Misha Williams

(24) 
 
 
would give them a good biff. Brian says that at the home in Stoke Canon, 
near Exeter, just before the final expedition, Jack was conscious of his 
physical fitness for the trials ahead and offered to get water from the well 
and do other heavy work to increase his muscle power rather than 
wanting to be helpful.  
 
Brian writes in the unpublished "Fawcett Logs"; "It is only to be expected 
in view of the unusual circumstances surrounding his birth that Jack 
should have had all his father's attention…that Jack's mission in life was  
tied up intimately with his own. For his part, Jack was the reflection of 
his father, and at the same time Jack was the 'superior one'. They shared 
the same talents, enjoyed the same pastimes, there was the same ability at 
games, especially cricket. But Daddy was never demonstrative with him. 
The only living creatures to get his demonstrative attention were our two 
fox terriers. My sister and I would watch these love fests with a certain 
wistfulness, for we two were given no sign that he felt any real love for 
us. We were never jealous. Our affection for him was scarcely strong 
enough. My feeling in his presence was one of uncomfortable 
apprehension, like being in the company of a well-disposed but uncertain 
schoolmaster. I felt relieved when he was out of the way."  Joan echoes 
this when she told me how she and Brian were relieved when Fawcett and 
Jack had gone. Now they could become people in their own right without 
being in the shadow of the two giants. 
 
Jack's forgetfulness was a byword in the family. He was put in charge of 
packing certain things for the final expedition and forget to do his crucial 
task. Brian describes him as "gauche" and hopes that he will conduct  
himself in the proper way once they reach Rio and are being entertained 
by the local worthies.  
 
After their sea voyage to Rio, the three began to use their adopted names 
recommended by Zahr Pritchard  (a fellow passenger aboard the liner SS 
Vauban) and sign them on their letters home, exactly as described in the 
play. Fawcett was Zahas, Jack Sajaz and Raleigh Roxor. Jack's final 
letters to his mother from Mato Grosso (taken back by the two mule 
handlers Simao and Gardenia who left at Dead Horse Camp) show that 
Sajaz was in good spirits and when one day Zahaz went keenly ahead of 
the others and they got lost, Jack took command and restored the situation 
until Fawcett returned to find them. Jack would be the first to swim the 
rivers with a rope to aid the party across these dangerous obstacles. 

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(25) 
 
 
But what happened then? Evidence in the Secret Papers shows they were 
all separated. One account claims Fawcett backtracked to civilization 
to get help because Jack and Raleigh had been captured by Indians. 
Numerous accounts tell of a worn out Fawcett wandering alone. The 
Frenchman Courtville said he met him North-West of Cuiaba, insect- 
eaten and mentally confused. Harold Gordon Graham claims he  
found Fawcett "but that his reason was so far gone that we couldn't bring 
him out." Brian wrote at the time that the descriptions certainly fitted  (as 
he also initially accepted Rattin's sighting), only to reject all of them in 
Exploration Fawcett for the reasons given earlier- to put the public right 
off the trail. Intriguingly, Brian himself claims he might have met his 
father when he encountered an ancient vagrant in the streets of Sao Paolo 
in 1955. 
 
Jack too was sighted apparently (from an airplane "A tall white man 
amongst the Indians"). There was even a claim that Jack had fathered an 
Indian child, but the boy was found to be an albino. Nina certainly 
believed Jack to be alive in 1948 and persuaded Brian to do his eventual 
air search. There are many stories of white men becoming hermits and 
living alone in Mato Grosso. I came across at least two in the jungles; 
very elderly, educated Germans, probably ex-Nazi refugees if local 
rumours were anything to go by. 
 
There is no reason why Jack should not have decided to stay outside 
civilization especially if the expected climax to the Great Scheme had not 
materialized. Of course there are quite a few who disagree with that 
scenario and claim Jack and his father live to this day in the underground 
city of Ibez in the Roncador mountains and deserve the annual ritual 
worship from the local modern day theosophists. 
 
 
BRIAN 
 
Brian explains his own character a great deal in the text of this play. 
There is not much more that I can say here. His role has been absolutely  
crucial in the Fawcett Saga. Not only did he revive world interest in the 
Fawcett mystery with his best seller Exploration Fawcett, but had the gift 
of communication that put his father back on the map as a distinguished 
explorer. With "M" he devised the "textbook" which was to entertain the 
public but totally mislead the so-called experts on the subject who will  

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(26) 
 
 
now have to go back to square one. Brian's Secret Papers will shake a lot 
of people who had made their minds up about the mystery.  
 
Over nearly fifty years Brian created the confusion by his secrecy but 
produced a unique archive which when examined reveals a huge amount 
never dreamed of by those who have tried to unravel the mystery. 
Brian thought of himself as more spiritually and psychically evolved  
than his father and brother and modelled his own "Amazonia" in the 
grounds of Corby Castle near Carlisle. There he could explore other 
dimensions with "M" and encounter a river and rapids similar to the 
topography in Mato Grosso and even discover pagan statues and temple 
ruins created by some Gothick Regency landscape designer of bygone 
days. Corby was a focus for Brian's meditation and a most useful one.  He  
felt that whenever he mixed with ordinary people it diminished him and 
that " modern life" was the agreement of the smug to keep up pretences. 
 
 
 
"M" 
 
According to Joan, "M" influenced Brian for most of his life and may 
have been responsible for his death. As a child Brian was confronted by 
"M" in the garden at Waterside, the family house at Uplyme. For many 
years there was no contact and then in Peru, after Brian experienced a 
serious railway accident when a steam engine exploded, and after his first 
wife Charlotte's sudden death, his psychic powers came flowing back and 
"M" began to deeply influence his life. It was she who urged him to give 
up a well-paid job on the Bolivian railways and return to Carlisle, near 
the Fawcett ancestral home, Scaleby Castle.  
Like Carl Jung's own elemental or sith (the Celtic term) "Philemon", she 
explained to Brian the ancient wisdom and much of it matched the 
concepts of Madame Blavatski's Theosophy which Blavatski herself  had 
learned from "higher forces." 
Brian's portrait of "M" done in 1937 shows a young Celtic looking girl 
with vibrant blue eyes and black hair. Another portrait of 1971 shows a 
woman in her early forties, strong faced, beautiful and timeless. She 
appeared to Brian in different guises; varied dress according to the  
 
 
 

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