View source for Percy Fawcett

{{Short description|British explorer and military officer}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[Lieutenant-Colonel]]
| name               = Percy Harrison Fawcett
| honorific_suffix   = {{Post-nominals|GBR|DSO|size=100}}
| image              = PercyFawcett.jpg
| caption            = Fawcett in 1911
| birth_name         = Percy Harrison Fawcett
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=yes|1867|8|18}}
| birth_place        = [[Torquay]], England
| education      = Newton Abbot  Proprietary College
| disappeared_date   = {{Disappeared date and age|df=yes|1925|5|29|1867|8|18}}
| disappeared_place  = [[Mato Grosso]], Brazil
| spouse             = {{marriage|Nina Agnes Paterson|January 1901}}
| children           = 3
| relatives          = [[Edward Douglas Fawcett]] (brother)
| occupation         = Artillery officer, archaeologist, geologist, explorer
| module             = {{Infobox military person | embed=yes
| allegiance = United Kingdom
| branch = British Army
| serviceyears = 1886–1910<br/>{{Circa}}1914–1919
| rank = [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]]
| unit = [[Royal Artillery]]
| commands =
| battles = [[World War I]]
| awards = [[Distinguished Service Order]]<br/>3 × [[Mentioned in despatches]]
}}
}}

'''Percy Harrison Fawcett''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DSO}} (18 August 1867 {{ndash}} [[Declared death in absentia|disappeared]] 29 May 1925) was a British [[geographer]], [[Royal Artillery|artillery officer]], [[cartography|cartographer]]/[[surveyor]], [[archaeology|archaeologist]] and [[exploration|explorer]] of South America. He disappeared in 1925 (along with his eldest son, Jack, and one of Jack's friends, Raleigh Rimmel) during an expedition to find an [[Lost City of Z|ancient lost city]] which he and others believed existed in the [[Amazon rainforest]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heckenberger |first=Michael J. |date=2009 |title=Lost Cities of the Amazon |journal=[[Scientific American]] |volume=301 |issue=4 |pages=64–71|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1009-64 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |pmid=19780454 |bibcode=2009SciAm.301d..64H |url = https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-cities-of-the-amazon/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240628021411/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-cities-of-the-amazon/ | archive-date = 28 June 2024 | url-status = live|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Life==
===Early life===
Percy Fawcett was born on 18 August 1867 in [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], to [[Edward Fawcett (cricketer)|Edward Boyd Fawcett]] and Myra Elizabeth ([[given name|née]] MacDougall).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.keverelchess.com/e-douglas-fawcett-1866-1960/ |work=Keverel Chess |title=E. Douglas Fawcett (1866–1960) |date=10 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403012650/http://www.keverelchess.com/e-douglas-fawcett-1866-1960/ |archive-date=3 April 2012}}</ref> The Fawcetts were a family of old [[Yorkshire]] gentry ([[Fawcett family|Fawcett of Scaleby Castle]]) who had prospered as shipping magnates in the [[East Indies]] during the late 18th and 19th centuries.{{Cn|date=March 2025}} Fawcett's father had been born in [[British India|India]], and was a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] (RGS), while his elder brother, [[Edward Douglas Fawcett]], was a mountain climber, Eastern [[occult]]ist and the author of philosophical books and popular [[Adventure fiction|adventure novels]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fawcett_e_douglas |title=Fawcett, E Douglas |date=18 January 2017 |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]}}</ref>

During the 1880s, Percy Fawcett was schooled at [[Newton Abbot]] Proprietary College, alongside [[Bertram Fletcher Robinson]], the future sportsman, journalist, writer and mutual friend of [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://bfronline.info/images/pdf/bfr_chronology.pdf |title=B. Fletcher Robinson Chronology |date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724142459/http://bfronline.info/images/pdf/bfr_chronology.pdf |access-date=16 February 2024|archive-date=24 July 2013 }}</ref> Thereafter, he attended the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]], and was commissioned as a [[lieutenant]] of the [[Royal Artillery]] on 24 July 1886. That same year, Fawcett met his future wife, Nina Agnes Paterson, whom he married in 1901 and had two sons, Jack (1903–1925?) and Brian (1906–1984), and one daughter, Joan (1910–2005).<ref>{{London Gazette |date=10 August 1886 |issue=25615 |page=3855}}</ref> On 13 January 1896, Fawcett was appointed [[Adjutant]]<ref>{{London Gazette |date=24 January 1896 |issue=26703 |page=424 |nolink=yes}}</ref> of the [[1st Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Artillery Volunteers]],<ref>{{London Gazette |date=31 January 1896 |issue=26705 |page=589 |nolink=yes}}</ref> and was promoted to [[captain]] on 15 June 1897.<ref>{{London Gazette |date=2 July 1897 |issue=26869 |page=3635 |nolink=yes}}</ref> He later served in [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]], [[Crown Colony of Malta|Malta]] and [[Trincomalee]], [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fawcett |first1=Percy |title=Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z |publisher=The Overlook Press |isbn=978-1590208366 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHsjCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT27|date=4 May 2010}}</ref>

Fawcett joined the RGS in 1901 with the aim of studying [[surveying]] and [[mapmaking]]. Later, he worked for the [[Secret Intelligence Service|British Secret Service]] in North Africa while pursuing the surveyor's craft. He served for the [[War Office]] on [[Spike Island, County Cork|Spike Island]] in [[County Cork]] from 1903 to 1906, where he was promoted to [[Major (rank)|major]] on 11 January 1905.<ref>{{London Gazette |date=12 May 1905 |issue=27792 |page=3426 |nolink=yes}}</ref> Fawcett became friends with authors Conan Doyle and [[Sir Henry Rider Haggard]]; the former used Fawcett's [[Amazon basin|Amazonian]] field reports as inspiration for his novel ''[[The Lost World (Conan Doyle novel)|The Lost World]]''.<ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-grann/a-lost-city-of-z/ "THE LOST CITY OF Z: A TALE OF DEADLY OBSESSION IN THE AMAZON,"] Kirkus Reviews. (1 December 2008): "The British explorer Percy Fawcett’s exploits in jungles and atop mountains inspired novels such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World".</ref>

===Early expeditions===
Fawcett's first expedition to South America was launched in 1906 after the RGS sent him to [[First Brazilian Republic|Brazil]] to map an area of the jungle bordering [[History of Bolivia (1809-1920)|Bolivia]].<ref>{{London Gazette |date=25 May 1906 |issue=27916 |page=3657 |nolink=yes}}</ref> The RGS had been commissioned to map the area as a third party unbiased by local [[Nationalism|national interests]]. Fawcett arrived in [[La Paz]] in June. While on the expedition, in 1907, he claimed to have seen and shot a {{convert|62|ft|m|adj=mid}} long [[Green anaconda|giant anaconda]], a claim for which he was ridiculed by scientists. He reported other mysterious animals unknown to [[zoology]], such as a small cat-like dog about the size of a [[foxhound]], which he claimed to have seen twice, and the giant Apazauca spider, which was said to have poisoned a number of locals.<ref>Fawcett, P. H. and Fawcett, B. ''Exploration Fawcett'' (1953)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/apazauca.htm |title=Apazauca spider |work=The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett |access-date=30 May 2011 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024131815/http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/apazauca.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The giant peanuts which he found in the [[Mato Grosso]] region were almost certainly ''Arachis nambyquarae'' which has legumes up to {{cvt|9|cm|0}} in length.<ref>Flora Brasilica Volume 25 Part 2 page 17</ref>

Fawcett made seven expeditions between 1906 and 1924. He was mostly amicable with the local [[Indigenous peoples of Brazil|indigenous peoples]] through gifts, patience and courteous behaviour. In 1908 he traced the source of the [[Rio Verde (Guaporé River tributary, Rondônia)|Rio Verde]] (Brazil) and in 1910 made a journey to [[Heath River]] (on the border between Bolivia and [[History of Peru#Aristocratic Republic (1895–1919)|Peru]]) to find its source, having retired from the [[British Army]] on 19 January. In 1911, Fawcett once again returned to the Amazon and charted hundreds of miles of unexplored jungle, accompanied by his trusted, longtime exploring companion, Henry Costin, and biologist and polar explorer [[James Murray (biologist)|James Murray]]. After a 1913 expedition, Fawcett supposedly claimed to have seen dogs with double noses. These may have been [[double-nosed Andean tiger hound]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6940289.stm |title=Double-nosed dog not to be sniffed at |work=BBC News |date=10 August 2007}}</ref>

By 1914, based on documentary research, Fawcett had formulated ideas about a "lost city" he named "[[Lost City of Z|Z]]" (''Zed'') somewhere in the Mato Grosso.<ref>{{London Gazette |date=18 January 1910 |issue=28330 |page=434 |nolink=yes}}</ref> He theorized that a complex civilization once existed in the region and that isolated ruins might have survived.<ref name="Yorker">{{cite magazine |last=Grann |first=David |title=The Lost City of Z |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=19 September 2005 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/09/19/the-lost-city-of-z |access-date=23 December 2016}}</ref> Fawcett also found a document known as [[Manuscript 512]], written after explorations made in the ''[[sertão]]'' of the state of [[Bahia]], and housed at the [[National Library of Brazil|National Library]] in [[Rio de Janeiro]]. It is believed to have been authored by Portuguese ''[[bandeirante]]'' {{ill|João da Silva Guimarães|pt}}, who wrote that in 1753 he had discovered the ruins of an ancient city that contained arches, a statue and a temple with [[hieroglyphics]]; the city is described in great detail without providing a specific location. This city became a secondary destination for Fawcett, after "Z".

In Brazil, Fawcett carried a [[jade]] statue of a human figure with inscriptions on the chest and feet that he claimed had supernatural powers over the indigenous tribes of the Amazon. He told Ramiro Noronha, a Brazilian general, "by showing the statue, he could exercise an irresistible power over the natives."<ref>Antonio Callado, Esueleto na lagoa verde: Um ensaio sobre a vida e o sumico do Coronel Fawcett (Rio de Janeiro: Departamento de Impresa Nacional, 1953</ref> 

At the beginning of the [[First World War]], Fawcett returned to Britain to serve with the British Army as a reserve officer in the Royal Artillery, volunteering for duty in [[Flanders]] and commanding an [[artillery brigade]] despite being nearly fifty years old. He was promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel on 1 March 1918,<ref>{{London Gazette |date=10 January 1919 |supp=y |issue=31120 |page=674 |nolink=yes}}</ref> and received three [[mentions in despatches]] from [[Field Marshal (United Kingdom)|Field Marshal]] [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Sir Douglas Haig]], in November 1916,<ref>{{London Gazette |date=2 January 1917 |supp=y |issue=29890 |page=208 |nolink=yes}}</ref> November 1917,<ref>{{London Gazette |date=7 December 1917 |supp=y |issue=30421 |page=12912 |nolink=yes}}</ref> and November 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette |date=17 December 1918 |supp=y |issue=31077 |page=14926 |nolink=yes}}</ref> He was also awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] in June 1917.<ref>{{London Gazette |date=1 June 1917 |supp=y |issue=30111 |pages=5468–5470  |nolink=yes}}</ref>

After the war, Fawcett returned to Brazil to study local wildlife and [[archaeology]]. In 1920, he made a solo attempt to search for "Z" but ended it after suffering from a fever and shooting his pack animal.<ref name="Yorker"/>

===Final expedition===
In 1924, Fawcett returned to Brazil with his eldest son Jack and Jack's longtime friend, Raleigh Rimmel, for an exploratory expedition to find "Z". Fawcett left instructions stating that if the expedition did not return, no rescue expedition should be sent lest the rescuers suffer his fate.

Fawcett was a man with years of experience travelling and had taken equipment such as canned foods, powdered milk, guns, flares, a [[sextant]] and a [[Marine chronometer|chronometer]]. His travel companions were both chosen for their health, ability and loyalty to each other; Fawcett chose only two companions in order to travel lighter and with less notice to indigenous tribes, as some were hostile towards outsiders.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

On 20 April 1925, Fawcett's final expedition departed from [[Cuiabá]]. In addition to Jack and Rimmel,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The epic of Percy Fawcett and the mysteries of the Serra del Roncador • Neperos |url=https://www.neperos.com/article/s573ds0edb413653 |website=Neperos.com |date=5 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref> he was accompanied by two Brazilian labourers, two horses, eight mules and a pair of dogs. The last communication from the expedition was on 29 May when Fawcett wrote, in a letter to his wife delivered by a native runner, that he was ready to go into unexplored territory with only Jack and Rimmel. They were reported to be crossing the [[Xingu River|Upper Xingu]], a [[Ordinal directions|southeastern]] [[tributary]] river of the [[Amazon River]]. The final letter, written from Dead Horse Camp, gave their location and was generally optimistic.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1929 |title=Mr. Dyott's Expedition in Search of Colonel Fawcett |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1785337 |journal=The Geographical Journal |volume=73 |issue=6 |pages=540–542 |doi=10.2307/1785337 |jstor=1785337 |bibcode=1929GeogJ..73..540. |issn=0016-7398|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Posthumous events and speculations==

The RGS declared and accepted the men as lost in January 1927, almost two years after the party's last message. Soon after this declaration, a large number of volunteers offered to attempt to locate the lost explorers. Many expeditions attempting to find Fawcett failed. At least one lone searcher died in the attempt.

Many people assumed that local indigenous peoples killed Fawcett's party, as several tribes were nearby at the time: the [[Kalapalo]]s, the last tribe to have seen them; the Arumás; the [[Suyá]]s; and the [[Xavante people|Xavantes]], whose territory they were entering. According to explorer [[John Hemming (explorer)|John Hemming]], Fawcett's party of three was too few to survive in the jungle and his expectation that his indigenous hosts would look after them was likely to have antagonized them by failing to bring any gifts to repay their generosity.<ref name=Hemming2017-04-01b>{{cite magazine |author=John Hemming|author-link=John Hemming (explorer)|title=The Lost City of Z is a very long way from a true story – and I should know|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/the-lost-city-of-z-is-a-very-long-way-from-a-true-story-and-i-should-know/|date=1 April 2017|access-date=11 March 2019|magazine= [[The Spectator]]|quote=Everyone in Amazonia knew that you could not cut trails and keep your team fed with fewer than eight men. ... His other dictum was that Indians would look after them. This was equally dangerous. The Xingu tribes pride themselves on generosity, but they expect visitors to reciprocate. All expeditions in the past four decades had brought plenty of presents such as machetes, knives, and beads. Fawcett had none. He committed other blunders that antagonized their hosts. So it was only a matter of days before they were all dead.}}</ref> 

Twenty years later, a Kalapalo chief called Comatzi told his people how unwelcome strangers were killed,<ref name=Hemming2017-04-01c>{{cite magazine |author=John Hemming|author-link=John Hemming (explorer)|title=The Lost City of Z is a very long way from a true story – and I should know|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/the-lost-city-of-z-is-a-very-long-way-from-a-true-story-and-i-should-know/|date=1 April 2017|access-date=11 March 2019 |magazine= [[The Spectator]]|quote=Twenty years later, Chief Comatsi of the Kalapalo tribe gave a very detailed account of Fawcett’s visit, reminding his assembled people of exactly how they had killed the unwelcome strangers. But the German anthropologist Max Schmidt, who was there in 1926, thought that they had plunged into the forests, got lost, and starved to death; this was also the view of a missionary couple called Young who were on another Xingu headwater. The Brazilian Indian Service regretted that Fawcett, who was obsessively secretive, had not asked for their help in dealing with the Indians. They felt he was killed because of the harshness and lack of tact that all recognised in him.}} (Note: Hemming spells the chief's name 'Comatsi', but most other sources spell it 'Comatzi'.)</ref> but others have thought they became lost and died of starvation,<ref name=Hemming2017-04-01c/><ref name="Costin's opinion"/> and the bones provided by Comatzi turned out not to be those of Fawcett.<ref name=phfw-Izarari01a/> Edmar Morel and Nilo Vellozo reported that Comatzi's predecessor, Izarari, had told them he had killed Fawcett and his son Jack, seemingly by shooting them with arrows after Fawcett allegedly attacked him and other Indians when they refused to give him guides and porters to take him to their Chavante enemies. [[Rolf Blomberg]] reported that Izarari had told him that Rimmel had already died of fever in a Kurikuro camp.<ref name=phfw-Izarepo01a>{{cite web|url=https://www.phfawcettsweb.org/izarepo.htm|title=Reports for Fawcett's assassination by Izarari|work=The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett|access-date=11 March 2019|quote=References for the summary & highlights of the following articles taken from: The Rolf Blomberg's book "Chavante, An expedition to the Tribes of the Mato Grosso", pages 70 & 71|archive-date=8 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208122624/http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/izarepo.htm|url-status=dead}} (Blomberg's book was first published in 1958; various editions of it can be found [https://books.google.com/books?id=7ekCAAAAMAAJ&q=editions:cEvbW1OkopUC here])</ref> A somewhat different version came from [[Orlando Villas-Bôas]], who reported that Izarari had told him that he had killed all three men with his club the morning after Jack had allegedly consorted with one of his wives, when he claimed that Fawcett had slapped him in the face after the chief refused his demand for canoes and porters to continue his journey.<ref name=phfw-Izarepo01a/>

The Kalapalo have an [[oral history|oral story]] of the arrival of three explorers which states that the three went east, and after five days the Kalapalo noticed that the group no longer made campfires. The Kalapalo say that a very violent tribe most likely killed them. However, both of the younger men were lame and ill when last seen, and there is no proof that they were murdered. It is plausible that they died of [[natural causes]] in the Brazilian jungle.<ref name=Hemming2017-04-01c/><ref name="Costin's opinion"/><ref name=phfw-Izarari01a/><!--Contradicts reported claims by Comatzi and Izarari. date=March 2019-->

In 1927, a nameplate of Fawcett's was found with an indigenous tribe. In June 1933, a [[theodolite]] compass belonging to Fawcett was found near the Baciary Indians of Mato Grosso by Colonel Aniceto Botelho. However, the nameplate was from Fawcett's expedition five years earlier and had most likely been given as a gift to the chief of that tribe. The compass was proven to have been left behind before he entered the jungle on his final journey.<ref>{{cite web |first1=David |last1=Wallechinsky |first2=Irving |last2=Wallace |year=1981 |title=History of the Search for Percy H. Fawcett, Part 2 |work=Trivia-Library.com |url=http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-of-the-search-for-percy-h-fawcett-part-2.htm |access-date=23 December 2007 |archive-date=24 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724044932/http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-of-the-search-for-percy-h-fawcett-part-2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Basso |first=Ellen B. |title=The Last Cannibals: A South American Oral History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCFoN_D2D38C |date=22 July 2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-79206-7}}</ref>

===Dead Horse Camp===
Dead Horse Camp, or Fawcett's Camp, was his last known location.<ref name="last words">{{cite web |title=Colonel Fawcett's Last Words |url=http://colonel-percy-fawcett.blog.co.uk/2010/02/26/colonel-fawcett-s-last-words-8079122/ |work=Colonel Percy Fawcett's Search For the Lost city of Z |access-date=9 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100928233142/http://colonel-percy-fawcett.blog.co.uk/2010/02/26/colonel-fawcett-s-last-words-8079122/ |archive-date=28 September 2010 }} </ref> From Dead Horse Camp, he wrote to his wife about the hardships that he and his companions had faced, his coordinates, his doubts in Rimmel, and Fawcett's plans for the near future. He concludes his message with, "You need have no fear of any failure..."<ref name="last words" />

One question remaining about Dead Horse Camp concerns a discrepancy in the coordinates Fawcett gave for its location. In the letter to his wife, he wrote: "Here we are at Dead Horse Camp, latitude 11 degrees 43' South and longitude 54 degrees 35' West, the spot where my horse died in 1920" ({{coord|11|43|S|54|35|W}}). However, in a report to the [[North American Newspaper Alliance]] he gave the coordinates as {{coord|13|43|S|54|35|W}}.<ref name="camp location">{{cite web|title=Dead Horse Camp (Fawcett's Camp)|url=http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/dehocamp.htm|work=The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211041603/http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/dehocamp.htm|archive-date=11 February 2020|access-date=26 May 2022}}</ref> The discrepancy may have been a [[typographical]] error. However, he may have intentionally concealed the location to prevent others from using his notes to find "Z".<ref name=chronicles>{{cite web|title=The Continuing Chronicles of Colonel Fawcett|url=http://www.catchpenny.org/fawcett.html|access-date=9 June 2011}}</ref> It may have also been an attempt to dissuade any rescue attempts; Fawcett had stated that if he disappeared, no rescue party should be sent because the danger was too great.<ref name="camp location"/>

==={{anchor|Henry Costin}}Henry Costin's opinion===
Explorer Henry Costin<!-- PLEASE DO NOT link to [[Henry Costin]]; that page redirects to a different person -->, who accompanied Fawcett on five of his previous expeditions, expressed his doubt that Fawcett would have perished at the hands of native indigenous people, as he typically enjoyed good relations with them. He believed that Fawcett had succumbed to either a lack of food or exhaustion.<ref name="Costin's opinion">{{cite news
|newspaper=[[Lancashire Evening Post]] |date=25 July 1931 |page=4
|title=Man Who Knew Fawcett |access-date=11 June 2018
|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000711/19310725/164/0004}}</ref>

===Rumours and unverified reports===
During the ensuing decades, various groups mounted several rescue expeditions, without success. They heard only various rumours that could not be verified.

While a fictitious tale estimated that 100 would-be-rescuers died on several expeditions attempting to discover Fawcett's fate,<ref>{{cite book |last=Grann |first=David |year=2010 |title=The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |page=273 |isbn=978-1-4000-7845-5}}</ref> the actual toll was only one—a sole man who ventured after him alone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/the-lost-city-of-z-is-a-very-long-way-from-a-true-story-and-i-should-know/|title=The Lost City of Z is a very long way from a true story and I should know|last=Hemming|first=John|date=1 April 2017|website=The Spectator}}</ref> One of the earliest expeditions was commanded by British-American explorer [[George Miller Dyott]]. In 1927, he claimed to have found evidence of Fawcett's death at the hands of the [[Aloique]], but his story was unconvincing. From 1930 to 1931, [[Aloha Wanderwell#Brazil|Aloha Wanderwell]] used her seaplane to try to land on the [[Paraguay River]] to find him. After an [[emergency landing]] and living with the Bororo tribe for six weeks, with no luck in her search for Fawcett, Aloha and her husband Walter flew back to Brazil.

===Fawcett's alleged bones===
In 1951, [[Orlando Villas-Bôas]], activist for indigenous peoples, received what were claimed to be the actual remaining skeletal bones of Fawcett and had them analysed scientifically. The analysis supposedly confirmed the bones were Fawcett's, but his son Brian (1906–1984) refused to accept this. Villas-Bôas claimed that Brian was too interested in making money from books about his father's disappearance. Later scientific analysis confirmed that the bones were not Fawcett's.<ref>''The upper jaw provides the clearest possible evidence that these human remains were not those of Colonel Fawcett, whose spare upper denture is fortunately available for comparison. ''[[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|Royal Anthropological Institute]] (London) (1951) "Report on the human remains from Brazil" as quoted by Grann (2009) p. 253</ref><ref name=phfw-Izarari01a>{{cite web|url=http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/apazauca.htm|title=Izarari, Chief of the Kalapalos|work=The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett|access-date=11 March 2019|quote=Comatzi, the later chief of Kalapalos after Izarari’s death, was after much persuasion induced to disclose the grave of the murderer explorer, and bones were dug up and examined by a team of experts of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London, but the results indicated that those bones were not of Fawcett and there is a doubt whether they belong to a white man. The bodies of the younger ones were thrown in the river, said Comatzi. At all events, they have not been found.|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024131815/http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/apazauca.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> As of 1965, the bones reportedly rested in a box in the flat of one of the Villas-Bôas brothers in [[São Paulo]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1953-COL-FAWCETT-PERU-BOLIVIA-BRAZIL-SOUTH-AMERICA-LOST-EXPEDITION-EL-DORADO-/382017420937|title=1953 Col. Fawcett Peru Bolivia Brazil South America Lost Expedition El Dorado|website=eBay|access-date=21 July 2017}}</ref>

In 1998, English explorer [[Benedict Allen]] went to talk to the Kalapalo people, said by Villas-Bôas to have confessed to having killed Fawcett and his party. An elder of the Kalapalo, Vajuvi, claimed during a filmed [[BBC]] interview with Allen that the bones found by Villas-Bôas were not really Fawcett's.<ref name="Orcutt">{{cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~larryorcutt/fawcett.html |first=Larry |last=Orcutt |year=2000 |title=Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett |access-date=24 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405220539/http://home.earthlink.net/%7Elarryorcutt/fawcett.html |archive-date=5 April 2016 |url-status=dead }} </ref><ref>"Vajuvi said that they were the bones of his grandfather, Mugikia." Grann (2009) pp. 252–253</ref> Vajuvi also denied that his tribe had any part in the disappearance of the expedition.{{citation needed|reason=Citation needed, especially as Vajuvi would be contradicting the earlier reported claims by Comatzi and Izarari.|date=March 2019}} No conclusive evidence supports the latter statement.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

===Villas-Bôas story===
Danish explorer [[Arne Falk-Rønne]] journeyed to Mato Grosso during the 1960s. In a 1991 book, he wrote that he learned of Fawcett's fate from Villas-Bôas,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=875jDgAAQBAJ&q=fawcett+Orlando+Villas-B%C3%B4as|title=Dr. Klapperslange|last=Falk-Rønne|first=Arne|date=16 March 2017|publisher=Lindhardt og Ringhof|isbn=9788711714096|language=da}}</ref> who had heard it from one of Fawcett's murderers. Allegedly, Fawcett and his companions had a mishap on the river and lost most of the gifts they had brought along for the Indian tribes. Continuing without gifts was a serious breach of protocol; since the expedition members were all more or less seriously ill at the time, the Kalapalo they encountered decided to kill them. The bodies of Jack and Rimmel were thrown into the river; Fawcett, considered an old man and therefore distinguished, received a proper burial. Falk-Rønne visited the Kalapalo and reported that one of the tribesmen confirmed Villas-Bôas's story about how and why Fawcett had been killed.

===Fawcett's signet ring===
In 1979, Fawcett's [[signet ring]] was found in a pawnshop. A new theory is that Fawcett and his companions were killed by bandits and the bodies were disposed of in a river while their belongings were despoiled.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/lost-in-the-amazon-about-this-episode/808/|title=Lost in the Amazon ~ About the Episode &#124; Secrets of the Dead|first=chie|last=witt|date=6 April 2011|website=Secrets of the Dead}}</ref>

===Russian documentary===
In 2003, a Russian documentary film, ''The Curse of the Incas' Gold / Expedition of Percy Fawcett to the Amazon'' ({{langx|ru|Проклятье золота инков / Экспедиция Перси Фоссета в Амазонку}}), was released as a part of the television series ''Mysteries of the Century'' ({{lang|ru|Тайны века}}). Among other things, the film emphasizes the recent expedition of Oleg Aliyev to the presumed approximate place of Fawcett's last whereabouts and Aliyev's findings, impressions, and presumptions about Fawcett's fate. The film concludes that Fawcett may have been looking for the ruins of [[El Dorado]], a city built by more advanced people from the other side of the [[Andes Mountains|Andes]], and that the expedition members were killed by an unknown primitive tribe that had no contact with modern civilization.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://filmix.net/tv/28662-tayny-veka-proklyatie-zolota-inkov-ekspediciya-persi-fosseta-v-amazonku-2004.html |title=Тайны века. Проклятие золота инков. Экспедиция Перси Фоссета в Амазонку. |trans-title=Secrets of the century. The curse of the Inca gold. Expedition of Percy Fawcett to the Amazon. |work=Filmix.net |date=2011 |language=ru |access-date=19 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028104352/http://filmix.net/tv/28662-tayny-veka-proklyatie-zolota-inkov-ekspediciya-persi-fosseta-v-amazonku-2004.html |archive-date=28 October 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Commune in the jungle===
On 21 March 2004, ''[[The Observer]]'' reported that television director Misha Williams, who had studied Fawcett's private papers, believed that he had not intended to return to Britain but rather meant to found a [[commune (intentional community)|commune]] in the jungle, based on [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|theosophical]] principles and the worship of his son Jack.<ref>{{cite news |first=Vanessa |last=Thorpe |title=Veil lifts on jungle mystery of the Colonel who vanished |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |date=21 March 2004 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/21/research.brazil}}</ref> Williams explained his research in some detail in the preface to his play ''AmaZonia'', first performed in April 2004.<ref>{{cite book |first=Misha |last=Williams |title=AmaZonia |url=http://www.fawcettsamazonia.co.uk/pdf/AmaZonia%20by%20Misha%20Williams.pdf}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
In 2005, ''[[The New Yorker]]'' staff writer [[David Grann]] visited the Kalapalo and reported that it had apparently preserved an oral history about Fawcett, among the first Europeans the tribe had ever seen. The oral account said that Fawcett and his party had stayed at their village and then left, heading eastward. The Kalapalos warned Fawcett and his companions that if they went that way they would be killed by the "fierce Indians" who occupied that territory, but Fawcett insisted upon going. The Kalapalos observed smoke from the expedition's campfire each evening for five days before it disappeared. The Kalapalos said they were sure the fierce natives had killed them.<ref name="Yorker"/> The article also reports that a monumental civilisation known as [[Kuhikugu]] may have actually existed near where Fawcett was searching, as discovered recently by archaeologist [[Michael Heckenberger]] and others.<ref>For further info see the last chapter of Grann's book ''[[The Lost City of Z (book)|The Lost City of Z]]'' and Charles Mann's book ''[[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus]]''.</ref> Grann's findings are further detailed in his book ''[[The Lost City of Z (book)|The Lost City of Z]]'' (2009).

==Works==
*Fawcett, Percy and Brian Fawcett (1953), ''Exploration Fawcett'', Phoenix Press (2001 reprint), {{ISBN|1-84212-468-4}}
*Fawcett, Percy and Brian Fawcett (1953), ''Lost Trails, Lost Cities'', Funk & Wagnalls ASIN B0007DNCV4
*Fawcett, Brian (1958), ''Ruins in the Sky'', Hutchinson of London

==See also==
* [[List of people who disappeared mysteriously: 1910-1990]]
* [[:Category:Lost explorers]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* Falk-Rønne, Arne. (1991). ''Klodens Forunderlige Mysterier''. Roth Forlag.
* [[Peter Fleming (writer)|Fleming, Peter]]. (1933) ''[[Brazilian Adventure]]'', Charles Scribner's Sons {{ISBN|0-87477-246-X}}
* [[David Grann|Grann, David]] (2009) ''[[The Lost City of Z (book)|The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon]]'' {{ISBN|978-0-385-51353-1}}
* Leal, Hermes (1996), ''Enigma do Coronel Fawcett, o verdadeiro Indiana Jones'' (''Colonel Fawcett: The Real-Life Indiana Jones''; Published in Portuguese)
* La Gazette des Français du Paraguay, ''Percy Fawcett – Un monument de l'Exploration et de l'Aventure en Amérique Latine – Expédition du Rio Verde'' – bilingue français espagnol – numéro 6, Année 1, Asuncion Paraguay.

==External links==
*[https://www.duncanjdsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Forgotten-Travellers_Fawcett.pdf Forgotten Travellers: The Hunt for Colonel Fawcett]  Essay on Lt.-Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett
*[http://www.unmuseum.org/fawcett.htm Virtual Exploration Society – Colonel Percy Fawcett] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612231000/http://www.unmuseum.org/fawcett.htm |date=12 June 2022 }}
*[http://www.catchpenny.org/fawcett.html Colonel Fawcett]
*[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22662 Mad Dreams in the Amazon] Essay on Fawcett from ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''
*[http://www.gryphonproductions.com/blog Lost in the Amazon: The Enigma of Col. Percy Fawcett] PBS Secrets of the Dead documentary
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090625171723/http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=9 ''B. Fletcher Robinson & 'The Lost World'''] by Paul Spiring
*[https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/the-lost-city-of-z-is-a-very-long-way-from-a-true-story-and-i-should-know/ The Lost City of Z is a Long Way From a True Story and I Should Know by John Hemming] in [[The Spectator]]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/005015}}

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