LOST EXPLORER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 245, 7 June 1932, Page 8

LOST EXPLORER

SEARCH EXPEDITION SWISS TRAPPER'S STORY THAT COLONEL FAWCETT IS STILL ALIVE PLUNGE INTO DENSE JUNGLE Seven adventurers and explorers starting from Boston on July 1, will plunge into the dense Brazilian wilderness this summer with the prime object of hunting Colonel P. H. Fawcett, the lost British explorer. The group, led by Ralph Forrest Donaldson, movie expert, who has recently returned from New Guinea, Java and Borneo, will land at the mouth of the Amazon, proceed up that stream to the Madeira tributary and then go 65 miles to Porto Velho. ~~ From there the seven will drop out of sight into the wilderness, two or possibly three hopping off from the river by aireraft, the-remainder pro--ceeding on foot into the jungle. The party will take one large 'plane and possibly an autogiro, both equipped with pontoons. Recently Stephen Rattin, characterised in Press dispatches as a Swiss trapper, came out of the jungle with the statement he had seen Colonel Fawcett. The Boston party hopes Mr Rattin will join its search. Trapper's Story Ridiculed Believing that he has established the actual movements of Colonel P. H. Fawcett, some 40 miles further in Central Brazil than any other living white man, Vincenzo Petrullo, researeh associate in anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, disclosed information which, in his opinion, leaves little doubt that Colonel Fawcett died of starvation and thirst. Mr. Petrullo ridiculed the story told by Stephen Rattin, a Swiss "trapper," to the effect that he saw a man dressed in animal skins on October 18 whom he felt certain was the missing explorer. Mr. Rattin placed the seene of their meeting about 800 miles west by north of the point where Colonel Fawcett disappeared with his party, including two other white men, one his 21-year-old son, Jack Fawcett. Mr. Petrullo said that he accidentally stumbled upon Colonel Fawcett's trail last fall while exploring and mapping the great plateau of Matto Grosso Province, in Central Brazil. He talked with Aloike, the Anahuka tribal head, who is charged by Commander George M. Dyott with Colonel Fawcett's murder, and from whom Commander Dyott fied. Mr. Petrullo came upon old Aloike on the Kuluseu River, at an Anahuka camp. The Indian told the Bakairi guides, who translated his dialeet into Portuguese, that he had guided three white men, identified positively as Colonel Fawcett, his son and Rimmel, from his own village to that of the Kalapalu, on the Kuluene River*. Trail of Lost Party ^ The Kalapalu Indians informed Mr. Petrullo that the younger men with Colonel Fawcett were ill, suffering from borachudo sores, which he believed caused them to succumb later to malaria. His informants said they gave the party food, and, having failed to dissuade the leader from continuing, ferried the three men across the Kuluene River. Colonel Fawcett, according to this information, intended following the Rio des Mortes north ward to the Araguaya River, where he would strike settlements and the considerable commerce which passes down to the Amazon.