Qualla: Percy Fawcett

Percy Fawcett: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The final letter went out on 29 May 1925, carried by a native runner to be forwarded to Percy Fawcett's wife in England. He wrote from a place he called Dead Horse Camp, somewhere in the Upper Xingu region of Mato Grosso. He wrote that he and his eldest son Jack and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmel were about to push into unexplored territory. He wrote that his wife should not worry - "You need have no fear of any failure." Then the three men walked east from Dead Horse Camp, into the territory of peoples they had been warned not to enter, carrying no gifts and barely any supplies. No European ever saw them again. The mystery of what happened to Colonel Percy Fawcett has produced a century of expeditions, claims, counterclaims, bones that were not his bones, a signet ring found in a pawn shop, and at least one person who died trying to solve it.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Percy Fawcett: The Officer Explorer

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Fawcett was born on 18 August 1867 in Torquay, Devon, into old Yorkshire gentry who had made money as shipping magnates in the East Indies. His father was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His elder brother Edward Douglas Fawcett wrote adventure novels and practiced Eas...

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Image: Public domain

Percy Fawcett: Seven Expeditions

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In 1906 the Royal Geographical Society sent Fawcett to Brazil to map a stretch of jungle bordering Bolivia. The RGS had been hired as a neutral party, unencumbered by national interests. Fawcett arrived in La Paz in June 1906. He would return to South America seven times between ...

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Image: Public domain

Percy Fawcett: The Lost City Of Z

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. By 1914 Fawcett had developed his theory about a lost civilization hidden in the Mato Grosso. He called it Z - just the letter, spoken Zed. His evidence was partly documentary: a manuscript housed in the National Library in Rio de Janeiro, known as Manuscript 512, apparently writ...

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Image: Public domain

Percy Fawcett: Dead Horse Camp And After

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. On the 1925 expedition Fawcett brought his eldest son Jack, who was in his early twenties, and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmel. Two Brazilian laborers, eight mules, two horses, and two dogs went with them initially. Fawcett sent the laborers back. From Dead Horse Camp the three men ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Percy Fawcett: A Century Of Searching

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The RGS formally declared Fawcett lost in January 1927. The searches began immediately. In 1927 George Miller Dyott claimed to have found evidence of Fawcett's death at the hands of the Aloique - a claim most scholars found unconvincing. Aloha Wanderwell tried to land her seaplan...

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Image: Public domain