The life of Percy Harrison Fawcett was never short of adventure. An amateur explorer who obtained a gold medal for his services to the Royal Geographical Society, in a time long before planes, GPS and radio communication. He was a man with a story and a character so much larger than life, that popular fiction has drawn influence on them for years, from Arthur Conan Doyle's “The Lost World” to the Hollywood archeology of Indiana Jones, even making an appearance in TinTin & The Broken Ear as a blowpipe wielding hermit. For over twenty years his career saw him delve deep into the Amazon, until, in 1925, just months before newspapers printed their headlines that the city of Atlantis had been found, he set off into the forest in search of a lost city he had christened simply “Z”.

SOURCES

Grann, David (2009) The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday Publishing, USA.

Fawcett, Percy (1953) Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, NY, USA.

Thorpe, Vanessa (2004) Veil lifts on jungle mystery of the colonel who vanished. The Observer, Sun 21 March, 2004. UK

Williams, Misha (2004) AmaZonia.

Kennedy, Dane (2007) British Exploration in the Nineteenth Century: A Historiographical Survey. History Compass, 5: 1879-1900. UK

The Atlanta Constitution (1925) Daring Exploration Party Sets Forth To Find Site of Cradle of Civilization. The Atlanta Constitution, p.14, 12 Jan, 1925. Atlanta, USA.

The Leader post (1927) Fear for Col. Fawcett, Missing in Brazillian Jungle Nearly 2 Years. The Leader Post, p.1. 14 Feb, 1927. Canada

The Spokesman Review (1927) Colonel Fawcett Thought Alive. The Spokesman Review, p.67, 24 July, 1927. USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.