South America: In Search of Manoa  

Colonel Percy Fawcett

-written by Susan C. Millar

One of the most compelling and mysterious South American explorations is the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett’s expedition deep into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon jungle in 1925, in search of ancient Atlantean cities. He had been working for the Royal Geographic Society since 1906 to map the boundaries between Brazil and Bolivia as a peacekeeping effort, and in 1908, the boundary of Paraguay and later from 1910-12, the borders of Peru and Brazil. These countries were largely unmapped and unexplored and even today, many of the vast jungles and mountain ranges of South America remain so.

Colonel Percy Fawcett

He navigated jungles and rivers that were virtually unexplored for many centuries. Fawcett described this region as, “an abominable forest, dripping with moisture, the home of malaria and deadly diseases of an obscure and South American type.” In addition to this, he had other perils to encounter, fierce head hunting tribes who did not welcome intruders, as well as dangerous animals and exotic insects. On the banks of the Rio Acre, he reported shooting and killing a huge anaconda that measured sixty-two feet in length and 1 foot in diameter.

Who is to say that what could be hidden there beneath the vast emerald canopies of the Amazon jungles: remains of ancient civilizations who possessed advanced technologies that are linked to the origins of mankind? Unusual tribes who are the ancestors of these ancient civilizations? Strange animals possibly from the Mesozoic period still walking the earth? Sounds like science fiction doesn’t it?  In a lecture he gave to the Royal Geographic Society in London in 1911 Fawcett stated, “I have hinted at the romances which await the explorer if he will leave the rivers and get away from the rubber districts into the more remote forests. They are not exaggerated. There are strange beasts and weird insects for the naturalists, and reason at any rate, for not condemning as a myth the existence of mysterious, white Indians. There are rumours of forest pygmies and old ruins. Nearer civilization there are lost mines. Nothing whatever is known of the country a few hundred yards from the river-banks. There are tracks of strange beasts, huge and unrecognized in the mud of the beaches of these lakes behind the unknown forests of the Bolivian Caupolican…. I could tickle the appetite of the romantic with more; but it is not definite enough to warrant courting a reputation for traveller’s tales from the incredulous folk who sit at home and think they know all that is to be known about the world.” He claimed that the region where he found the "strange beasts" lay about 100 miles from the ancient Atlantean cities he was seeking. His intriguing lecture was attended by Sir Arthur Conan Dolye and inspired his famous book, “The Lost World” which he actually based on Fawcett’s discoveries.

Fawcett had lived among an unusual tribe of Indians known as the Tapuyas, and describes them here: “The Tapuyas are fair as the English. They have hands and feet that are small and delicate. One finds them in the east of Brazil. They are refugees from an older and very great civilization. Their features are of great beauty and they have white, golden and auburn hair. Their skill in the working of gold and the cutting of gems is of a high order. They wore diamonds and ornaments of jade.” Many believe that the Altaneans had created numerous cities throughout South America, that they were a race very similar in appearance to the Tapuyas and that this tribe, were their descendants.

In the course of his extensive explorations he discovered many other strange things. Fawcett had heard of a cave with markings or petroglyphs in an unknown language at Villa Rica and many stories about lost cities deep in the jungles, among them those recorded by the Jesuit missionaries, in the 1700’s. In the Brazilian jungle of the Matto Grosso region in Cuyaba, there are apparently strange bright lights, which the Indians say, have burnt continually and unattended for many generations in the ruins of the dead cities. It was said that Fawcett had also seen these lights himself. It is believed that this eternal cold light energy was also found in ancient Roman and Egyptian tombs and in areas of Tibet and India.  Producing such an eternal cold light is beyond our technology and remains a puzzle to modern science.

Fawcett also heard about this particular ancient megalithic city from a chief, or cacique of the Nhambiquaras who said the city was on a plain surrounded by dense jungle and encircled by blue mountains, near the Rio Xingu. The city had moats, statues, causeways and paved streets. A savage tribe of Indians known as the Suyas guarded it.  Sightings of huge unknown animals resembling dinosaurs were seen in the nearby lakes and a giant ape twelve feet in height with human like hands was also reported. The chief gave Fawcett a small and very old stone from this region, carved with an image of a man who appeared to be wearing a Roman toga and sandals.

A later report in 1934, also described this unique city, “ According to this Indian’s story, you had to go up the bank of the Xinguatana, an affluent of the upper Xingu, until you came to a vast reed sown marsh or lago. Looking across the reedy expanse, where are many aquatic birds of brilliant plumage, you saw on an islet in the middle of the great lagoon, a massive and ancient stone wall made of many squared blocks piled one on another. Going out on a canoe, you broke a way over a creeper and liana-shrouded wall and behind it saw an entrance to a tunnel. Through this bore flows a stream and a boat could be rowed along it. At the other end, the tunnel emerges to the side of a massive stone quay, standing in front of a city, grey as time, of splendid plazas, public buildings, temples and fine streets paved with massive square blocks. There are great houses of stone, all finely masoned and some bearing glyphs, strange letters and statuary with images of fine men and women of old time. The Indians who hold the keys of this dead city are tall reddish-eyed and near white in skin. Physically they are fine but mentally savage and degenerate.”

Fawcett found an old document in Rio de Janeiro, dated 1753, about a "hidden and great ancient city, without inhabitants, that was discovered in the Amazon." in an area known as the Serra do Roncador (Snorer or Bluster’s Mountain) near the Rio Xingu, located in northeast Brazil. Later he came to own a most unusual stone idol, that he said generated an electric current, that traveled up the person’s arm who was holding it. He eventually came to believe that this idol was connected to the lost Atlantean cities he sought. After many frustrating attempts to fund an expedition, he finally raised support from The North American Newspaper Alliance.

The expedition party consisted only of himself, his son Jack and his son’s friend Raleigh Rimell, a newspaper cameraman. Fawcett preferred smaller parties because he thought they were less threatening to the Indians they would encounter. Rubber plantation owners often sent out groups who hunted and captured Indians to be used as slaves, creating understandable hostility in the tribes toward strangers. Fawcett had a reputation of being a man who respected the Indians and was adept at gaining their trust. There are many conflicting reports that he frequently used guides or that he never used guides. It is unlikely that he did use guides, because the Indians were often unwilling to venture into the areas he wished to explore. Trespassing on another tribes’ territory often resulted in a war and the Indians were also frightened of entering those areas where they believed bad spirits lived.

As they set out from Sao Paulo in April 1925, Fawcett wrote about the lost city he called Manoa”, that he had learned some new and intriguing information: the city and the statues there were entirely constructed from quartz. In May 1925, they made camp deep in northeast Matto Grosso, which they called “Dead Horse Camp”. Fawcett apparently left a message for his wife before they boldly set out on the next leg of their expedition, saying “you need have no fear of failure…”.  Then, they disappeared forever in the dense Brazilan jungle. Numerous search parties were launched over the past 75 years, hoping to discover what had happened to the Fawcett expedition, many of them ending in death and disaster. 

There were various stories of sightings of an old Englishman being held prisoner by the Indians and tales of finding Fawcett’s bones, which turned out to be false. Another story claimed he had killed or beaten a guide and was murdered as a result, but this seems unlikely. In 1949, a German anthropologist and metallurgist named Ehrmann, traveling in the Mato Grosso, claims to have known a chief there, who showed him a shrunken head with Fawcett’s features. The chief said that he was killed because he tried to defend his son, who had broken a tabu. The mystery of this extraordinary expedition continues to live on, capturing the imagination and curiosity of people around the world. As recently as 1998, adventurer Benedict Allen mounted a solo expedition hoping to solve it. He claims to have finally found Fawcett’s bones, a claim, which today, still remains unproved. Even if Fawcett's remains have been found,  the ancient cities with their secrets, and strange creatures remain deeply hidden in the dark jungles, still waiting to be discovered.

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