The Lost City of Z (40 page)

44
“I transgressed again”:
Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 116.

44
In the late 1860s:
See Stanley,
How I Found Livingstone;
and Jeal,
Livingstone.

45
“E. M. Forster once”:
Pritchett,
Tale Bearers,
p. 25.

45
“ wild-man that eats”:
Edward Douglas Fawcett,
Swallowed by an Earthquake,
p. 180.

45
“most venturesome”:
Edward Douglas Fawcett,
Secret of the Desert,
p. 206.

46
“possibly thinking”:
Ibid., p. 3.

46
“strange ruins”:
Ibid., p. 49.

46
“we would-be”:
Ibid., p. 146.

46
“I was overcome”:
Ibid., p. 195.

46
“He won't”:
Ibid., p. 237.

46
“Everywhere about me”:
Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 116.

47
“the city has vanished”:
Walters,
Palms and Pearls,
p. 94.

47
“old Ceylon is”:
Fawcett to Esther Windust, March 23, 1924, PHFP.

47
“a geography militant”:
Conrad, “Geography and Some Explorers,” p. 6.

49
One person who:
Steve Kemper's 1995 account, “Fawcett's Wake,” provided to author.

49
For ages, cartographers:
Information on the history of maps and geography is drawn largely from Wilford,
Mapmakers;
Brown,
Story of Maps;
Sobel,
Longitude;
Bergreen,
Over the Edge of the World;
and De Camp and Ley,
Lands Beyond.

50
“with every kind”:
Quoted in Brehaut,
Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages,
p. 244.

50
“I, Prester John”:
Quoted in Bergreen,
Over the Edge of the World,
p. 77.

50
“to the dearest son”:
Quoted in De Camp and Ley,
Lands Beyond,
p. 148.

51
“the Discovery of”:
Wilford,
Mapmakers,
p. 153.

51
Finally, in the nineteenth:
For information on the history of the RGS, see Mill,
Record of the Royal Geographical Society;
Cameron,
To the Farthest Ends of the Earth;
and Keltie, “Thirty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society.”

52
“collect, digest”:
Mill,
Record of the Royal Geographical Society,
p. 17.

52
“There was not”:
Francis Younghusband, in “The Centenary Meeting: Addresses on the History of the Society,”
Geographical Journal,
Dec. 1930, p. 467.

52
“[It] was composed”:
Keltie, “Thirty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society,” p. 350.

53
Richard Burton espoused:
For information on Burton, see Kennedy,
Highly Civilized Man;
Farwell,
Burton;
and Lovell,
Rage to Live.

53
“I protest vehemently”:
Quoted in Farwell,
Burton,
p. 267. 53
“looked as if a tiger”:
Quoted in Lovell,
Rage to Live,
p. 581.

53
“Explorers are not”:
David Attenborough, foreword to Cameron,
To the Farthest Ends of the Earth.

53
“What you can”:
Quoted in Kennedy,
Highly Civilized Man,
p. 102.

54
“who sit in carpet slippers”:
Ibid., p. 103. 54
“B is one of those men”:
Ibid., p. 169. 54
“gladiatorial exhibition”:
Ibid., p. 124.

54
“By God, he's killed”:
Quoted in Moorehead,
White Nile,
pp. 74–75.

54
A cousin of Charles Darwin's:
See Gillham,
Life of Sir Francis Galton;
Pickover,
Strange Brains and Genius;
and Brookes,
Extreme Measures.

55
“no man expressed”:
Quoted in Pickover,
Strange Brains and Genius,
p. 113.

55
“A passion for travel”:
Ibid., p. 118.

55
“from north and south”:
Quoted in Driver,
Geography Militant,
p. 3.

56
“So great is the heat”:
Quoted in Cameron,
To the Farthest Ends of the Earth,
p. 53.

57
“There is very little”:
Fawcett to Keltie, Dec. 14, 1921, RGS.

58
It was February 4, 1900:
The date was identified in a 1901 letter from the War Of fice to the secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, while the location of the hotel was mentioned in Reeves's
Recollections of a Geographer,
p. 96.

58
Billboard men:
For descriptions of London at the turn of the century, see Cook,
Highways and Byways in London;
Burke,
Streets of London Through the Centuries;
Sims,
Living London;
Flanders,
Inside the Victorian Home;
and Larson,
Thunderstruck.

59
On the corner:
For details about the RGS building on Savile Row, see Mill,
Record of the Royal Geographical Society.

59
In his late thirties:
My descriptions of Reeves and his course are drawn largely from his memoir,
Recollections of a Geographer,
and his published lectures,
Maps and Map-Making.

60
“How well I”:
Reeves,
Recollections of a Geographer,
p. 17.

60
“He had an innate”:
Francis Younghusband, foreword to ibid., p. 11.

60
“the society of men”:
Galton,
Art of Travel,
p. 2.

60
“If you could blindfold”:
Reeves,
Maps and Map-Making,
p. 84.

61
“He was extremely”:
Reeves,
Recollections of a Geographer,
p. 96.

61
what the Greeks called:
Bergreen,
Over the Edge of the World,
p. 84.

61
There were two principal:
For further information about the role that these manu als played in shaping Victorian attitudes, see Driver,
Geography Militant,
pp. 49–67.

61
“It is a loss”:
Freshfield and Wharton,
Hints to Travellers,
p. 2.

61
“Remember that”:
Ibid., p. 5.

“Had we lived”:
New York Times,
Feb. 11, 1913.

62
In 1896, Great Britain:
McNiven and Russell,
Appropriated Pasts,
p. 66.

62
“savages, barbarians”:
Freshfield and Wharton,
Hints to Travellers,
p. 435.

62
“the prejudices with”:
Ibid., pp. 445–46.

62
“it is established”:
Ibid., p. 422.

62
As with mapping:
Information on the “tools” used by early anthropologists is derived largely from the 1893 edition of
Hints to Travellers
and the 1874 handbook prepared by the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
Notes and Queries on Anthropology.

62
“Where practicable”:
Freshfield and Wharton,
Hints to Travellers,
p. 421.

62
“It is hardly safe”:
Ibid.

62
“emotions are differently”:
Ibid., p. 422.

63
“Notwithstanding his inveterate”:
Ibid., p. 58.

63
“We, the undersigned”:
Ibid., p. 6.

63
“Promote merriment”:
Ibid., p. 309.

63
“A frank, joking”:
Ibid., p. 308.

63
“constantly pushing and pulling”:
Ibid., p. 17.

64
“Use soap-suds”:
Ibid., p. 18.

64
“Afterwards burn out”:
Ibid., p. 21.

64
“Pour boiling grease”:
Ibid., p. 20.

64
“This can be done”:
Ibid., p. 225.

64
“To prepare them”:
Ibid., p. 201.

64
“take your knife”:
Ibid., p. 317.

65
“If a man be lost”:
Ibid., p. 321.

65
“Choose a well-marked”:
Ibid.

65
“with great credit”:
Ibid., p. 96.

65
“The R.G.S. bred me”:
Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Nov. 2, 1924, RGS.

67
“There were the Prudent”:
Fleming,
Brazilian Adventure,
p. 32.

68
More feared than piranhas:
Millard,
River of Doubt,
pp. 164–65.

69
“Many deaths result”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 50.

70
“ hush-hush”:
Brian Fawcett to Brigadier F. Percy Roe, March 15, 1977, RGS.

71
It was the perfect:
Details of Fawcett's time working for the British Intelligence Office are drawn from his Morocco diary, 1901, Fawcett Family Papers.

71
“nature of trails”:
Ibid.

71
In the nineteenth century:
See Hefferman, “Geography, Cartography, and Military Intelligence,” pp. 505–6.

71
British authorities transformed:
My information on the Survey of India Depart ment and its spies comes primarily from Hopkirk's books
The Great Game
and
Tres passers on the Roof of the World.

72
“some sort of Moorish”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Journey to Morocco City,” p. 190.

72
“The Sultan is”:
Fawcett, Morocco diary.

72
In early 1906:
Percy Harrison Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
pp. 18–19.

72
Famous for his keen:
See Flint,
Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria;
and Muffett,
Empire Builder Extraordinary.

73
“[He] was lashed”:
Muffett,
Empire Builder Extraordinary,
p. 19.

73
“bore holes”:
Ibid., p. 22.

73
“Do you know”:
For the conversation between Fawcett and Goldie, see Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
pp. 18–20.

74
“Destiny intended me”:
Ibid., p. 20.

74
“toughs, would be”:
Ibid.

74
a thirty-year-old:
Fawcett used a pseudonym for Chivers in
Exploration Fawcett,
calling him Chalmers.

74
“They were all”:
Ibid., p. 21.

74
Since the canal's:
Enrique Chavas-Carballo, “Ancon Hospital: An American Hospital During the Construction of the Panama Canal, 1904–1914,”
Military Medicine,
Oct. 1999.

75
“How strange”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 26.

76
“a marvelous effect”:
Freshfield and Wharton,
Hints to Travellers,
p. 12.

76
“A mule's load”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 159.

76
Christopher Columbus had:
My descriptions of the Amazon rubber boom and the frontier come from several sources, including Furneaux,
Amazon,
pp. 144–66; Hemming,
Amazon Frontier,
pp. 271–75; and St. Clair,
Mighty, Mighty Amazon,
pp. 156–63.

76
In 1912, Brazil alone:
Author's interview with Aldo Musacchio, co-author of “Brazil in the International Rubber Trade, 1870–1930,” which was published in
From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500–2000,
ed. Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, and Zephyr Frank (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006).

76
“No extravagance”:
Furneaux,
Amazon,
p. 153.

77
“the most criminal”:
Quoted in Hemming,
Amazon Frontier,
pp. 292–93.

77
“My heart sank”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
p. 41.

78
“from ‘nowhere' ”:
Ibid., p. 89.

78
“as proper as”:
Price,
Amazing Amazon,
p. 147.

78
“Government? What”:
Quoted in Fifer,
Bolivia,
p. 131.

78
“Here come”:
Fawcett,
Exploration Fawcett,
pp. 95–96.

78
In one instance:
See Hardenburg,
Putumayo.

78
“In some sections”:
Ibid., p. 204.

79
“It is no exaggeration”:
U.S. Department of State,
Slavery in Peru,
p. 120.

79
“so
many
of them”:
Ibid., p. 69.

79
“the wretched policy”:
Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Survey Work on the Frontier Between Bolivia and Brazil,” p. 185.