In 1908, Major Percy Harrison Fawcett R.A, working
on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society for the Bolivian
Boundary Commission was contracted to survey the ern
Border with Brazil in the region of the town of Corumba
in the Pantanal swamplands. Having completed the
work by July, he volunteered to map the border along the
Rio Verde which had been erroneously placed in 1873 as no-one
had actually been up the river. This was extra to his more
mundane survey work. Fawcett found the challenge of genuine
exploration was far more appealing.
Travelling with him were Fisher, a fellow British
officer of the Boundary Commission, Urquhart, a Scottish
settler from Bolivia and six local porters. The party travelled
by river and overland to Vila Bela then by dugout canoe
down the Rio Guapore to the mouth of the Rio Verde.
Fawcett's aim had been to canoe up the river, but the party
soon had to abandon the boat as it became impractical to
drag it up the many rapids they were faced with. Moreover,
the Rio Verde, coloured green by the weed that grew in it,
was bitter to the taste; fish and game to eat were non-existent.
The party slogged on foot through the 'desperately thick
and thorny undergrowth' that flanked the river, subsisting
first on their rations which rapidly ran out then on palm
nuts that they found. Fawcett wrote that for six weeks it
rained every day. As they neared the source of the river,
the party found they were trapped in its valley.
Cliffs rose up on either side; these were cut with deep
ravines which when followed turned out to be dead ends.
At night, Fawcett saw the fires of 'savage' Indians.
He never saw the people that made them. The party's dogs
started to die of starvation. The leader of the porters
ran off and lay down to die. Fawcett jabbed him in the ribs
with his knife and forced him to carry on. Finally when
things were at their most desperate, a virtual miracle saved
the day. The luckiest of rifle shots at 300 yards
range downed a deer. There was at last food to eat and,
perhaps more importantly, the renewed will to carry on.
Fawcett and all of his companions crossed the hills and
got back to Vila Bela.
Fawcett and Fisher returned to the Serra Ricardo
Franco in 1909 (By then another- Brazilian -expedition had
failed to ascend the Rio Verde and had to be rescued on
the Guapore). They followed the trail of the year before
without difficulty and found it to have been accurately
mapped despite the state they had been in at the time. Fawcett
confirmed the source of the Verde (since disproved)
and commented on the abundance of wildlife (compared with
its paucity the year before) and the magnificent view
from 2400ft up on the top of the Serra.
