Percival Harrison Fawcett (born 18 August 1867 - death 1925?), English traveler to South America. Explored the Amazon, border regions of Peru and Bolivia. Disappeared while searching for a lost ancient city …
1886 - After graduating from the military artillery school, Percy Fossett came to the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as a military surveyor and was assigned to the city of Trincomalee. He spent almost twenty years on this island. There Fossett became a real researcher, studied ancient cultural monuments and traditions of the indigenous population. There he also became interested in sailing - to such an extent that he even designed two racing yachts himself and received a patent for a new principle of the construction of ships discovered by him, known as the "ichtoid curve". So he also became an inventor.
In addition, he dreamed of new vivid impressions, about long-distance roads, about everything that personifies independence, because at that time he was a dependent person: an army officer does not belong to himself.
1906 - The government of Bolivia asked the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain to send an experienced surveyor to establish the exact boundaries at the junction of three countries - Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. It was in those places that rubber trees grew, which became, after the discovery of a method for vulcanizing rubber, the most valuable industrial material. It was necessary to determine exactly how much of this rubber "deposit" belongs to Bolivia, which to Peru, and which to Brazil.
The choice was stopped by Major Percy Garrison Fossett. The British Royal Geographical Society invited him to collect information about the peoples there along the way.
Fossett's first expedition lasted 15 months. Arriving at the place of work, he immediately found himself in a special world full of wonders and dangers. The endless selva stretched beyond the horizon. The mysterious and fabulously beautiful Ricardo-Franco-Hills towered over the green sea. In this green labyrinth, Fossett had to find the source of the Verde River, along which the border passed, to trace its course and draw on the map the real border between the two countries, so that as a result they could avoid clashes and discord over the disputed border territory.
It was assumed that Fossett's party would go up the Verde River in boats. But numerous shallow rifts soon forced to abandon this idea and cut a path through the coastal thicket.
Fossett had a chance to taste the stifling, moisture-laden air of the rainforest and the chill of his nights in the mountains. When the raft crashed in the river, boxes with the expedition's cargo were lost. Another time at night during a thunderstorm during a rapid rise in water, the launch turned over. The shaft subsided as unexpectedly as it swooped down, leaving on the shore many spiders, so huge that even small birds become their victims, as well as many snakes that swarmed the surrounding swamps.
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A few days later, as Fossett's party was descending on a small boat down the river, a giant anaconda suddenly emerged from the water. Fossett successfully put a bullet in her, even though his companions begged him not to shoot: a wounded anaconda could attack the boat and break it. The power of the anaconda, reaching ten meters or more in length, is enormous, and a person who has entered the region abounding with anacondas begins the game with death.
One day people who were sleeping in a forest camp were awakened by a strangled cry. Jumping up, they saw that the hammock in which their comrade slept was wrapped in iron rings by an anaconda. Indiscriminate shooting began, forcing the snake to release its victim. However, by this time, all the bones of the unfortunate were broken, and he soon died …
Food supplies quickly ran out. The travelers had no opportunity to replenish them: there was no fish in the river, and there was no game in the forest. The dogs that accompanied the detachment died of hunger. Local residents, who dared to go as guides, were the first to lose strength. Their foreman, completely exhausted, lay down in the bushes, preparing for death. Fossett was able to get him to walk only by holding the knife to his chest, because the persuasion no longer worked on the Indian.
A few days later, people saw some kind of cloven-hoofed animal like a deer. With his weakened hands, Fossett was barely able to raise the gun - the lives of his companions depended on his shot … The mined meat was eaten along with skin and hair.
Of the six Indians who accompanied Fossett on this campaign, five died soon after their return: the hardships suffered.
Despite the difficulties, Percy Fossett was able to successfully complete all the work related to border demarcation. Fossett made a topographic survey of a vast area and charted the route of the railway, which was supposed to be held here, and also for the first time explored and mapped the upper part of the Akri River, discovered and photographed the previously unknown tributary of the Akri - the Yaverihu River, explored the upper reaches of another river - the Abunan.
The Bolivian President proposed to carry out work on another site. Fossett agreed, but he still had to get permission from his military commander in London. When he left, he was not sure if he would be allowed to return to South America, and, in truth, did not think of insisting on such a return.
On his return to London, Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Notes on Sherlock Holmes, spoke in detail about what he had experienced and seen. As a result of these conversations, Conan Doyle's famous novel "The Lost World" appeared, and Fossett became the prototype of its hero, Professor Challenger. Although, there is no external resemblance between them: the calm, restrained Fossett, tall, thin, with a pipe in his teeth, did not at all look like the stocky, short bearded Professor Challenger, whose frenzied temper pushed people away from him.
The similarity is in the obsession with one's work, in the willingness to take risks in order to find the truth. And, of course, in the adventures that, before falling to the lot of Professor Challenger and his companions on the way to the "lost world", became the lot of Percy Fossett. By the way, Fossett wrote about his travels no worse than Conan Doyle. Only his notes do not look like a novel.
1908 March - Major Fossett was again aboard a ship bound for South America. Before him loomed new, even more important and exciting goals than topographic work in the border areas.
Even during his first expedition, Fossett heard about the "White Indians" living in the depths of the jungle. The very combination of these words seemed strange. Nevertheless, there were eyewitnesses who met tall, beautiful savages with white skin, red hair and blue eyes in the wilderness of the forests. They could not have been descendants of the Incas. Then who are they, the white Indians?
Fossett was told about mysterious caves, on the walls of which they saw amazing drawings and inscriptions in an unknown language. Vague rumors were transmitted about the ruins of ancient cities in the selva. And it seemed to Fossett that they were all links in the same chain.
It may be that even before the Incas and besides them, there was an ancient civilization in South America. Finding its traces means opening a new page in the history of the continent. And in the history of mankind in general: is it possible to completely exclude the assumption that aliens from the legendary sunken continent of Atlantis could be in South America?
Fossett's second expedition began in 1908. Then he clarified the true location of the Verde, a tributary of the Guaporé River. It was a difficult journey: the river turned out to be winding, the journey along it took longer than expected, food supplies ran out …
1909 Percy Fossett heads back to the headwaters of the Verde River, this time accompanied by officials from Bolivia and Brazil, who put up border signs. He was immediately offered a job in the border zone between Bolivia and Peru. But for this he would have to give up military service.
Perhaps a year or two ago, Fossett would have been hesitating. But now the thought of searching for disappeared civilizations more and more took possession of him. For quite a long time he had been engaged in business unusual for a British officer.
We will not go into detail about Fossett's 5 subsequent travels in South America. He made two expeditions to the border regions of Bolivia and Peru. After there was an expedition of 1913-1914. on new routes to the little-explored areas of Bolivia. These expeditions were difficult, full of adventure, they gave the joy of geographical discoveries. And although they all provided the most interesting materials, Fossett himself called them preparation for the most important expedition of his life: for a journey in search of the most ancient civilization on Earth …
During this period, he planned new routes and read old books. There was a lot of unreliable, much outdated and simply absurd in them, and yet Percy Fossett found more and more confirmation of his hypothesis.
“… In ancient times, the indigenous population of America lived in a stage that was significantly different from the one that exists today. For many reasons, this civilization has degenerated and disappeared, and Brazil is a country where you can still look for its traces. It is not excluded that ruins of ancient cities may exist in our still little explored forests."
This is what "one outstanding Brazilian scientist" once wrote. But who exactly? Fossett, quoting his statement in his notes, for some reason did not mention his name. What's the matter here? Most likely, the fact that the dreamer Fossett, not always knowing how to distinguish truth from fiction, took too much on faith simply because he wanted to believe it. He considered the legend, replete with fantastic information, to be quite reliable historical evidence. The statements of ignorant people could seem to him the opinions of scientists. Perhaps in this case, too, Fossett called a person who was very far from science and did not give his name, because it couldn’t tell the readers anything anyway?
Although, the legends and traditions about the most ancient cities in Brazil, which Fossett collected, could then turn the head of a person who is much less enthusiastic. It is only in our days, when the last blank spots have been erased from the map of South America, his desire to look for traces of an ancient civilization may seem naive. It is only modern research that has shown that even in the most "lost worlds" there are no cities that could be considered the oldest on Earth. And at the beginning of the 20th century, so little was known about the "lost worlds" that one could believe in everything.
Since the 16th century, the Portuguese who colonized South America believed that somewhere in the impenetrable jungle, in the northeast of the territory occupied today by Brazil, there are the richest silver mines of the Indians. In search of them, driven by greed, expeditions of the conquistadors left more than once. For the most part, they disappeared without a trace in the forests, and if they returned, the participants of the campaign who survived recalled the poisoned arrows of the Indians for a long time, trapping uninvited aliens on the deaf forest paths.
The history of one such expedition was told in an old document that Fossett found in the library of Rio de Janeiro. For a long time, he lay on the shelves of some kind of archive. The manuscript with poorly distinguishable text in Portuguese was torn in many places, and the notes on some pages were made so carelessly that even the names of most of the participants in the campaign could not always be made out.
An expedition was told of an expedition that went in search of silver mines in 1743. It was headed by a certain Portuguese, a native of Brazil. His squad roamed the lost corners of Brazil for about 10 years. In one of them, the Portuguese found the once magnificent stone city, destroyed by an earthquake.
The manuscript, which fell into the hands of Percy Fossett, and which he studied with the greatest attention, was a secret report from the chief of the expedition to the Viceroy of Brazil.
Percy believed this story unconditionally. But how reliable is it in reality? Indeed, even in a brief retelling of the manuscript, you can find many contradictions that cast doubt on the author's veracity.
Most likely, the manuscript discovered by Fossett was based on one of the legends that were composed by the European aliens themselves, who passionately wished that somewhere in the Brazilian jungle there were actually ancient cities with countless treasures buried in them.
And it cannot be said that these legends were created absolutely from scratch: they were based on some real information about the cities of the ancient Incas. One of these cities was, for example, Machu Picchu. But reliable information - they were, undoubtedly, in the manuscript found by Fossett - intertwined in these legends with incredible, fantastic details. The main detail, however, invariably remained one - gold, a myriad, incredible amount of gold.
Then, over time, unprecedented antiquity began to be attributed to these legendary cities on the territory of present-day Brazil - the most ancient cities of the most ancient civilization on Earth …
Not hidden treasures, in these legendary cities, interested Fossett. He sought to uncover the secrets of ancient American history. Here is what he once wrote:
“I set as my goal the search for a culture earlier than the Inca culture, and it seemed to me that its traces should be sought somewhere further to the east, in the wilderness not yet explored … I decided … to try to shed light on the darkness that shrouds the history of this continent … I was convinced that this is where the great secrets of the past are hidden, still kept in our today's world …"
Percy Fossett by that time already knew the Amazon enough to roughly imagine where the lost city could be. But many years passed before he was able to go in search of him.
The news of the outbreak of the First World War forced Fossett to change all plans. He hastened to the coast to return with the first ship to Britain.
Fossett ended the war as a colonel. He tried to organize a new expedition, but neither the Royal Geographical Society nor other London scientific organizations were going to spend money on the search for some mythical cities in South America. Fossett "was listened to respectfully by the elderly gentlemen, archaeologists and museum experts in London, but it was beyond my power to get them to believe even a fraction of what I knew for certain."
The colonel's family soon left England. His wife and children went to Jamaica, and he himself returned to Brazil in 1920.
The next expedition he organized was unsuccessful. Percy Fossett was rarely lucky with companions. Although, it was difficult to find people equal to him in endurance and determination. But this time, the satellites were simply a heavy burden. One turned out to be a liar and a crook, the other in difficult times lay down on the ground and began to whine: "Do not pay attention to me, Colonel, go on and leave me here to die."
Meanwhile, rumors reached the colonel, reinforcing him that he was on the right path. In one place they found a silver hilt of an ancient sword, in another they saw inscriptions on the rocks. A certain old man, looking for the missing bull, went out along the path to the ruins of the city, where a statue of a man stood on the square. True, this city was suspiciously close to populated areas, and not at all where Fossett thought to look for it.
He had to hurry, he had to hurry so that others could not get ahead of him!
The more the wilderness areas of the central part of South America became known, the less hopes remained that the mysterious cities of unknown ancient cultures existed in reality. By the 20s of the XX century, practically only in one place it was possible to count on their discovery - in the north of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The traveler's attention was riveted to this place when he was preparing his last expedition.
Percy Fossett is 57 years old. By that time, his name was fairly well known, and he was able to interest various scientific societies with the idea of his new expedition, and in addition, he sold the right to publish all news sent to him from the route to the North American newspaper association. Now he was not only a researcher, but also a special correspondent for a number of American newspapers, who was supposed to send messages about his own expedition. You could go into the unknown.
“Our current route will start from the Camp of the Dead Horse … On the way, we will explore an ancient stone tower that terrifies the Indians living in the vicinity, as its doors and windows are illuminated at night. Crossing the Shingu, we will enter the forest … Our path will pass … to an absolutely unexplored and, according to rumors, densely populated by savages area, where I expect to find traces of inhabited cities. The mountains are very high there. Then we will walk the mountains between the states of Bahia and Piaui to the San Francisco River, cross it somewhere near Shiki-Shiki and, if we have enough strength, we will visit the old abandoned city. There must be amazing things between the rivers Xingu and Araguaya, but sometimes I doubt if I can survive such a journey. I have become too old …"
These lines were written in 1924. Fossett knew that if his intended journey was unsuccessful, his long-standing ambitions would end.
This time the expedition was small. Fossett had no money to equip the bigger one, and he, already taught by bitter experience, did not try to assemble a large detachment. With him went Jack's eldest son - a strong, well-trained young man whom his father taught, it seems, everything that is needed for a difficult expedition - as well as Jack's school friend, Raleigh Rimel. Several porters from among the local residents had to reach only a certain place. After that, the three travelers will go deep into the jungle and disappear for a long time from the familiar civilized world.
“Goal 2” is how Fossett conventionally designated his lost city.
Encouraging news came from the selva. In the direction they go, mysterious inscriptions on rocks, skeletons of unknown animals, foundations of prehistoric buildings, an incomprehensible stone monument were found. Also received new confirmation of rumors about abandoned cities. But they also said something else: these places are inhabited by warlike wild tribes that are at a low stage of development and live in pits, caves, and even in trees …
Percy Fossett's Last Expedition
Colonel Fossett's expedition set out in the spring of 1925. At first, the path passed through well-studied, developed places. Only after the city of Cuiaba was the expedition supposed to get to the “lost world”.
There remains a lot of evidence of the beginning of the last journey of Percy Fossett - many of the details were preserved in letters addressed to Brian Fossett, the youngest son of the traveler, or the wife of the colonel.
1925, March 5 - Jack Fossett wrote from Cuiaba:
“Yesterday Raleigh and I tried the rifles. They hit very accurately, but they make a terrible noise … They say that, leaving Cuiaba, we will enter an area covered with bushes, and in a day's journey we will reach the plateau. Then there will be undersized bushes and grass - and so on all the way to the Bakairi post. In two days' journey from the post we will come across the first game."
On April 14, Percy Fossett does not hide his joy:
“After the usual delays in this country, we are finally ready to leave in a few days. We leave, deeply believing in success … We feel great. With us are two dogs, two horses and 8 mules. Assistants were hired … Before our arrival there was a monstrous heat and rains, but now it is getting cooler - the dry season is approaching.
… Not so long ago, when I first drew attention to Mato Grosso by my activities, an educated Brazilian, together with an army officer, was instructed to map one of the rivers. The Indians who worked for them said that there was a city in the north, and volunteered to take them there, if they were not afraid of meeting terrible savages. The city, according to the stories of the Indians, consists of low stone buildings and has many streets intersecting at right angles; there are as if there are even several large buildings and a huge temple in which there is a large disc carved out of rock crystal.
There is a great waterfall on the river, which flows through the forest near the city itself, and its rumble spreads for many leagues around; below the waterfall, the river expands and forms a huge lake, the waters of which flow down to who knows where. Among the calm waters below the falls, a human figure is seen, carved from white stone (possibly quartz or rock crystal), walking back and forth in place under the pressure of the current.
It looks like the city of 1753 (ie, the city that was discussed in the old Portuguese manuscript. - Author's note), but the place indicated by the Indians does not coincide at all with my calculations …"
1925, May 20 - Colonel Fossett told in a letter about the first difficulties that lay in wait for the expedition:
“We got here (to the post of Bakairi. - Author's note) after several unusual twists and turns that gave Jack and Raleigh a great idea of the joys of travel … We lost our way three times, had endless troubles with mules that fell into the liquid mud on the bottom of the streams, and were given to be eaten by ticks. Once I was far away from mine and lost them. When I turned back to find them, I was overwhelmed by the night, and I had to go to bed in the open, using a saddle instead of a pillow; I was immediately sprinkled with the smallest ticks.
Jack is on the road ahead. I'm worried about Raleigh, whether he can handle the hardest part of the journey. While we were walking along the trail, one of his legs was swollen and ulcerated from tick bites …"
On May 29, Percy Fossett sent his wife a letter from the point where the three travelers were to leave the local porters accompanying them.
“It is very difficult to write because of the myriad flies that haunt you from morning to evening, and sometimes all night. In particular, the smallest of them, smaller than a pinhead, almost invisible, but bite like mosquitoes, prevail. Their clouds almost never thin out. The agony is aggravated by millions of bees and many other insects. The stinging monsters stick around your hands and drive you crazy. Even mosquito nets can't help. As for the mosquito nets, this plague flies through them freely!
In a few days we expect to leave this area, but for now we camped for a day or two to prepare the return to the Indians, who are no longer able and impatient to set out on their way back. I'm not offended at them for that. We move on with eight animals - three mules under the saddles, four packs and one leader, forcing the rest to stick together.
Jack is in perfect order, every day he gets stronger, although he suffers from insects. I myself am all bitten by ticks and by these damned piumas, as the smallest of the flies are called. Raleigh makes me uneasy. One leg is still bandaged, but he doesn't want to hear about going back. As long as we have enough food and there is no need to walk, but how long this will continue I do not know. It may happen that the animals will have nothing to eat. I can hardly handle the journey better than Jack and Raleigh, but I must. The years take their toll, despite all the excitement.
We are now at Dead Horse Camp, at 11 degrees 43 minutes South and 54 degrees 35 minutes West, where my horse fell in 1920. Now only white bones remain of her. Here you can swim, only insects make you do it with the greatest haste. Despite everything, now is a great time of the year. Very cold at night, fresh in the morning; insects and heat begin to pressurize from noon, and from that moment until six in the evening we suffer a real disaster."
The letter ended with the words: "You have nothing to fear from failure …"
This was Percy Fossett's last letter. Neither he nor two of his companions returned from the expedition.
Then there were only rumors …
It was as if they saw him on the side of a back road: he was sick, unhappy and seemed to have lost his mind. It was said that the colonel was held captive by the Indians. It was said that he became the leader of another Indian tribe. It was rumored that Fossett and his companions had been killed by a fierce savage leader. They even indicated his grave in the selva.
But none of these and many other versions were supported by reliable data. Numerous search expeditions checked them one after another. The "Fossett's grave" was also opened. The remains were examined by prominent London experts and concluded that someone else was buried here.
Search parties, sent to the selva in the footsteps of Percy Fossett, were able to gather some fragmentary information about the fate of the missing expedition. The chief of one of the Indian tribes claimed that he accompanied three white people to a distant river, from where they went east. An officer in the Brazilian army found what he believed was Fossett's compass and diary, but the compass turned out to be a simple toy, and the "diary", judging by its content, was the notebook of some missionary.
There have been many speculations about where the small expedition headed after parting with the porters at Dead Horse Camp. The fact is that Fossett deliberately did not name his intended route exactly. He wrote:
“If we fail to return, I do not want the rescue parties to risk because of us. It is very dangerous. If, with all my experience, we do not achieve anything, it is unlikely that others will be more fortunate than we. This is one of the reasons why I do not indicate exactly where we are going."
The mysterious city that Percy Fossett was looking for has not yet been found. However, in the places where his last expedition was heading, there is no ancient city. This conclusion was reached by the colonel's younger son, who subsequently reached the point indicated by his father. Aerial reconnaissance also did not find anything resembling a lost city in the jungle.
Percy Fossett hadn't finished writing a book about his life and adventures. This was done for him by his youngest son, Brian Fossett, using his father's manuscripts, letters, diaries and reports. He called his book "Unfinished Journey", in the hope that others will continue it, and Colonel Fossett is constantly present on its pages - Professor Challenger, a researcher who challenged the secrets of the selva and forever lost somewhere in a vast and mysterious world, whose mysteries he so tried to comprehend …
N. Nepomniachtchi
Recommended for viewing: Lost in the Amazon. Secrets of the Dead