”: Large to Nina Fawcett, May 24, 1929, Fawcett Family Papers.

208 “My father chose”: Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1927.

208 “the tickiest place”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1925.

208 “It is a saying”: Fawcett to Nina, May 20, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

208 “in spite of”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

209 “I think you”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Aug. 30, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

209 Galvão had pushed: For details on Galvão, see Leal, Coronel Fawcett.

209 “It was quite”: Translation and extract from the newspaper O Democrata, n.d., RGS.

209 “considerable danger”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1925.

210 “a pinprick”: John James Whitehead diary, June 8, 1928, RGS.

210 “the Brazilian methods”: Fawcett to Isaiah Bowman, May 20, 1925, NMAI.

210 “The Bakairís have been”: American Geographical Society, “Correspondence,” p. 696.

210 “They have in part”: Fawcett to Bowman, May 20, 1925, NMAI.

210 “They say the Bacairys”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 19, 1925, RGS.

210 “We have all clipped”: Ibid.

211 “about eight wild”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

211 “To Jack’s great delight”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 290.

211 “We gave them”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

211 “They are small”: Ibid.

211 “music was”: Nina Fawcett to the Brazilian ambassador, Feb. 3, 1937, RGS.

211 “I have never”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 19, 1925, RGS.

211 “absolutely unexplored”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 16, 1925, RGS.

211 “Years tell”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 291.

212 “The Fawcetts can”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 17, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

212 “That’s too deep”: Jack Fawcett to Nina and Joan, May 19, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

212 “I wish [Raleigh]”: Ibid.

212 “I wish to hell”:Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 17, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

212 “sense of inferiority”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

213 “witnessed throughout”: Hemming, Die If You Must, p. 140.

213 “lot of stick-throwers”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 1925.

213 In the late eighteenth century: For information about the Xavante and the Kayapós, see Hemming, Die If You Must, pp. 86-132.

213 “from that time”: Quoted in ibid., p. 95.

213 “It is obviously”: Fawcett to Keltie, March 17, 1925, RGS.

214 “I believe our”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 1925.

214 “I suspect constitutional”: Fawcett to Nina, May 29, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

214 “By the time”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1925.

214 “I shall look”: Raleigh Rimell to Roger Rimell, March 5, 1925, Rimell Family Papers.

214 “You need have”: Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 291.

217 “ruined architecture”: Rice, “Rio Branco, Uraricuera, and Parima,” p. 218.

218 “I don’t feel”: New York Times, Sept. 17, 2003.

218 “the highest concentration”: Economist, July 24, 2004.

218 On February 12: See New York Times, May 16, 2007; Baltimore Sun, March 14, 2005; and Dayton Daily News, Aug. 14, 2007.

219 But I soon discovered: My account of Petersen’s death is based on my interviews with Eduardo Neves and on newspaper accounts.

221 “Fawcett’s dream”: Verne, Bob Moran and the Fawcett Mystery, p. 76.

221 “I’m an archeologist”: MacGregor, Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils, p. 58.

222 “My son, lame”: Ibid., p. 2.

225 “Any day now”: Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1927.

225 “I believe firmly”: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 1, 1928.

225 “I think it”: Nina Fawcett to Arthur R. Hinks, July 11, 1927, RGS.

225 “Mother! I feel”: Nina Fawcett to Harold Large, Nov. 23, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

226 “Father has got”: Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1927.

226 “Have they been”: Ibid.

226 Several decades later: Cowell, Tribe That Hides from Man, p. 93.

226 “Explorer Called Dupe”: Washington Post, Sept. 12, 1927.

226 “escape from”: Independent, Sept. 24, 1927.

226 “described Daddy exactly”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, Sept. 23, 1927, RGS.

226 “I was boiling”: Nina Fawcett to Hinks, Oct. 24, 1927, RGS.

226 “As the story grew”: Nina Fawcett to Courteville, Aug. 1, 1928, RGS.

227 “One cannot tell”: Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1927.

227 “No better man”: Ibid.

227 “we hold ourselves”: D. G. Hogarth, “Address at the Anniversary General Meeting, 20 June 1927,” Geographical Journal, Aug. 1927, p. 100.

227 “I am thirty-six years”: R. Bock to D. G. Hogarth, June 21, 1927, RGS.

227 “I am prepared”: Robert Bunio to Hogarth, June 21, 1927, RGS.

227 “My wife and I”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 1927.

228 “whether there is”: Ibid.

228 “We consider that”: Geoffrey Steele-Ronan to Hogarth, June 21, 1927, RGS.

228 “romantic story”: St. Clair, Mighty, Mighty Amazon, p. 254.

228 To succeed, Dyott: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 1929.

229 “camped in some”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 6, 1927.

229 “supreme courage”: Ibid.

229 “A big man”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 13, 1927.

229 “They have come”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 14, 1927.

229 “There are applicants”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 1927.

229 “Perhaps if there”: Independent, Dec. 3, 1927.

230 “I am mostanxious”: Roger Rimell to RGS, 1933, RGS.

230 “I know of no”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17, 1927.

230 “I can’t take”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 1927.

230 “creature comforts”: Ibid.

230 “a display of unselfish”: Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1928.

230 “fills me with”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17, 1927.

230 “On behalf of”: John James Whitehead diary, March 1, 1928, RGS.

231 “Cecil B. DeMille safari”: Kigar, “Phantom Trail of Colonel Fawcett,” p. 21.

231 “the dregs of civilization”: Dyott, Man Hunting in the Jungle, p. 85.

231 “Fawcett’s trail loomed”: Ibid., p. 135.

231 “How different would”: Whitehead diary, May 28, 1928, RGS.

231 “I first heard”: McIntyre, “The Commander and the Mystic,” p. 5.

232 “We came across”: Los Angeles Times, Aug. 18, 1928.

232 “These new denizens”: Dyott, Man Hunting in the Jungle, p. 173.

232 “He regarded us”: Ibid., p. 177.

232 “We cannot predict”: Whitehead diary, July 24, 1928, RGS.

233 “The finger of guilt”: Dyott, Man Hunting in the Jungle, p. 236.

233 “I am so afraid”: Los Angeles Times, Aug. 16, 1928.

233 “couldn’t eat”: Whitehead diary, Aug. 12, 1928, RGS.

233 “Remember,” Dyott: Ibid., July 25, 1928.

234 “Natives from tribes”: Stanley Allen, New Haven Register, n.d., RGS.

234 “Am sorry to report”: Dyott to NANA (radio dispatch), Aug. 16, 1928, RGS.

234 “We want to”: Whitehead diary, Sept. 28, 1928, RGS.

234 “You can be”: Chicago Daily Tribune, March 19, 1930.

235 “Indian psychology”: Dyott, Man Hunting in the Jungle, p. 264.

235 “Dyott… must have”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 71.

235 “There is consequently”: Nina Fawcett to NANA, Aug. 23, 1928, RGS.

235 “never give up”: Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1928.

235 “Do not lose”: Esther Windust to Elsie Rimell, Dec. 14, 1928, PHFP.

236 “all hope of”: Abbott to Charles Goodwin, March 22, 1932, FO 743/16, TNA.

236 “My name is Stefan”: Translated statement of Stefan Rattin, prepared by Charles Goodwin and sent to Sir William Seeds, March 18, 1932, FO 743/17, TNA.

236 “only known to me”: Abbott to Hinks, Dec. 8, 1932, RGS.

236 “dare not build my”: H. Kingsley Long, “The Faith of Mrs. Fawcett,” Passing Show, Nov. 12, 1932.

236 “I promised Colonel”: Chicago Daily Tribune, March 20, 1932.

236 “Rattin is anxious”: Washington Post, May 28, 1932.

237 “given up the imitation”: Washington Post, Sept. 30, 1934.

237 “Albert Winton, Los Angeles”: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 4, 1934.

237 “this grave turn”: George W. Cumbler to British Consulate Office, Oct. 17, 1934, RGS.

237 Only years later: Hemming, Die If You Must, p. 700.

238 “The Indians are going”: New York Times, Aug. 12, 1939.

238 “I tried to save”: O Globo, Aug. 23, 1946.

238 In 1947: See Childress, Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of South America, pp. 303-5.

239 “You have always”: Hinks to Nina Fawcett, Oct. 25, 1928, RGS.

239 “more than one passport”: Nina Fawcett to A. Bain Mackie, June 20, 1935, RGS.

239 “My heart is lacerated”: Nina Fawcett to Large, May 6, 1929, Fawcett Family Papers.

240 “Lady Fawcett is suffering”: A. Bachmann to Hinks, Feb. 12, 1934, RGS.

240 “so that they shall”: Nina Fawcett to Large, Fawcett Family Papers.

240 “I shall act on”: Edward Douglas Fawcett to Hinks, 1933, RGS.

240 “I am one”: Nina Fawcett to Thomas Roch, March 10, 1934, RGS.

240 Large referred to: Large to Nina Fawcett, April 16, 1925, Fawcett Family Papers.

240 “The return of her”: Mackie to Goodwin, Nov. 21, 1933, TNA.

240 “I get the impression”: Nina Fawcett to Reverend Monseigneur Couturon, July 3, 1933, RGS.

241 “the most primitive”: Moennich, Pioneering for Christ in Xingu Jungles, p. 9.

241 In 1937: Ibid., pp. 17-18.

241 “In his dual nature”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 301.

241 “not only to learn”: Moennich, Pioneering for Christ in Xingu Jungles, pp. 124-26.

241 “perhaps the most famous”: New York Times, Jan. 6, 1935.

241 a “freak”: “The ‘Grandson,’ ” Time, Jan. 24, 1944.

241 “matters are rather”: Hinks to Morel, Feb. 16, 1944, RGS.

242 When they examined: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 123.

242 “living specimens”: Marsh, “Blond Indians of the Darien Jungle,” p. 483.

242 “They are golden”: Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1924.

242 “Feel the girl’s neck”: New York Times, July 9, 1924.

242 “relic of the Paleolithic”: New York Times, July 7, 1924.

242 “closer to nature”: Washington Post, Oct. 16, 1924.

243 “no home”: Nina Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 6, 1946, Fawcett Family Papers.

243 “You’ve been”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, Dec. 5, 1933, Fawcett Family Papers.

243 “it means certain”: Everild Young to Colonel Kirwan, Sept. 24, 1946, RGS.

249 “The whole”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Proposal for a S. American Expedition” (proposal), April 4, 1924, RGS.

249 “There is reason”: Dyott, Manhunting in the Jungle, p. 224.

250 “Everywhere he went”: Villas Boas and Villas Boas, Xingu, p. 165.

252 “Up that way”: In 1998, Vajuvi told a similar story to the British adventurer Benedict Allen, who made a film about his journey for the BBC entitled The Bones of Colonel Fawcett.

253 “The upper jaw”: “Report on the Human Remains from Brazil,” 1951, RAI.

255 “One of them”: Basso, Last Cannibals, pp. 78-86.

256 “Are you alive”: Esther Windust to Nina Fawcett, Oct. 10, 1928, PHFP.

256 “We shall see”: Mrs. Mullins to Nina Fawcett, Feb. 9, 1928, Fawcett Family Papers.

256 “Her life flows”: Edward Douglas Fawcett to Arthur R. Hinks, 1933.

257 Toward the end: Reeves, Recollections of a Geographer, pp. 198-99.

257 In the early 1940s: Leal, Coronel Fawcett, pp. 213-15.

257 In 1949: Cummins, Fate of Colonel Fawcett, p. 143.

257 “ Pain-stop pain”: Ibid., p. 58.

257 “The voices and sounds”: Ibid., p. 111.

257 “I really don’t”: Brian Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 3, 1945, Fawcett Family Papers.

257 “Have you really”: Nina Fawcett to Joan, April 22, 1942, Fawcett Family Papers.

257 “In a way”: Brian Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 3, 1945, Fawcett Family Papers.

258 “The time has come”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 124.

258 “wild, despairing”: Brian Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 3, 1945, Fawcett Family Papers.

258 “the pathetic relics”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, introduction to Exploration Fawcett, p. xiii.

258 “I feel that”: Brian Fawcett to Joan, Sept. 3, 1945, Fawcett Family Papers.

258 “on his expeditions”: Fawcett, introduction to Exploration Fawcett, p. xiii.

258 “Daddy seems very”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, April 1, 1951, Fawcett Family Papers.

258 “It really is”: Brian Fawcett to Nina, May 15, 1952, Fawcett Family Papers.

258 “I simply couldn’t”: Nina Fawcett to Joan, Dec. 14, 1952, Fawcett Family Papers.

259 Brian and Joan: Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 20.

259 “sacrificed”: Ibid.

259 “without satisfying”: Brian Fawcett to Sir Geoffrey Thompson, May 20, 1955, FO 371/114106, TNA.

259 “just as mad”: Thompson to I. F. S. Vincent, May 19, 1955, FO 371/114106, TNA.

259 “But… but”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 217.

260 “Fate must surely”: Ibid., p. 284.

260 “That looks like”: Ibid., p. 245.

260 “The whole romantic”: Ibid., p. 301.

260 “I do not assume”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Memorandum Regarding the Region of South America Which It Is Intended to Explore” (proposal), 1919, RGS.

260 “the cradle of”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 299.

260 “the time”: “The Occult Interests of Col. P. H. Fawcett,” n.d., n.p., PHFP.

260 “Was Daddy’s whole”: Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 7.

260 “an objective that”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 301.

260 “Those whom the Gods”: Fawcett to Windust, March 5, 1923, PHFP.

261 One sect, called: Details about the sect come from Leal, Coronel Fawcett, and my interviews.

263 “I was all she had”: Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 307.

264 “My story is lost”: Cummins, Fate of Colonel Fawcett, p. 43.

265 “throwing away”: Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 301.

271 “very little scratching”: Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Memorandum Regarding the Region of South America Which It Is Intended to Explore” (proposal), 1919, RGS.

273 Heckenberger has helped: For further information on Heckenberger’s discoveries, see The Ecology of Power.

273 Other scientists: My descriptions of the revolution in archaeology in the Amazon come from my interviews with many of the anthropologists and other scientists who are or were working in the field, including William Denevan, Clark Erickson, Susanna Hecht, Michael Heckenberger, Eduardo Neves, James Petersen, Anna Roosevelt, and Neil Whitehead. My information is also derived from many of these and other scholars’ published research. See, for instance, “Secrets of the Forest” and Moundbuilders of the Amazon, by Roosevelt; “The Timing of Terra Preta Formation in the Central Amazon,” by Neves; and Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology, edited by Balée and Erickson. For a general survey of the latest scientific developments that are overturning so much of what was once believed about the Americas before Columbus, see Mann’s 1491.

274 Some archaeologists now: A team of archaeologists claims that at a site in Monte Verde, Chile, there are indications of human presence from more than thirty-two thousand years ago, which, if true, would further shatter the traditional theory of how and when the Americas were first settled.

275 “no mirage”: Roosevelt, “Secrets of the Forest,” p. 26.

275 “With some caveats”: Interview with author.