The incredible odyssey of a true-life Indiana Jones
A new film tells the amazing story of the adventures of the seemingly indestructible Victorian explorer Percival Fawcett
IN AN age before film stars, footballers and reality TV personalities, Colonel Percival Fawcett was an A-lister. One of Britain’s greatest explorers and later the inspiration for swashbuckling archaeologist Indiana Jones, Fawcett’s adventures in the Amazonian rainforest were front-page news.
Well-built with a handlebar moustache and beard and wearing his trademark Stetson, Fawcett was the archetypal Victorian hero. Intrepid – and at times seemingly indestructible – his reports from one of the last undiscovered wildernesses on Earth gripped the nation.
That reputation was sealed in May 1925 when he, along with his 22-year-old eldest son Jack and his son’s friend Raleigh Rimmell, disappeared in the uncharted depths of the jungle.
The group had been searching for a lost city that Fawcett christened “Z” – “the ultimate piece of the human puzzle” – an ancient civilisation that he was convinced existed and would show that the Indian tribes of the Amazon, far from being savages, were once among the most advanced peoples in the world.
Since the party’s disappearance over 90 years ago, more than 100 people have died after retracing their steps into the jungle in a bid to find out what happened to the men.
Now a film – based on a bestselling book by the American journalist David Grann – tells the epic story of one the great characters of the last century. Starring Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett and Sienna Miller as his wife Nina, it follows the intrepid group right up to their tragic end.
Percival Fawcett was born in 1867 in Torquay, the son of an aristocrat who squandered the family’s fortune through his drinking and gambling. He went on to serve in the Royal Artillery in what is now Sri Lanka, where he met Nina.
But with his military career going nowhere it was an offer in 1906 from the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) that would change his life. It wanted Fawcett to travel to South America to chart some of the “blank spaces” on the world map and to help settle a border dispute between Brazil and Bolivia.
It was an expedition that would spark a 20-year obsession with the Amazon.
It is hard to think of a more inhospitable landscape than the one Fawcett and his party faced as they trudged into the Amazon jungle. Every day saw tough terrain, humid conditions and soaring temperatures, which could get so hot that “fish were cooked in the river”.
THEN there were the dangers. From electric eels, piranhas and bloodsucking catfish in the waters to frogs with enough poison to kill 100 men and venomous snakes that could shut down a man’s nervous system in seconds. Plus the bugs: ticks like leeches and chiggers that ate human flesh.
Perhaps even worse were the cyanide-squirting millipedes, the parasitic worms that caused blindness, the Berne flies whose larvae burrowed under the skin and “kissing” bugs that attacked the lips and caused infections that could kill 20 years later.
Most hazardous of all were the mosquitoes which transmitted everything from malaria to “bone-crusher” disease to yellow fever. A typical journey could last months and cover hundreds of miles, and inevitably the men would be hit by sickness and disease. Carrying supplies for an entire tour was impossible so they would have to scavenge for food and often go days without. Certain tribes were known to kidnap strangers to take them as slaves. Others were cannibals.
One of the most remarkable examples of Fawcett’s bravery came in 1910 while he was exploring an unknown part of Bolivia. As his team canoed down the Heath River, sevenfoot long poison arrows rained down on them.
They sought safety on the opposite bank but after making his men put down their rifles, Fawcett waved his handkerchief in the air, shouted “Friend, friend” in a native dialect and walked across towards the tribesmen.
An hour later, the members of the Guarayos tribe were sharing their supplies and helping set up camp. It became a technique he used repeatedly to gain the trust of native tribes.
Fawcett found pottery and hidden causeways on his journeys and read documents that indicated an earlier civilisation had existed which was far more sophisticated than the small roaming groups which seemed to inhabit the jungle.
In 1925, aged 58, Fawcett set out with Jack and Raleigh to go deeper into the wilderness than ever before in a search for “the City of Z”.
The Los Angeles Times named it “the most hazardous, most spectacular adventure of the kind ever undertaken”. Fawcett and his young companions sent their final dispatch on May 29, from Dead Horse Camp. As they entered the deepest forest smoke from their camp was spotted for five days. But on the sixth there was nothing to be seen. They had vanished without trace.
Their disappearance has inspired rampant speculation. Were they captured or killed by natives? Struck down by illness or accident? Despite numerous searches no hard evidence has ever been discovered.
What has emerged however is growing evidence of a garden city with settlements, roadways and drainage very close to the area where Fawcett was searching. The find of the archaeological site at Kuhikugu at the head of the Xingu River is still being investigated but it may well vindicate Fawcett’s obsession.
Like such heroic explorers as David Livingstone and Ernest Shackleton, Percival Fawcett’s expeditions still capture the imagination – but with an added ingredient of enduring mystery.
The Lost City Of Z is in cinemas from Friday.
To order The Lost City Of Z: A Legendary British Explorer’s Deadly Quest To Uncover The Secrets Of The Amazon, by David Grann (Simon and Schuster, £8.99), call the Express Bookshop with card details on 01872 562 310. Or send a cheque/ PO payable to The Express Bookshop to: Z Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop.co.uk. UK delivery is free.