His mishaps and triumphs were followed by would-be adventurers around the world. uncut jewels and gold to an extent greater than that possessed of many kings.”įawcett did not find that particular treasure, but was hooked by the notion of treasure hunting in general. An officer had given him a note turned up by a local, which, in the life of Fawcett, serves the same function as the map in “Treasure Island.” “Beneath these rocks is a cave,” it read, “once easy to enter, but now difficult to approach as the entrance is obscured by stones, jungle and long grass. He got the jones for exploring, which, back then, you could catch like a fever, while stationed with the Royal Artillery in Ceylon. In photos, he looks like the hero of a Saturday morning serial, the man who falls out of a plane and lands in a haystack. In his outstanding new book, “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,” David Grann tells the story of one of these adventurers, Percy Fawcett, “the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into uncharted realms with little more than a machete, a compass and an almost divine sense of purpose.”įawcett was born in Devon, England, in 1867. Some of the most daring converged on the Amazon, where hunter-gatherers still lived on human brains and even the most gaudy human creations were swallowed by vines if left for a week. This era was a moment ago yet seems ancient the names of its heroes ring like names in a fairy tale: Richard Burton, Ernest Shackleton, David Livingstone.

As economists say, scarcity creates demand. What drove the British, from the start of the age of empire to its closing chapters in the 20th century, to all corners of the globe? Was it money, glory, adventure, or was it the dismal reality of their isles? Were they fueled by the simple need to get as far from Nottingham and Bath as possible, away from the cold gray rain? Was a craving for color the wind at their back? (Ambition belongs to those with a taste for citrus who live in a land where no citrus is grown.) The quest grew increasingly frenzied as the age ripened and there seemed ever fewer places to explore.

Amazon a and z