The world and us. Russia paranormal The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

Plan
Introduction
1 The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century
2 Narrative of Manuscript 512
2.1 Lost mines of Moribeki
2.2 Ruins of an unknown city in Brazilian sertan
2.3 Gold coin
2.4 Mysterious inscriptions

3 Possible authorship of Manuscript 512
4 Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton
5 Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett
6 In art
6.1 In literature
6.2 In cinema

7 Source

9 Russian translation
Bibliography

Introduction

Manuscript 512 (Document 512) is an archival manuscript dating from the colonial period of Brazilian history, currently held in the storeroom of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. The document is written in Portuguese and is entitled " Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753 » (« Relação histórica de uma occulta e grande povoação antiguissima sem moradores, que se descobriu no anno de 1753"). The document has 10 pages and is written in the form of an expedition report; at the same time, taking into account the nature of the relationship between the author and the addressee, it can also be characterized as a personal letter.

The content of the document is a narrative left by an unknown group of Portuguese bandeirantes; the name of the direct author - the head of the expeditionary detachment (" bandeiras") - lost. The document tells about the discovery by the bandeirants in the depths of the Brazilian sertan of the ruins of a lost dead city with signs of an ancient highly developed civilization of the Greco-Roman type. It also contains an indication of the discovery of gold and silver deposits.

The text of the document contains significant omissions as a result of damage that appears to have been due to termite exposure during the decades during which the Manuscript was lost in the archives (1754-1839).

Manuscript 512 is perhaps the most famous document of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro and, from the point of view of modern Brazilian historiography, is " the basis of the biggest myth of national archeology» . In the XIX-XX centuries. the lost city described in Manuscript 512 has been the subject of heated debate, as well as relentless search by adventurers, scientists, and explorers.

Due to its vivid and colorful style, the narrative of Manuscript 512 is considered by some to be among the finest literary works in Portuguese.

1. The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

The document, which belongs to the 18th century, in addition to the dating indicated in it (1754), is also confirmed by a number of indirect signs, was discovered and gained fame almost a century after it was written. In 1839, a forgotten manuscript, damaged by time and insects, was accidentally discovered in the storeroom of the court library (now the National Library) of Rio de Janeiro by the naturalist Manuel Ferreira Lagus. The document was handed over to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, IHGB). The assessment of the Manuscript as an important historical document and its distribution belong to Canon Januario da Cunha Barbosa, one of the founders of the institute. Through his efforts, the full version of the text was published in " Journal of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute"(Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro); the publication included a Forewarning, in which Cunha Barbosa first connected the plot of the document with the legend of Robério Diaz, a 17th-century bandeirant who was imprisoned by the Spanish king for refusing to reveal the secret of the silver mines in the province Bahia.

At that time, in Brazil, which had recently gained independence, they were preoccupied with the search for a national identity and the revaluation of primordially Brazilian attributes; it was desirable for a young nation to find its own great roots» in the historical past; the monarchical system was interested in exalting the idea of empire and political centralization, which could be facilitated by the discovery on the territory of the country of traces of ancient highly developed states that would provide a kind of legitimacy for the new Brazilian monarchy. Against this background, the authority of the Manuscript in the first years after its publication rapidly increased in the eyes of scholars, intellectuals, and the aristocracy and clergy of Brazil; Emperor Pedro II himself showed interest in it. The discovery in the same years of ancient monuments of pre-Columbian civilizations also played a role in assessing the Manuscript as an important source of the national past. As Cunha Barbosa pointed out, monuments like the city of Palenque in Mexico and the fortifications erected on the borders of Peru can be found in Brazil; while he cited the testimony of Manuscript 512 as evidence.

From 1841 to 1846, the IHGB organized the search for the lost city of Manuscript 512, which was entrusted to Canon Benign José di Carvalho, corresponding member of the institute. The long and unsuccessful expedition he undertook along Chapada Diamantina did not bring any results; after that, former hopes for the early discovery of ancient ruins give way to disappointment and skepticism. The prevailing theory was that the vision of the lost city was influenced by the rock formations of Chapada Diamantina; thus, the Brazilian historian and writer Teodoro Sampaio, who toured the area in 1879-80, was convinced that the narrative of Manuscript 512, being in general fiction, poetically described the rocks of bizarre shapes found in these places.

2. Narrative of Manuscript 512

2.1. The Lost Mines of Moribeki

The subtitle of the document says that a certain group of bandeirants spent 10 years wandering through the interior of unexplored regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary " the lost mines of moribeki". According to the Brazilian historian Pedro Calmon, the bandeirant of the 16th-17th centuries was known under this Indian name. Belshior Dias Moreya (or Moreira), also known as Belshior Dias Karamuru, a descendant of Diogo Alvaris Correia (Karamuru), a Portuguese sailor, and Catarina Alvaris Paraguazu , daughter of the cacique of the Tupinambas tribe, according to an older version given by the 18th-century historian Sebastian da Rocha Pita and repeated by canon Cunha Barbosa in his Pre-Notice to Manuscript 512, this was the son of Belshior Roberiu (or Ruberiu) Dias. In both cases, Moribeca was known By promising the Spanish crown to transfer the mines in exchange for the title of Marquis das Minas or Marquis of Mines, Moribeca then became convinced that he had been deceived by King Philip III the title was given to Brazil's new governor-general, Francisco de Sousa.Moribeca declined to disclose the location mines, for which he paid with imprisonment in the royal prison. According to Calmon, Moribeca (Belshior Diaz) was able to go free after two years, paying a ransom; according to Rocha Pita (who does not mention the name "Moribeca"), Robério Diaz died in prison just on the eve of the arrival of the royal order sentencing him to death. The legend of the lost mines of Moribeca or the Brazilian Eldorado subsequently became the cause of numerous unsuccessful searches conducted by the Brazilian Bandeirantes. Thus the nature of the expedition or " bandeiras"The years 1743-53 are quite typical for their time.

2.2. Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

The document tells how the detachment saw mountains sparkling with numerous crystals, which caused amazement and admiration of people. However, at first they failed to find the mountain pass, and they camped at the foot of the mountain range. Then one Negro, a member of the detachment, chasing a white deer, accidentally discovered a paved road that passed through the mountains. Having ascended to the top, the bandeirants saw from above a large settlement, which at first glance they took for one of the cities of the coast of Brazil. Descending into the valley, they sent out scouts to learn more about the settlement and its inhabitants, and waited for them for two days; a curious detail is that at this time they heard the crowing of roosters, and this made them think that the city was inhabited. Meanwhile, the scouts returned, with the news that there were no people in the city. Since the rest were still not sure of this, one Indian volunteered to go on reconnaissance alone and returned with the same message, which, after the third reconnaissance, was confirmed by the entire reconnaissance detachment.

Finally, the detachment in full strength entered the city, the only entrance to which passed along a paved road and was decorated with three arches, the main and largest of which was central, and two on the sides were smaller. As the author notes, there were inscriptions on the main arch that were impossible to copy because of the great height.

The houses in the city, each of which had a second floor, were long abandoned and did not contain any items of household utensils and furniture inside. The description of the city in the Manuscript combines the features characteristic of various civilizations of antiquity, although there are also details that are difficult to find an analogy. Thus, the author notes that the houses, in their regularity and symmetry, were so similar to each other, as if they belonged to one owner.

The text gives a description of the various objects seen by the bandeirants. Thus, a square is described with a black column in the middle, on top of which stood a statue of a man pointing north with his hand; the portico of the main street, on which there was a bas-relief depicting a half-naked young man crowned with a laurel wreath; huge buildings on the sides of the square, one of which looked like a ruler's palace, and the other, obviously, was a temple, where the facade, naves and relief images (in particular, crosses of various shapes and crowns) were partially preserved. A wide river flowed near the square, on the other side of which lay lush flowering fields, between which there were several lakes full of wild rice, as well as many flocks of ducks, which could be hunted with just one hand.

After a three-day journey down the river, the bandeirants discovered a series of caves and depressions dug underground, probably mines, where pieces of ore similar to silver were scattered. The entrance to one of the caves was closed by a huge stone slab with an inscription made in unknown signs or letters.

At a distance of a cannon shot from the city, the detachment discovered a building resembling a country house, in which there was one large hall and fifteen small rooms connected to the hall by doors.

On the banks of the river, the bandeirants found a trace of gold and silver deposits. At this point, the detachment split up, and part of the people made a nine-day sortie. This detachment saw a boat with some unknown white people near the bay of the river, " dressed in European"; obviously, the strangers hurriedly left after one of the bandeirants fired, trying to attract their attention. However, according to the surviving fragments of phrases in this part of the document, it can also be assumed that this part of the detachment then encountered representatives of some local tribes, " hairy and wild ".

Then the expedition in full force returned to the upper reaches of the Paraguazu and Una rivers, where the head of the detachment compiled a report, sending it to some influential person in Rio de Janeiro. Noteworthy is the nature of the relationship between the author of the document and the addressee (whose name is also unknown): the author hints that he reveals the secret of the ruins and mines only to him, the addressee, remembering how much he owes him. He also expresses his concern that a certain Indian has already left the party to return to the lost city on his own. To avoid publicity, the author suggests that the addressee bribe the Indian.

2.3. gold coin

One of the members of the detachment (Juan Antonio - the only name preserved in the document) found among the ruins of one of the houses in the lost city a gold coin, larger than the Brazilian coin of 6400 flights. On one side of it was depicted a kneeling young man, on the other - a bow, crown and arrow. This discovery convinced the Bandeirants that countless treasures were buried under the ruins.

2.4. Mysterious inscriptions

The text contains four inscriptions copied by bandeirants, made in unknown letters or hieroglyphs: 1) from the portico of the main street; 2) from the portico of the temple; 3) from a stone slab that closed the entrance to the cave near the waterfall; 4) from the colonnade in a country house. At the very end of the document, there is also an image of nine signs on stone slabs (as you might guess, at the entrance to the caves; this part of the manuscript has also been damaged). As the researchers noted, the given signs most of all resemble the letters of the Greek or Phoenician alphabet (in some places also Arabic numerals).

Brazilian historians have proposed a number of candidates for the role of the author of Manuscript 512, about whom it is only known that he had an officer rank. mestri di campo(Mestre de Campo), as can be parsed in the document.

According to the most common version, put forward by P. Kalmon and the German researcher Hermann Kruse, the document was written by Juan da Silva Guimaraes, a bandeirant who explored the sertan of the provinces of Minas Gerais and Bahia. Having made a trip to the interior of the latter in 1752-53, he announced the discovery of the famous silver mines of Roberiu Dias (Moribeki) in the region of the Paraguazu and Una rivers. Thus, the place and time of its discovery coincide with those mentioned in Manuscript 512. However, after examining the samples of ore that Guimarães presented to the Mint, it turned out that it was not silver. Frustrated, Guimarães returned to the sertan and died around 1766.

Despite the above strong argument, the authorship of Guimaraes is still unlikely, since many documents related to him and his discoveries have survived, none of which mentions any lost city. In addition, the campaigns of Guimaraes did not last 10 years (1743-53), which are clearly stated in the document, but 1 or 2 years (1752-53).

4. Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

The famous British traveller, writer and adventurer Richard Francis Burton included a translation of Manuscript 512 in his book " Exploration of the Brazilian Highlands " ("Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil"), which describes his travels in Brazil since 1865, when Burton was appointed consul in Santos. In particular, he sailed along the Sao Francisco River from its source to the waterfalls of Paulo Afonso, i.e. in the area, presumably close to the search area for the lost city of Manuscript 512.

Manuscript 512 was translated into English by the traveler's wife, Isabelle Burton. Apparently, we are talking about the first translation of the document.

5. Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett

The most famous and consistent supporter of the authenticity of Manuscript 512 was the famous British scientist and traveler Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (1867-1925?), For whom the manuscript served as the main indication of the existence in unexplored areas of Brazil of the remains of ancient cities of an unknown civilization (according to Fawcett - Atlantis).

"main goal Fawcett called his search "Z" - a mysterious, possibly inhabited city on the territory of Mato Grosso. Contrary to popular belief, Fawcett did not identify his "main goal" Z "" with the dead city from Manuscript 512, which he conventionally called " the town of Raposo"(Francisco Raposo is a fictitious name by which Fawcett called the unknown author of Manuscript 512) and indicated his location at 11 ° 30 "south latitude and 42 ° 30" west longitude (Bahia state)

; however, he, however, did not rule out that “Z” and “the city of Raposo” could ultimately turn out to be one and the same. The source of information about "Z" remained unknown; esoteric lore from the time of Fawcett to the present day links this mythical city to the Hollow Earth theory.

In 1921, Fawcett undertook an expedition deep into Bahia, following both Manuscript 512 and another British traveler and explorer, Lieutenant Colonel O'Sullivan Baer, who supposedly visited an ancient lost city like the one described in the Manuscript, a few days' journey from Salvador. According to Fawcett, on his 1921 expedition, he was able to collect new evidence of the existence of the remains of ancient cities by visiting the area of the Gongozhi River.

In 1925, along with his son Jack and his friend Raleigh Raimel, Fawcett traveled to the headwaters of the Xingu River in search of "Z's main target", planning to visit the abandoned 1753 "city of Raposo" in Bahia on the way back; the expedition did not return, and its fate forever remained a mystery, which soon obscured the very mystery of the lost city.

Fawcett left a literary retelling of Manuscript 512 in his famous essay " Lost mines of Muribeki " ("The Lost Mines of Muribeca"), constituting the first chapter of a collection of his diaries (" Lost Trails, Lost cities", published by Fawcett's youngest son Brian in 1953; Russian translation: " Unfinished Journey", Thought, Moscow, 1975).

6. In art

6.1. In literature

· The Lost City of Z (en:The Lost City of Z (book)) - indirectly Manuscript 512 was included in the plot of the book, where the adventurer Percy Fawcett is looking for a lost city in uncharted regions of Brazil.

6.2. In cinema

· The Lost City of Z - a feature film by James Gray, an adaptation of the book of the same name. The script for the film was written by Grey. The main role in the film is played by Brad Pitt, who is also its producer.

7. Source

ANÔNIMO. Relação histórica de uma oculta e grande povoação antiquíssima sem moradores, que se descobriu no ano de 1753. Na América […] nos interiores […] contiguos aos […] mestre de campo e sua comitiva, havendo dez anos, que viajava pelos sertões , a ver se descobria as decantadas minas de prata do grande descobridor Moribeca, que por culpa de um governador se não fizeram patentes, pois queria uzurparlhe esta glória, eo teve preso na Bahia até morrer, e ficaram por descobrir. Veio esta notícia ao Rio de Janeiro no princípio do ano de 1754… Bahia/Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, documento n. 512, 1754.

Literature

in Portuguese :

ALMEIDA, Eduardo de Castro e. Inventario dos documentos relativos ao Brasil existentes no Archivo de Marinha e Ultramar de Lisboa, v. I, Bahía, 1613-1762. Rio de Janeiro, Officinas Graphicas da Bibliotheca Nacional, 1913.

· BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Advertencia do redactor d'esta revista, o Conego J. da C. Barbosa. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 3, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.

· BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Relatorio do secretario perpetuo. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 4, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.

CALMON, Pedro. O segredo das minas de prata. Rio de Janeiro: A noite, 1950.

· Catalogo da Exposição de História do Brasil realizada pela Bibliotheca Nacional, Typographia de G. Leuzinger & Filhos, 1881.

· KRUSE, Herman. O manuscripto 512 e a viagem à procura da povoação abandonada. São Paulo, janeiro de 1940. Rio de Janeiro, Departamento do Patrimônio Histórico, Arquivo Nacional.

ROCHA PITA, Sebastião da. Historia da America Portuguesa desde o anno de mil e quinhentos do seu descobrimento até o de mil e setecentos e vinte e quatro. Lisboa, Officina de Joseph Antonio da Silva, 1730.

SAMPAIO, Dr. Theodoro. O rio de S. Francisco. Trechos de um diario da viagem e a Chapada Diamantina. Publicados pela primeira vez na Revista S. Cruz. 1879-80. Sao Paulo. Escolas Profisionaes Salesianas, 1905.

In English :

BURTON, Richard F. Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil. Vol. II. London, Tinsley Brothers, 1869.

FAWCETT, Percy Harrison. Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, 1953.

· WILKINS, Harold T. Mysteries of Ancient South America. Rider & Co., London, 1946.

9. Translation into Russian

· Anonymous.“Historical Report about an unknown and large Settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753” ... www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (2010-06-05). - Translation from the original (1754), partial reconstruction of the text - O. Dyakonov, 2009-2010, Russia, Moscow.

· Anonymous.“Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, ancient, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753 in the Sertans of Brazil; copied from a manuscript from the Public Library of Rio de Janeiro”… www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (2010-06-05). - Translation from the first printed edition (1839) - O. Dyakonov, 2010, Russia, Moscow.

Bibliography:

1. Langer, J. A Cidade Perdida da Bahia: mito e arqueologia no Brasil Império, publicado na Revista Brasileira de História, vol. 22. no. 43.

2. SIFETE - Pesquisa Cientifica.

4. Fawcett, P. G. Unfinished Journey. Moscow, Thought, 1975.

5. Variety - James Gray, Brad Pitt find "Lost City"

9 Russian translation
Bibliography

Introduction

Manuscript 512 (Document 512) is an archival manuscript dating from the colonial period of Brazilian history, currently held in the storeroom of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. The document is written in Portuguese and is entitled " Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753» (« Relação histórica de uma occulta e grande povoação antiguissima sem moradores, que se descobriu no anno de 1753"). The document has 10 pages and is written in the form of an expedition report; at the same time, taking into account the nature of the relationship between the author and the addressee, it can also be characterized as a personal letter.

The content of the document is a narrative left by an unknown group of Portuguese bandeirants; the name of the direct author - the head of the expeditionary detachment (" bandeiras") is lost. The document tells about the discovery by bandeirants in the depths of the Brazilian sertan of the ruins of a lost dead city with signs of an ancient highly developed civilization of the Greco-Roman type. It also contains an indication of the discovery of gold and silver deposits.

Due to its vivid and colorful style, the narrative of Manuscript 512 is considered by some to be among the finest literary works in the Portuguese language.

1. The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

The document, which belongs to the 18th century, in addition to the dating indicated in it (1754), is also confirmed by a number of indirect signs, was discovered and gained fame almost a century after it was written. In 1839, a forgotten manuscript, damaged by time and insects, was accidentally discovered in the storeroom of the court library (now the National Library) of Rio de Janeiro by the naturalist Manuel Ferreira Lagus. The document was handed over to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, IHGB). The assessment of the Manuscript as an important historical document and its distribution belong to Canon Januario da Cunha Barbosa, one of the founders of the institute. Through his efforts, the full version of the text was published in " Journal of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute» (Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro); The publication included a Forewarning, in which Cunha Barbosa for the first time connected the plot of the document with the legend of Roberio Diaz, a 17th-century bandeirante who was imprisoned by the Spanish king for refusing to reveal the secret of the silver mines in the province of Bahia.

2. Narrative of Manuscript 512

2.1. The Lost Mines of Moribeki

The subtitle of the document says that a certain detachment of bandeirantes spent 10 years wandering through the unexplored interior regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary " the lost mines of moribeki". According to the Brazilian historian Pedro Calmon, the bandeirant of the 16th-17th centuries was known under this Indian name. Belshior Diaz Moreya (or Moreira), also known as Belshior Diaz Karamuru, a descendant of Diogo Alvaris Correia (Karamuru), a Portuguese sailor, and Catarina Alvaris Paraguazu, daughter of the cacique of the Tupinambas tribe; according to an older version given by an 18th-century historian Sebastian da Rocha Pita and repeated by canon Cunha Barbosa in his Pre-Notification to Manuscript 512, this was the son of Belshior Roberiu (or Ruberiu) Diaz. In both cases, Moribeca was known for its enormous wealth, which came from the mines of the Serra Itabayana in the vicinity of Araguazu. Having promised the Spanish crown to transfer the mines in exchange for the title of Marquis das Minas or Marquis of Rudnikov, Moribeca then became convinced that he had been deceived by King Philip III of Spain (II of Portugal), since this title was awarded to the new Governor General of Brazil, Francisco de Sousa. Moribeka refused to disclose the location of the mines, for which he paid with imprisonment in the royal prison. According to Calmon, Moribeca (Belshior Diaz) was able to go free after two years, paying a ransom; according to Rocha Pita (who does not mention the name "Moribeca"), Robério Diaz died in prison just on the eve of the arrival of the royal order sentencing him to death. The legend of the lost mines of Moribeca or the Brazilian Eldorado subsequently became the cause of numerous unsuccessful searches conducted by the Brazilian Bandeirantes. Thus, the nature of the expedition or " bandeiras» 1743-53 is quite typical for its time.

2.2. Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

On the banks of the river, the bandeirants found a trace of gold and silver deposits. At this point, the detachment split up, and part of the people made a nine-day sortie. This detachment saw a boat with some unknown white people near the bay of the river, “ dressed in European"; apparently, the strangers hurriedly left after one of the bandeirants fired in an attempt to attract their attention. However, according to the surviving fragments of phrases in this part of the document, it can also be assumed that this part of the detachment then encountered representatives of some local tribes, “ hairy and wild«.

2.3. gold coin

2.4. Mysterious inscriptions

4. Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

The famous British traveller, writer and adventurer Richard Francis Burton included a translation of Manuscript 512 in his book " Exploration of the Brazilian Highlands» (« Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil'), which describes his travels in Brazil beginning in 1865, when Burton was appointed consul at Santos. In particular, he sailed along the Sao Francisco River from its sources to the Paulo Afonso waterfalls, i.e. in an area believed to be close to the search area for the lost city of Manuscript 512.

Manuscript 512 was translated into English by the traveler's wife, Isabelle Burton. Apparently, we are talking about the first translation of the document.

5. Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett

Fawcett left a literary retelling of Manuscript 512 in his famous essay " Lost mines of Muribeki» (« The Lost Mines of Muribeca"), constituting the first chapter of the collection of his diaries (" Lost Trails, Lost cities", published by Fawcett's youngest son Brian in 1953; translation into Russian: " Unfinished Journey", Thought, Moscow, 1975).

6. In art

6.1. In literature

The Lost City of Z (en:The Lost City of Z (book)) - indirectly Manuscript 512 entered the plot of the book, where the adventurer Percy Fawcett is looking for a lost city in uncharted regions of Brazil.

6.2. In cinema

The Lost City of Z is a feature film by James Gray, an adaptation of the book of the same name. The script for the film was written by Grey. The main role in the film is played by Brad Pitt, who is also its producer.

7. Source

ANÔNIMO. Relação histórica de uma oculta e grande povoação antiquíssima sem moradores, que se descobriu no ano de 1753. Na América […] nos interiores […] contiguos aos […] mestre de campo e sua comitiva, havendo dez anos, que viajava pelos sertões , a ver se descobria as decantadas minas de prata do grande descobridor Moribeca, que por culpa de um governador se não fizeram patentes, pois queria uzurparlhe esta glória, eo teve preso na Bahia até morrer, e ficaram por descobrir. Veio esta notícia ao Rio de Janeiro no princípio do ano de 1754. Bahia/Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, documento n. 512, 1754.

Literature

in Portuguese:

BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Advertencia do redactor d'esta revista, o Conego J. da C. Barbosa. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 3, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.

BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Relatorio do secretario perpetuo. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 4, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.

CALMON, Pedro. O segredo das minas de prata. Rio de Janeiro: A noite, 1950.

Catalogo da Exposição de História do Brasil realizada pela Bibliotheca Nacional, Typographia de G. Leuzinger & Filhos, 1881.

KRUSE, Herman. O manuscripto 512 e a viagem à procura da povoação abandonada. São Paulo, janeiro de 1940. Rio de Janeiro, Departamento do Patrimônio Histórico, Arquivo Nacional.

In English:

BURTON, Richard F. Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil. Vol. II. London, Tinsley Brothers, 1869.

FAWCETT, Percy Harrison. Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, 1953.

WILKINS, Harold T. Mysteries of Ancient South America. Rider & Co., London, 1946.

9. Translation into Russian

Anonymous."Historical Report about an unknown and large Settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753". www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (2010-06-05). - Translation from the original (1754), partial reconstruction of the text - O. Dyakonov, 2009-2010, Russia, Moscow.

Anonymous.“Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, ancient, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753 in the Sertans of Brazil; copied from a manuscript from the Public Library of Rio de Janeiro. www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (2010-06-05). - Translation from the first printed edition (1839) - O. Dyakonov, 2010, Russia, Moscow.

Bibliography:

Langer, J. A Cidade Perdida da Bahia: mito e arqueologia no Brasil Império, publicado na Revista Brasileira de Historia, vol. 22. no. 43.

SIFETE - Pesquisa Científica.

Marquez das Minas

Fawcett, P. G. An Unfinished Journey. Moscow, Thought, 1975.

Variety - James Gray, Brad Pitt find 'Lost City'

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manuscript 512 (Document 512) is an archival manuscript dating back to the colonial period of Brazilian history, currently stored in the storeroom of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. The document is written in Portuguese and is entitled " Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753» (« Relação histórica de uma occulta e grande povoação antiguissima sem moradores, que se descobriu no anno de 1753"). The document has 10 pages and is written in the form of an expedition report; at the same time, taking into account the nature of the relationship between the author and the addressee, it can also be characterized as a personal letter.

In content, the document is a narrative left by an unknown group of Portuguese Bandeirantes; the name of the direct author - the head of the expeditionary detachment (bandeira) - has been lost. The document tells about the discovery by the bandeirants in the depths of the Brazilian sertan of the ruins of a lost dead city with signs of an ancient highly developed civilization of the Greco-Roman type. It also contains an indication of the discovery of gold and silver deposits.

The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

The document, which belongs to the 18th century, in addition to the dating indicated in it (1754), is also confirmed by a number of indirect signs, was discovered and gained fame almost a century after it was written. In 1839, a forgotten manuscript, damaged by time and insects, was accidentally discovered in the storeroom of the court library (now the National Library) of Rio de Janeiro by the naturalist Manuel Ferreira Lagus. The document has been handed over to (Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, IHGB). The assessment of the Manuscript as an important historical document and its distribution belong to Canon Januario da Cunha Barbosa, one of the founders of the institute. Through his efforts, the full version of the text was published in " Journal of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute» (Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro); the publication included a Forewarning, in which Cunha Barbosa for the first time connected the plot of the document with the legend of Roberio Diaz, a 17th century bandeirante who was imprisoned by the Spanish king for refusing to reveal the secret of silver mines in the province of Bahia.

At that time, in Brazil, which had just gained independence, they were preoccupied with the search for a national identity and the reappraisal of native Brazilian attributes; it was desirable for a young nation to find its own great roots» in the historical past; the monarchical system was interested in exalting the idea of empire and political centralization, which could be facilitated by the discovery on the territory of the country of traces of ancient highly developed states that would provide a kind of legitimacy for the new Brazilian monarchy. Against this background, the authority of the manuscript in the first years after its publication quickly increased in the eyes of scientists, intellectuals, as well as the aristocracy and clergy of Brazil; Emperor Pedro II himself showed interest in it. The discovery in the same years of ancient monuments of pre-Columbian civilizations also played a role in assessing the Manuscript as an important source of the national past. As Cunha Barbosa pointed out, monuments like the city of Palenque in Mexico and the fortifications erected on the borders of Peru can be found in Brazil; while he cited the testimony of Manuscript 512 as evidence.

From 1841 to 1846, the IHGB organized the search for the lost city of Manuscript 512, which was entrusted to Canon Benign José di Carvalho, corresponding member of the institute. The long and unsuccessful expedition he undertook along Chapada Diamantina did not bring any results; after that, former hopes for the early discovery of ancient ruins give way to disappointment and skepticism. The prevailing theory was that the vision of the lost city was influenced by the rock formations of Chapada Diamantina; thus, the Brazilian historian and writer Teodoro Sampaio, who toured the area in 1879-80, was convinced that the narrative of Manuscript 512, being generally fiction, poetically described the rocks of bizarre shapes found in these places.

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

The subtitle of the document says that a certain detachment of bandeirantes spent 10 years wandering through the unexplored interior regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary " the lost mines of moribeki". According to the Brazilian historian Pedro Calmon, the bandeirant of the 16th-17th centuries was known under this Indian name. Belshior Diaz Moreya (or Moreira), also known as Belshior Diaz Karamuru, a descendant of Diogo Alvaris Correia (Karamuru), a Portuguese sailor, and Catarina Alvaris Paraguazu, daughter of a cacique of the Tupinamba tribe; according to an older version given by an 18th-century historian Sebastian da Rocha Pita and repeated by canon Cunha Barbosa in his Pre-Notification to Manuscript 512, this was the son of Belshior Roberiu (or Ruberiu) Diaz. In both cases, Moribeca was known for its vast wealth, which originated from the mines of the Serra Itabayana in the vicinity of Araguaçu. Having promised the Spanish crown to hand over the mines in exchange for the title of Marquis das Minas or Marquis of Rudnikov, Moribeca then became convinced that he had been deceived by King Philip III of Spain, since this title was given to the new governor-general of Brazil, Francisco de Sousa. Moribeka refused to disclose the location of the mines, for which he paid with imprisonment in the royal prison. According to Calmon, Moribeca (Belshior Diaz) was able to go free after two years, paying a ransom; according to Rocha Pita (who does not mention the name "Moribeca"), Robério Diaz died in prison just on the eve of the arrival of the royal order sentencing him to death. The legend of the lost mines of Moribeca or the Brazilian Eldorado subsequently became the cause of numerous unsuccessful searches conducted by the Brazilian Bandeirantes. Thus, the nature of the expedition or "bandeira" of 1743-53 is quite typical for its time.

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

On the banks of the river, the bandeirants found a trace of gold and silver deposits. At this point, the detachment split up, and part of the people made a nine-day sortie. This detachment saw a boat near the bay of the river with some unknown white people, "dressed in European style"; apparently, the strangers hurriedly left after one of the bandeirants fired in an attempt to attract their attention. However, according to the surviving fragments of phrases in this part of the document, it can also be assumed that this part of the detachment then encountered representatives of some local tribes, “shaggy and wild.”

gold coin

One of the members of the detachment (Juan Antonio - the only name preserved in the document) found among the ruins of one of the houses in the lost city a gold coin, larger than the Brazilian coin of 6400 flights. On one side of it was a kneeling young man, on the other - a bow, crown and arrow. This discovery convinced the Bandeirants that countless treasures were buried under the ruins.

Mysterious inscriptions

Possible authorship of Manuscript 512

Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

« main goal Fawcett called his search "Z" - a mysterious, possibly inhabited city on the territory of Mato Grosso. Contrary to popular belief, Fawcett did not identify his "primary target 'Z'" with the dead city of Manuscript 512, which he tentatively referred to as " the town of Raposo» (Francisco Raposo - a fictitious name Fawcett called the unknown author of Manuscript 512) and indicated his location at 11 ° 30 "south latitude and 42 ° 30" west longitude (Bahia state) 11°30′ S sh. 42°30′ W d. / 11.500°S sh. 42.500°W d. / -11.500; -42.500 (G) (I); however, he, however, did not rule out that “Z” and “the city of Raposo” could ultimately turn out to be one and the same. The source of information about "Z" remained unknown; esoteric lore from Fawcett's time to the present day links this mythical city to the Hollow Earth theory.

In 1921, Fawcett undertook an expedition deep into the state of Bahia, following the directions of both Manuscript 512 and another British traveler and explorer, Lieutenant Colonel O'Sullivan Baer, who supposedly visited an ancient lost city like the one described in the Manuscript, a few days' journey from Salvador. According to Fawcett, on his 1921 expedition, he was able to collect new evidence for the existence of the remains of ancient cities by visiting the area of the Gongozhi River.

In 1925, with his son Jack and his friend Raleigh Raimel, Fawcett traveled to the headwaters of the Xingu River in search of "Z's main target", planning to visit the abandoned 1753 "city of Raposo" in Bahia on the way back; the expedition did not return, and its fate forever remained a mystery, which soon obscured the very mystery of the lost city.

Fawcett left a literary retelling of Manuscript 512 in his famous essay " Lost mines of Muribeki» (« The Lost Mines of Muribeca”), which is the first chapter of the collection of his diaries (“ Lost Trails, Lost cities”, published by Fawcett's youngest son Brian in 1953; translation into Russian: " Unfinished Journey”, Thought, Moscow, 1975).

In art

In literature

The Lost City of Z (en:The Lost City of Z (book)) - indirectly Manuscript 512 entered the plot of the book, where the adventurer Percy Fawcett is looking for a lost city in uncharted regions of Brazil.

A source

ANÔNIMO. Relação histórica de uma oculta e grande povoação antiquíssima sem moradores, que se descobriu no ano de 1753. Na América […] nos interiores […] contiguos aos […] mestre de campo e sua comitiva, havendo dez anos, que viajava pelos sertões , a ver se descobria as decantadas minas de prata do grande descobridor Moribeca, que por culpa de um governador se não fizeram patentes, pois queria uzurparlhe esta glória, eo teve preso na Bahia até morrer, e ficaram por descobrir. Veio esta notícia ao Rio de Janeiro no princípio do ano de 1754. Bahia/Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, documento n. 512, 1754.

Write a review on the article "Manuscript 512"

Literature

in Portuguese:

ALMEIDA, Eduardo de Castro e. Inventario dos documentos relativos ao Brasil existentes no Archivo de Marinha e Ultramar de Lisboa, v. I, Bahía, 1613-1762. Rio de Janeiro, Officinas Graphicas da Bibliotheca Nacional, 1913.
BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Advertencia do redactor d'esta revista, o Conego J. da C. Barbosa. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 3, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.
BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Relatorio do secretario perpetuo. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 4, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.
CALMON, Pedro. O segredo das minas de prata. Rio de Janeiro: A noite, 1950.
Catalogo da Exposição de História do Brasil realizada pela Bibliotheca Nacional, Typographia de G. Leuzinger & Filhos, 1881.
KRUSE, Herman. O manuscripto 512 e a viagem à procura da povoação abandonada. São Paulo, janeiro de 1940. Rio de Janeiro, Departamento do Patrimônio Histórico, Arquivo Nacional.
ROCHA PITA, Sebastião da. Historia da America Portuguesa desde o anno de mil e quinhentos do seu descobrimento até o de mil e setecentos e vinte e quatro. Lisboa, Officina de Joseph Antonio da Silva, 1730.
SAMPAIO, Dr. Theodoro. O rio de S. Francisco. Trechos de um diario da viagem e a Chapada Diamantina. Publicados pela primeira vez na Revista S. Cruz. 1879-80. Sao Paulo. Escolas Profisionaes Salesianas, 1905.

In English:

BURTON, Richard F. Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil. Vol. II. London, Tinsley Brothers, 1869.
FAWCETT, Percy Harrison. Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, 1953.
WILKINS, Harold T. Mysteries of Ancient South America. Rider & Co., London, 1946.

Translation into Russian

Unknown author. . Oriental Literature (Medieval Historical Sources of East and West). www.vostlit.info (Thietmar, Strori) (08/26/2012). - Translation from the original (port., 1753) - Oleg Igorevich Dyakonov, 2009. Retrieved on August 26, 2012. .

Anonymous. (unavailable link - history) . www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (June 5, 2010). - Translation from the original (1754), partial reconstruction of the text - O. Dyakonov, 2009-2010, Russia, Moscow. Retrieved June 7, 2010.

Anonymous. (unavailable link - history) . www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (June 5, 2010). - Translation from the first printed edition (1839) - O. Dyakonov, 2010, Russia, Moscow. Retrieved June 7, 2010.

Notes

Excerpt characterizing Manuscript 512

Bolkonsky noticed the state of the hussar, and it seemed funny to him. He smiled slightly contemptuously.
- Yes! Lots of stories about this stuff!
“Yes, stories,” Rostov spoke loudly, looking at Boris and then Bolkonsky with furious eyes, “yes, there are many stories, but our stories are the stories of those who were in the very fire of the enemy, our stories have weight, and not stories of those staff thugs who receive awards without doing anything.
“Which do you suppose I belong to?” - calmly and especially pleasantly smiling, said Prince Andrei.
A strange feeling of anger and at the same time respect for the calmness of this figure was united at that time in the soul of Rostov.
“I’m not talking about you,” he said, “I don’t know you and, I confess, I don’t want to know. I'm talking about staff in general.
“And I’ll tell you what,” Prince Andrei interrupted him with calm authority in his voice. - You want to insult me, and I am ready to agree with you that this is very easy to do if you do not have sufficient respect for yourself; but you will agree that both the time and place are very badly chosen for this. One of these days we will all have to be in a big, more serious duel, and besides, Drubetskaya, who says that he is your old friend, is not in the least to blame for the fact that my physiognomy had the misfortune not to please you. However,” he said, getting up, “you know my name and you know where to find me; but do not forget,” he added, “that I do not consider myself or you offended at all, and my advice, as a man older than you, is to leave this matter without consequences. So on Friday, after the show, I'm waiting for you, Drubetskoy; goodbye, ”concluded Prince Andrei and went out, bowing to both.
Rostov remembered what he had to answer only when he had already left. And he was even more angry because he forgot to say it. Rostov immediately ordered his horse to be brought in and, after taking a dry farewell to Boris, rode off to his place. Should he go to the head quarters tomorrow and call in this fractious adjutant, or, in fact, leave the matter as it is? was a question that tormented him all the way. Now he thought with malice about how pleased he would be to see the fright of this small, weak and proud little man under his pistol, then he felt with surprise that of all the people he knew, he would not want so much to have his friend like this adjutant he hated.

On the next day of Boris' meeting with Rostov, there was a review of the Austrian and Russian troops, both fresh, who had come from Russia, and those who had returned from the campaign with Kutuzov. Both emperors, the Russian with the heir to the Tsarevich and the Austrian with the Archduke, made this review of the allied 80,000th army.
From early morning, smartly cleaned and cleaned troops began to move, lining up on the field in front of the fortress. Then thousands of feet and bayonets with fluttering banners moved, and at the command of the officers they stopped, turned around and formed up at intervals, bypassing other similar masses of infantry in different uniforms; then with measured stomp and rattling sounded elegant cavalry in blue, red, green embroidered uniforms with embroidered musicians in front, on black, red, gray horses; then, stretching out with its copper sound of trembling on carriages, cleaned, shiny cannons and with its own smell of overcoats, artillery crawled between the infantry and cavalry and was placed in designated places. Not only generals in full full dress uniform, with impossibly thick and thin waists and reddened, propped up collars, necks, in scarves and all orders; not only pomaded, well-dressed officers, but every soldier, with a fresh, washed and shaved face and cleaned up to the last possible shine with ammunition, each horse, groomed so that, like satin, its wool shone on it and hair to hair lay wetted mane, - everyone felt that something serious, significant and solemn was happening. Each general and soldier felt their insignificance, conscious of themselves as a grain of sand in this sea of people, and together they felt their power, conscious of being part of this huge whole.
Intense chores and efforts began from early in the morning, and at 10 o'clock everything came into the required order. Rows lined up on the vast field. The whole army was stretched out in three lines. Cavalry in front, artillery in back, infantry in back.
Between each row of troops there was, as it were, a street. Three parts of this army sharply separated from one another: the combat Kutuzovskaya (in which the Pavlogradites stood on the right flank in the front line), army and guard regiments that had come from Russia, and the Austrian army. But all stood under one line, under one command and in the same order.
As the wind swept through the leaves, an excited whisper: “They are coming! they're going!" Frightened voices were heard, and a wave of fuss over the last preparations ran through all the troops.
Ahead of Olmutz appeared a moving group. And at the same time, although the day was calm, a light stream of wind ran through the army and slightly shook the weather vanes of the lance and the unfurled banners that were rattled on their shafts. It seemed that the army itself, with this slight movement, expressed its joy at the approach of sovereigns. One voice was heard: "Attention!" Then, like roosters at dawn, the voices repeated in different directions. And everything went quiet.
In the dead silence only the sound of horses could be heard. It was the suite of emperors. The sovereigns drove up to the flank and the sounds of the trumpeters of the first cavalry regiment were heard, playing a general march. It seemed that it was not the trumpeters who played it, but the army itself, rejoicing at the approach of the sovereign, naturally made these sounds. Because of these sounds, one young, gentle voice of Emperor Alexander was clearly heard. He said hello, and the first regiment barked: Hurrah! so deafening, long, joyful that the people themselves were horrified by the number and strength of the bulk that they made up.
Rostov, standing in the forefront of the Kutuzov army, to which the sovereign approached the first, experienced the same feeling that every person in this army experienced - a feeling of self-forgetfulness, a proud consciousness of power and a passionate attraction to the one who was the cause of this triumph.
He felt that it depended on one word of this man that this whole mass (and he, associated with it, an insignificant grain of sand) would go into fire and into water, to crime, to death or to the greatest heroism, and therefore he could not help but tremble and freeze at the sight of that approaching word.
– Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! - thundered from all sides, and one regiment after another received the sovereign with the sounds of a general march; then Hurrah! ... general march and again Urra! and hooray!! which, growing stronger and stronger, merged into a deafening roar.
Until the sovereign arrived, each regiment, in its silence and immobility, seemed like a lifeless body; as soon as the sovereign was compared with him, the regiment revived and thundered, joining the roar of the entire line that the sovereign had already passed. At the terrible, deafening sound of these voices, in the midst of the masses of the army, motionless, as if petrified in their quadrangles, carelessly, but symmetrically and, most importantly, hundreds of horsemen of the retinue moved freely and in front of them were two people - emperors. The restrained passionate attention of all this mass of people was undividedly focused on them.
Handsome, young Emperor Alexander, in a horse guards uniform, in a triangular hat, put on from the field, with his pleasant face and sonorous, soft voice attracted all the power of attention.
Rostov stood not far from the trumpeters and from afar with his keen eyes recognized the sovereign and followed his approach. When the sovereign approached at a distance of 20 steps and Nicholas clearly, to every detail, examined the beautiful, young and happy face of the emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and delight, the like of which he had not experienced before. Everything - every feature, every movement - seemed to him charming in the sovereign.
Stopping in front of the Pavlograd regiment, the sovereign said something in French to the Austrian emperor and smiled.
Seeing this smile, Rostov himself involuntarily began to smile and felt an even stronger surge of love for his sovereign. He wanted to show his love for the sovereign in some way. He knew it was impossible and he wanted to cry.
The emperor called the regimental commander and said a few words to him.
"My God! what would happen to me if the sovereign turned to me! - thought Rostov: - I would die of happiness.
The emperor also addressed the officers:
- All, gentlemen (every word was heard by Rostov, like a sound from heaven), I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
How happy Rostov would be if he could now die for his tsar!
- You have earned the banners of St. George and will be worthy of them.
"Only die, die for him!" thought Rostov.
The sovereign also said something that Rostov did not hear, and the soldiers, pushing their chests, shouted: Hurrah! Rostov also shouted, bending down to the saddle, as much as he could, wanting to hurt himself with this cry, only to fully express his delight in the sovereign.
The sovereign stood for several seconds against the hussars, as if he were indecisive.
“How could the sovereign be in indecision?” thought Rostov, and then even this indecision seemed to Rostov majestic and charming, like everything that the sovereign did.
The indecision of the sovereign lasted for an instant. The leg of the sovereign, with a narrow, sharp toe of the boot, as was worn at that time, touched the groin of the english bay mare on which he rode; the hand of the sovereign in a white glove picked up the reins, he set off, accompanied by a randomly swaying sea of \u200b\u200badjutants. He rode further and further, stopping at other regiments, and, finally, only his white plume was visible to Rostov from behind the retinue surrounding the emperors.
Among the masters of the retinue, Rostov noticed Bolkonsky, lazily and dissolutely sitting on a horse. Rostov remembered his yesterday's quarrel with him and the question presented itself, should - or should not call him. “Of course, it shouldn’t,” thought Rostov now ... “And is it worth thinking and talking about it at such a moment as now? In a moment of such a feeling of love, delight and selflessness, what do all our quarrels and insults mean!? I love everyone, I forgive everyone now, ”thought Rostov.
When the sovereign traveled around almost all the regiments, the troops began to pass by him in a ceremonial march, and Rostov, on a Bedouin newly bought from Denisov, drove through the castle of his squadron, that is, alone and completely in front of the sovereign.
Before reaching the sovereign, Rostov, an excellent rider, twice spurred his Bedouin and brought him happily to that furious gait of a lynx, which the heated Bedouin paced. Bending his foaming muzzle to his chest, separating his tail and as if flying in the air and not touching the ground, gracefully and high tossing and changing legs, the Bedouin, who also felt the sovereign's gaze on himself, passed admirably.
Rostov himself, throwing his legs back and tucking up his stomach and feeling like one piece with a horse, with a frowning but blissful face, the devil, as Denisov said, drove past the sovereign.
- Well done Pavlograd people! - said the sovereign.
"My God! How happy I would be if he ordered me to throw myself into the fire now, ”thought Rostov.
When the review was over, the officers, who had come again and the Kutuzovskys, began to converge in groups and began talking about awards, about the Austrians and their uniforms, about their front, about Bonaparte and how bad it would be for him now, especially when the Essen corps approached, and Prussia will take our side.
But most of all in all the circles they talked about Emperor Alexander, conveyed his every word, movement and admired him.
Everyone wanted only one thing: under the leadership of the sovereign, as soon as possible to go against the enemy. Under the command of the sovereign himself, it was impossible not to defeat anyone, as Rostov and most of the officers thought after the review.
After the review, everyone was more confident in victory than they could have been after two battles won.

The next day after the show, Boris, dressed in the best uniform and instructed by the wishes of success from his comrade Berg, went to Olmutz to Bolkonsky, wanting to take advantage of his affection and arrange for himself the best position, especially the position of adjutant with an important person, which seemed to him especially tempting in the army . “It’s good for Rostov, to whom his father sends 10 thousand each, to talk about how he doesn’t want to bow to anyone and won’t become a lackey to anyone; but I, who have nothing but my head, have to make my career and not miss opportunities, but use them.
In Olmutz, he did not find Prince Andrei that day. But the sight of Olmutz, where the main apartment stood, the diplomatic corps and both emperors lived with their retinues - courtiers, close associates, only strengthened his desire to belong to this supreme world.
He did not know anyone, and, despite his dandy guards uniform, all these top people, scurrying through the streets, in dandy carriages, plumes, ribbons and orders, courtiers and military men, seemed to stand so immeasurably higher than he, a guards officer, that they could not only did not want, but also could not recognize its existence. In the premises of Commander-in-Chief Kutuzov, where he asked Bolkonsky, all these adjutants and even batmen looked at him as if they wanted to convince him that there were a lot of officers like him hanging around here and that they were all very tired. Despite this, or rather because of this, the next day, on the 15th, after dinner he again went to Olmutz and, entering the house occupied by Kutuzov, asked Bolkonsky. Prince Andrei was at home, and Boris was led into a large hall, in which, probably, they used to dance, but now there were five beds, heterogeneous furniture: a table, chairs and clavichords. One adjutant, closer to the door, in a Persian robe, sat at the table and wrote. The other, red, fat Nesvitsky, lay on the bed with his hands under his head, and laughed with the officer who sat down beside him. The third played the Viennese waltz on the clavichords, the fourth lay on these clavichords and sang along with him. Bolkonsky was not there. None of these gentlemen, noticing Boris, did not change his position. The one who wrote, and to whom Boris addressed, turned around annoyedly and told him that Bolkonsky was on duty, and that he should go to the left through the door, to the reception room, if he needed to see him. Boris thanked and went to the reception. There were about ten officers and generals in the waiting room.
At the time when Boris ascended, Prince Andrei, screwing up his eyes contemptuously (with that special look of courteous fatigue, which clearly says that, if it were not for my duty, I would not talk to you for a minute), listened to the old Russian general in orders, who, almost on tiptoe, at the hood, with a soldier's obsequious expression on his purple face, was reporting something to Prince Andrei.
“Very well, if you please wait,” he said to the general in that French reprimand in Russian, which he spoke when he wanted to speak contemptuously, and, noticing Boris, no longer turning to the general (who ran after him pleadingly, asking him to listen to something else) , Prince Andrei with a cheerful smile, nodding to him, turned to Boris.
Boris at that moment already clearly understood what he had foreseen before, namely, that in the army, in addition to the subordination and discipline that was written in the regulations, and which was known in the regiment, and he knew, there was another, more significant subordination, the one that made this tightened, purple-faced general wait respectfully, while the captain, Prince Andrei, found it more convenient for his own pleasure to talk with Ensign Drubetskoy. More than ever, Boris decided to continue to serve not according to the one written in the charter, but according to this unwritten subordination. He now felt that only as a result of the fact that he had been recommended to Prince Andrei, he had already immediately risen above the general, who in other cases, in the front, could destroy him, the ensign of the guards. Prince Andrew went up to him and took his hand.
“I'm sorry you didn't catch me yesterday. I spent the whole day fussing with the Germans. We went with Weyrother to check the disposition. How the Germans will take up accuracy - there is no end!
Boris smiled, as if he understood what, as well-known, Prince Andrei was hinting at. But for the first time he heard the name of Weyrother and even the word disposition.
- Well, my dear, do you want to be adjutant? I thought about you during this time.
“Yes, I thought,” said Boris, involuntarily blushing for some reason, “to ask the commander in chief; he had a letter about me from Prince Kuragin; I wanted to ask only because, - he added, as if apologizing that, I'm afraid, the guards will not be in business.
- Good! Okay! we'll talk about everything, - said Prince Andrei, - just let me report about this gentleman, and I belong to you.
While Prince Andrei went to report about the crimson general, this general, apparently not sharing Boris's ideas about the benefits of unwritten subordination, so rested his eyes on the impudent ensign, who prevented him from talking with the adjutant, that Boris became embarrassed. He turned away and waited impatiently for Prince Andrei to return from the office of the commander-in-chief.
“That's what, my dear, I was thinking about you,” said Prince Andrei, when they went into a large hall with clavichords. “There’s nothing for you to go to the commander-in-chief,” said Prince Andrei, “he will tell you a bunch of pleasantries, tell you to come to him for dinner (“it wouldn’t be so bad for service in that subordination,” thought Boris), but from this further nothing will come of it; we, adjutants and orderlies, will soon have a battalion. But this is what we will do: I have a good friend, an adjutant general and a wonderful person, Prince Dolgorukov; and although you may not know this, the fact is that now Kutuzov with his headquarters and we all mean absolutely nothing: everything is now concentrated at the sovereign; so we'll go to Dolgorukov, I should go to him, I already told him about you; so we'll see; whether he finds it possible to attach you with him, or somewhere there, closer to the sun.
Prince Andrew was always especially animated when he had to lead a young man and help him in social success. Under the pretext of this help to another, which he would never have proudly accepted for himself, he was close to the environment that gave success and that attracted him to itself. He very willingly took up Boris and went with him to Prince Dolgorukov.
It was already late in the evening when they went up to the Olmutsky Palace, occupied by the emperors and their entourage.
On that very day there was a council of war, in which all the members of the Hofkriegsrat and both emperors participated. At the council, contrary to the opinion of the old people - Kutuzov and Prince Schwarzernberg, it was decided to immediately advance and give a general battle to Bonaparte. The military council had just ended when Prince Andrei, accompanied by Boris, came to the palace in search of Prince Dolgorukov. Still all the faces of the main apartment were under the charm of today's military council, victorious for the party of the young. The voices of the procrastinators, advising to expect something else without attacking, were so unanimously muffled and their arguments refuted by undoubted evidence of the benefits of the offensive, that what was being discussed in the council, the future battle and, no doubt, victory, seemed no longer the future, but the past. All benefits were on our side. Huge forces, no doubt superior to those of Napoleon, were drawn into one place; the troops were animated by the presence of the emperors and rushed into action; the strategic point at which they had to act was known to the smallest detail to the Austrian general Weyrother, who led the troops (as if by a lucky chance, the Austrian troops were on maneuvers last year on precisely those fields on which they now had to fight the French); the present terrain was known to the smallest detail and shown on maps, and Bonaparte, apparently weakened, did nothing.
Dolgorukov, one of the most ardent supporters of the offensive, had just returned from the council, tired and exhausted, but animated and proud of the victory he had won. Prince Andrei introduced the officer he patronized, but Prince Dolgorukov, after shaking his hand politely and firmly, said nothing to Boris and, obviously unable to refrain from expressing those thoughts that most occupied him at that moment, turned in French to Prince Andrei.

And it has 10 pages. Written in the form of an expedition report; at the same time, taking into account the nature of the relationship between the author and the addressee, it can also be characterized as a personal letter. The text of the document contains significant omissions as a result of damage that appears to have been due to termite exposure during the decades during which the Manuscript was lost in the archives (1754-1839).

Manuscript 512- perhaps the most famous document of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro and from the point of view of modern Brazilian historiography is "the basis of the biggest myth of national archeology". In the XIX-XX centuries. the lost city described in Manuscript 512 has been the subject of heated debate, as well as relentless search by adventurers, scientists, and explorers.

Due to its vivid and colorful style, the narrative of Manuscript 512 is considered by some to be among the finest literary works in the Portuguese language.

The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

The document, which belongs to the 18th century, in addition to the dating indicated in it (1754), is also confirmed by a number of indirect signs, was discovered and gained fame almost a century after it was written. In 1839, a forgotten manuscript, damaged by time and insects, was accidentally discovered in the storeroom of the court library (now the National Library) of Rio de Janeiro by the naturalist Manuel Ferreira Lagus. The document was handed over to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute ( Instituto Historico e Geografico Brasileiro, IHGB). The assessment of the Manuscript as an important historical document and its distribution belong to Canon Januario da Cunha Barbosa, one of the founders of the institute. Through his efforts, the full version of the text was published in the "Journal of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute" ( Revista do Instituto Historico e Geográfico Brasileiro); the publication included the Forewarning, in which Cunha Barbosa for the first time connected the plot of the document with the legend of Roberio Diase- Bandeirante of the 17th century, who was imprisoned by the Spanish king for refusing to reveal the secret of silver mines in the province of Bahia.

At that time, in Brazil, which had just gained independence, they were preoccupied with the search for a national identity and the reappraisal of native Brazilian attributes; it was desirable for a young nation to find its own "great roots" in the historical past; the monarchical system was interested in exalting the idea of empire and political centralization, which could be facilitated by the discovery on the territory of the country of traces of ancient highly developed states that would provide a kind of legitimacy for the new Brazilian monarchy. Against this background, the authority of the manuscript in the first years after its publication quickly increased in the eyes of scientists, intellectuals, as well as the aristocracy and clergy of Brazil; Emperor Pedro II himself showed interest in it. The discovery in the same years of ancient monuments of pre-Columbian civilizations also played a role in assessing the Manuscript as an important source of the national past. As Cunha Barbosa pointed out, monuments like the city of Palenque in Mexico and the fortifications erected on the borders of Peru can be found in Brazil; while he cited the testimony of Manuscript 512 as evidence.

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

The subtitle of the document says that a certain detachment of bandeirantes spent 10 years wandering through the unexplored interior regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary " the lost mines of moribeki". According to the Brazilian historian Pedro Calmon, the bandeirant of the 16th-17th centuries was known under this Indian name. Belshior Diaz Moreya (or Moreira), also known as Belshior Diaz Karamuru, a descendant of Diogo Alvaris Correia (Karamuru), a Portuguese sailor, and Catarina Alvaris Paraguazu, daughter of a cacique of the Tupinamba tribe; according to an older version given by an 18th-century historian Sebastian da Rocha Pita and repeated by Canon Cunha Barbosa in his Notification to the edition of the Manuscript 512, it was the son of Belshior Roberiu (or Ruberiu) Diaz. In both cases, Moribeca was known for its vast wealth, which originated from the mines of the Serra Itabayana in the vicinity of Araguaçu. Having promised the Spanish crown to hand over the mines in exchange for the title of Marquis das Minas or Marquis of Rudnikov, Moribeca then became convinced that he had been deceived by King Philip III of Spain, since this title was given to the new Governor-General of Brazil, Francisco de Sousa. Moribeka refused to disclose the location of the mines, for which he paid with imprisonment in the royal prison. According to Calmon, Moribeca (Belshior Diaz) was able to go free after two years, paying a ransom; according to Rocha Pita (who does not mention the name "Moribeca"), Robério Diaz died in prison just on the eve of the arrival of the royal order sentencing him to death. The legend of the lost mines of Moribeca or the Brazilian Eldorado subsequently became the cause of numerous unsuccessful searches conducted by the Brazilian Bandeirantes. Thus, the nature of the expedition or "bandeira" of 1743-53 is quite typical for its time.

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

On the banks of the river, the bandeirants found a trace of gold and silver deposits. At this point, the detachment split up, and part of the people made a nine-day sortie. This detachment saw a boat near the bay of the river with some unknown white people, "dressed in European style"; apparently, the strangers hurriedly left after one of the bandeirants fired in an attempt to attract their attention. However, according to the surviving fragments of phrases in this part of the document, it can also be assumed that this part of the detachment then encountered representatives of some local tribes, “shaggy and wild.”

gold coin

One of the members of the detachment (Juan Antonio - the only name preserved in the document) found among the ruins of one of the houses in the lost city a gold coin, larger than the Brazilian coin of 6400 flights. On one side of it was a kneeling young man, on the other - a bow, crown and arrow. This discovery convinced the Bandeirants that countless treasures were buried under the ruins.

Mysterious inscriptions

At the very end of the document, there is also an image of nine signs on stone slabs (as you might guess - at the entrance to the caves; this part of the manuscript was also damaged). As the researchers noted, the given signs most of all resemble the letters of the Greek or Phoenician alphabet (in some places also Arabic numerals).

Possible authorship of Manuscript 512

Despite the above strong argument, the authorship of Guimaraes is still unlikely, since many documents related to him and his discoveries have survived, none of which mentions any lost city. In addition, the campaigns of Guimaraes did not last 10 years (1743-1753), which are clearly stated in the document, but 1 or 2 years (1752-53).

Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

The famous British traveler, writer and adventurer Richard Francis Burton included a translation of Manuscript 512 in his book Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil, which describes his travels in Brazil from 1865, when Burton was appointed consul at Santos. In particular, he sailed along the San Francisco River from its source to the Paulo Afonso waterfalls, that is, in an area supposedly close to the search area for the lost city of Manuscript 512.

Manuscript 512 was translated into English by the traveler's wife, Isabelle Burton. Apparently, we are talking about the first translation of the document.

Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett

"The main goal" of his search Fawcett called "Z" - some mysterious, possibly inhabited city on the territory of Mato Grosso. Contrary to popular belief, Fawcett did not identify his "primary target 'Z'" with the dead city in Manuscript 512, which he tentatively referred to as "the city of Raposo" (Francisco Raposo was the fictitious name Fawcett gave to the unknown author of Manuscript 512) and indicated its location at 11°30" S and 42°30" W (State of Bahia) 11°30′ S sh. 42°30′ W d. HGIOL; however, he, however, did not rule out that “Z” and “the city of Raposo” could ultimately turn out to be one and the same. The source of information about "Z" remained unknown; esoteric lore from Fawcett's time to the present day links this mythical city to the Hollow Earth theory.

In art

original source

ANÔNIMO. Relação histórica de uma oculta e grande povoação antiquíssima sem moradores, que se descobriu no ano de 1753. Na América […] nos interiores […] contiguos aos […] mestre de campo e sua comitiva, havendo dez anos, que viajava pelos sertões , a ver se descobria as decantadas minas de prata do grande descobridor Moribeca, que por culpa de um governador se não fizeram patentes, pois queria uzurparlhe esta glória, eo teve preso na Bahia até morrer, e ficaram por descobrir. Veio esta notícia ao Rio de Janeiro no princípio do ano de 1754. Bahia/Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, documento n. 512, 1754.

Translation into Russian

Unknown author. Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, ancient, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753 in the Sertans of Brazil; copied from a manuscript in the public library of Rio de Janeiro (indefinite) . Oriental Literature (Medieval Historical Sources of East and West). www.vostlit.info (Thietmar, Strori) (08/26/2012). - Translation from the original (Port., 1753) - Oleg Igorevich Dyakonov, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2012. Archived October 24, 2012.

Anonymous. "Historical Report about an unknown and large Settlement, the oldest, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753". (indefinite) (unavailable link - history) . www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (June 5, 2010). - Translation from the original (1754), partial reconstruction of the text - O. Dyakonov, 2009-2010, Russia, Moscow. Retrieved June 7, 2010.

Anonymous. "Historical report about an unknown and large settlement, ancient, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753 in the sertans of Brazil; copied from a manuscript from the Public Library of Rio de Janeiro." (indefinite) (unavailable link - history) . www.manuscrito512.narod.ru (June 5, 2010). - Translation from the first printed edition (1839) - O. Dyakonov, 2010, Russia, Moscow. Retrieved June 7, 2010.

Literature

in Portuguese

ALMEIDA, Eduardo de Castro e. Inventario dos documentos relativos ao Brasil existentes no Archivo de Marinha e Ultramar de Lisboa, v. I, Bahía, 1613-1762. Rio de Janeiro, Officinas Graphicas da Bibliotheca Nacional, 1913.
BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Advertencia do redactor d'esta revista, o Conego J. da C. Barbosa. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 3, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.
BARBOSA, Cônego Januário da Cunha. Relatorio do secretario perpetuo. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil, Numero 4, Tomo I, 1839; terceira edicão, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1908.
CALMON, Pedro. O segredo das minas de prata. Rio de Janeiro: A noite, 1950.
Catalogo da Exposição de História do Brasil realizada pela Bibliotheca Nacional, Typographia de G. Leuzinger & Filhos, 1881.
KRUSE, Herman. O manuscripto 512 e a viagem à procura da povoação abandonada. São Paulo, janeiro de 1940. Rio de Janeiro, Departamento do Patrimônio Histórico, Arquivo Nacional.
ROCHA PITA, Sebastião da. Historia da America Portuguesa desde o anno de mil e quinhentos do seu descobrimento até o de mil e setecentos e vinte e quatro. Lisboa, Officina de Joseph Antonio da Silva, 1730.
SAMPAIO, Dr. Theodoro. O rio de S. Francisco. Trechos de um diario da viagem e a Chapada Diamantina. Publicados pela primeira vez na Revista S. Cruz. 1879-80. Sao Paulo. Escolas Profisionaes Salesianas, 1905.

In English

BURTON, Richard F. Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil. Vol. II. London, Tinsley Brothers, 1869.
FAWCETT, Percy Harrison. Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, 1953.
WILKINS, Harold T. Mysteries of Ancient South America. Rider & Co., London, 1946.

In 1925, British Colonel Percy Fawcett traveled to the Amazon jungle to try to find the Inca capital, the legendary El Dorado, which he preferred to call "City Z". The expedition disappeared, thus ending the era of lone heroic pioneers.

We will return

On a cold January day in 1925, a tall, elegant gentleman hurried along the wharf in Hoboken, New Jersey, to the Vauban, a 511-foot ocean liner bound for Rio de Janeiro. The gentleman was fifty-seven, over six feet tall, his long sinewy arms bulging with muscle. Although his hair was thinning and his mustache was graying, he was in excellent shape and could walk for days on end with little or no food or rest. His nose was crooked, like that of a boxer, and there was a certain ferocity in his whole appearance - especially in his eyes, close-set and looking at the world from under bushy eyebrows.

Everyone, even his family, had different opinions about what color his eyes were: some thought it was blue, others thought it was gray. However, almost everyone who met him was struck by the intentness of his gaze: some said that he had "the eyes of a prophet." He was often photographed in riding boots and a cowboy hat, with a gun over his shoulder, but even now, when he was in a suit and tie, without his usual lush beard, the crowd gathered on the pier easily recognized him. It was Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his name was known all over the world.

He was the last of the great discoverers of the Victorian era, who traveled to realms that are not on the map, armed, one might say, only with a machete, a compass, and almost religious zeal. For two decades, stories about his adventures excited the imagination of people: about how he survived without any contact with the outside world in the pristine jungles of South America; about how he was captured by hostile natives, many of whom had never seen a white man before; about how he fought piranhas, electric eels, jaguars, crocodiles, vampire bats and anacondas, one of which almost strangled him; and how he came out of the jungle, bringing maps of areas from which no expedition had ever returned.

He was called "Amazonian David Livingstone"; many believed that he was endowed with unsurpassed endurance and vitality, and some of his colleagues even claimed that he was immune to death. One American traveler describes him as "a fearless man with an invincible will, with limitless inner resources"; another remarks that he could "beat anyone in terms of hiking and traveling."

In 1916, the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), with the blessing of King George V, awarded him a gold medal "for his contribution to the making of maps of South America". And every few years, when he, emaciated and exhausted, emerged from his jungle, dozens of scientists and all sorts of celebrities crowded into the hall of the Society to listen to his report. Occasionally, among them was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was said to have drawn heavily from Fawcett's experience when he wrote The Lost World, published in 1912. In this novel, travelers "go into the unknown" somewhere in South America and discover on a secluded plateau a country inhabited by dinosaurs that have escaped extinction.

None of Fawcett's previous expeditions was anything like the one he intended to undertake now, and he barely concealed his impatience as he followed the other passengers aboard the Vauban. Advertised as "the best in the world," this Lamport & Holt ship belonged to the elite "V-class." During the First World War, the Germans sank several of the company's ocean liners, but this one survived and now still showed the world its black, sea-salt-streaked hull, elegant white decks and a striped pipe that emits clouds of smoke into the sky. "Ford-T" took passengers to the pier, where longshoremen helped transport their luggage to the ship's holds. Many of the male passengers were wearing silk ties and bowlers, while the women were dressed in fur coats and feathered hats, as if they were attending a social event.

"Vauban"

Fawcett strode forward with his equipment. His traveling trunks contained pistols, canned food, powdered milk, flares, and several handmade machetes. In addition, he had a set of cartographic tools: a sextant and a chronometer for determining latitude and longitude, an aneroid barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure, and a pocket-sized glycerin compass. Each item Fawcett chose based on years of experience: even the clothes he took with him were made of lightweight, tear-resistant gabardine. He had seen how travelers died because of the most seemingly harmless oversight - because of a torn mesh, because of a boot that was too tight.

Fawcett traveled to the Amazon, a wilderness about the size of the continental United States. He sought to accomplish what he himself called "the great discovery of our age": to find a lost civilization. By that time, almost the entire world had already been explored, the veil of mysterious charm had been removed from it, but Amazonia remained mysterious, like the dark side of the moon. Sir John Scott Kelty, former secretary of the Royal Geographical Society and one of the world's famous geographers of the day, once remarked, "No one knows what's out there."

Since in 1542 Francisco de Orellana, at the head of an army of Spanish conquistadors, descended down the Amazon, no place on the planet, perhaps, has so ignited the human imagination and so beckoned people to death. Gaspard de Carvajal, a Dominican friar who was Orellana's companion, described female warriors they met in the jungle who looked like Amazons from ancient Greek myths. Half a century later, Sir Walter Raleigh spoke of Indian women with "eyes on their shoulders and mouths in the middle of their breasts." Shakespeare wove this legend into Othello:

... about cannibals that eat each other,
Anthropophagi, people with a head,
Growing below the shoulders.

The truth about these parts—that the snakes were as long as trees, and that the rodents were the size of pigs—was so incredible that no amount of embellishment seemed excessive. And most of all, people were fascinated by the image of El Dorado. Raleigh claimed that in this kingdom, which the conquistadors had heard of from the Indians, gold was so abundant that the natives ground the metal into powder and blown it "through hollow tubes into their naked bodies until they began to shine from head to toe" .

However, every expedition that tried to find Eldorado ended in failure. Carvajal, whose detachment was also looking for this kingdom, wrote in his diary: “Our situation was so hopeless that we were forced to eat the skin of our clothes, belts and soles prepared with special herbs, and therefore we were so weak that we could no longer hold on to legs." During this expedition alone, about four thousand people died. (!) - from hunger and disease, as well as from the hands of the Indians who defended their territory with the help of poisoned arrows.

Other detachments that went in search of Eldorado eventually fell into cannibalism. Many pioneers went crazy. In 1561, Lope de Aguirre inflicted a monstrous massacre among his people, shouting at the top of his voice: “Does God really think that since it is raining, I will not ... destroy the world?” Aguirre even stabbed his own child to death, whispering: "Consecrate yourself to the Lord, my daughter, for I intend to kill you." Spain sent troops to stop him, but Aguirre managed to send a warning letter: “I swear, O King, I swear on the word of honor of a Christian that even if a hundred thousand come here, not one of them will leave here alive. For all the evidence lies: on this river there is nothing but despair.” Aguirre's companions eventually rebelled and killed him; then his body was quartered, and later the Spanish authorities put on public display the head of what they called "the wrath of God", placed in a metal cage. However, for another three centuries, expeditions continued to search until, after a bountiful harvest of death and suffering worthy of the pen of Joseph Conrad, most archaeologists came to the conclusion that Eldorado was nothing more than a myth.

Percy Fawcett and Raleigh Reimel with one of their guides shortly before the disappearance of the expedition

Nevertheless, Fawcett was sure that somewhere in the wilds of the Amazon there was a legendary kingdom, and he was not just another "soldier of fortune" or a nutcase. A man of science, for many years he collected evidence of his innocence - he conducted excavations, studied petroglyphs, and interviewed local tribes. And after battling furiously with countless skeptics, Fawcett finally secured financial support from the most respected scientific institutions, including the Royal Geographical Society, the American Geographical Society, and the Museum of the American Indian. Newspapers vied with each other that he would soon shock the world with his discovery. The Atlanta Constitution proclaimed, "This is probably the most adventurous and without a doubt the most spectacular journey of its kind ever undertaken by a respected scientist with the support of conservative learned societies."

Fawcett was convinced that there still existed in the Brazilian part of the Amazon an ancient, highly developed civilization so old and complex that it could change once and for all the traditional ideas of Westerners about the American continent. He dubbed his lost world "City Z". “The center of this area I have named Z—our main target, situated in a valley . “The houses there are squat and windowless, and besides, there is a sanctuary in the form of a pyramid.”

Reporters gathered on the Hoboken Wharf, separated from Manhattan by the Hudson River, were yelling questions, hoping to find out where Z was. After the technological horrors of World War I, in an era of urbanization and industrialization, few events captured the attention of the public. One newspaper exclaimed: "Since Ponce de Leon crossed unknown Florida in search of the Waters of Eternal Youth ... no one has conceived a journey that would be so amazing to the imagination."

Fawcett was sympathetic to "all the hype," as he put it in a letter to a friend, but he was quite reserved in his responses. He knew that his archrival, Alexander Hamilton Rice, an American physician and multimillionaire, was already stepping into the jungle with an unprecedented amount of equipment. The idea that Dr. Rice could find Z himself horrified Fawcett. A few years ago, Fawcett witnessed Robert Falcon Scott, his colleague at the Royal Geographical Society, embark on a journey to become the first traveler to reach the South Pole, only to find, shortly before his own death from frostbite that his Norwegian competitor Raoul Amundsen beat him to thirty-three days. Shortly before this trip, Fawcett wrote to the Royal Geographical Society: “I cannot tell all I know, or even pinpoint the exact location, since such details tend to leak out, meanwhile, nothing can be more insulting to a pioneer than to find that his crown the work was intercepted by someone else.

In addition, he was afraid that if he divulged the details of the route, then later others would try to find Z or save the traveler himself, and this could lead to countless deaths. The news agency telegraphed to the world about "Fawcett's expedition... the purpose of which is to penetrate into the country from which no one returned." At the same time, Fawcett, intending to get to the most inaccessible areas, was not going, unlike his predecessors, to use a boat, on the contrary, he planned to go on foot, cutting through the jungle. The Royal Geographical Society warned that Fawcett was "almost the only living geographer who could successfully attempt" such an expedition, and that "it would be pointless for anyone else to try to follow his example." Before sailing from England, Fawcett confided to his youngest son, Brian: "If, with all my experience, we achieve nothing, hardly anyone else will be more fortunate than us."

Reporters swarmed around him; Fawcett explained that only a small expedition had any chance of surviving. She will be able to feed herself, eating the gifts of nature, and will not pose a threat to the hostile Indians. This expedition, he emphasized, “will not be a comfortably furnished enterprise, served by a whole army of porters, guides and beasts of burden. Such bulky units are no good, usually they do not go beyond the borders of the civilized world and revel in the hype raised around them. Where truly wild places begin, no porters can be obtained - so great is the fear of savages.

Fawcett chose only two companions: his twenty-one-year-old son Jack and Raleigh Rymel, Jack's best friend. Although both had never been on expeditions, Fawcett thought they were perfect for the current trip: hardy, loyal, and also, thanks to their close friendship, hardly capable, after the painful months spent in isolation from civilization, "to pester and annoy each other - or, as often happens in such expeditions, to raise a rebellion. Jack, as described by his brother Brian, was "an exact copy of his father": tall, ascetic, intimidatingly strong. Neither he nor his father smoked or drank. Brian notes that Jack “was a burly fellow, six foot three, all bone and muscle; everything that most detrimental to health - alcohol, tobacco and wild life - disgusted him. Colonel Fawcett, who followed a strict Victorian code, put it a little differently: "He is ... a perfect virgin in body and soul."

Jack, who had longed to accompany his father on one of his expeditions since childhood, had been preparing for this for years - lifting weights, following a strict diet, learning Portuguese, practicing navigating the stars. However, he rarely faced real hardship in life, and his face, with its glossy skin, bristling mustache, and slick brown hair, did not in any way resemble the stern features of his father. In his fashionable attire, he was more like a movie star, which he intended to become after his triumphant return.

Raleigh, though shorter than Jack, was still about six feet tall and quite muscular. (“Excellent physique,” Fawcett reported in a message to the CSC.) His father was a Royal Navy surgeon who died of cancer in 1917, when Raleigh was fifteen. Dark-haired, with a distinct triangular peak of hair on his forehead - a "widow's protrusion" - and the mustache of a sharper from a river steamer, Raleigh was by nature a prankster and a prankster. "He was a born comedian," says Brian Fawcett, "the exact opposite of the serious Jack." The boys had been almost inseparable ever since they wandered together through the woods and fields in the parts where they both grew up - near Seaton, in Devonshire. There they rode bicycles and fired into the air. In a letter to one of Fawcett's confidants, Jack wrote: “Now Raleigh Rimel is with us on board, and he is as obsessed as I ... This is my only close friend in life. We met when I was seven, and since then we have hardly parted. This is the most honest and worthy person in every sense of the word, and we know each other like the back of our hand.”

When an excited Jack and Raleigh stepped aboard the ship, they were met by dozens of stewards in starched white uniforms, rushing through the corridors with telegrams and baskets of fruit sent by the escorts on the road. One of the stewards, carefully avoiding the stern, where passengers of the third and fourth classes rode, led the travelers to the first-class cabins located in the center of the ship, away from the roar of the propellers.

Fawcett, like many other Victorian pioneers, was a kind of professional dilettante: as a self-taught geographer and self-taught archaeologist, he was also a talented artist (his ink drawings were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts) and a shipbuilder (he once patented called the "ichthoid curve", due to which the speed of the ships could increase by whole knots). Despite his interest in the sea, in a letter to his wife Nina (his most devoted supporter and, in addition, public representative at the time when he was away), he reports that he found the Vauban steamer and the voyage itself "boring": the only thing he wanted to be in the jungle.

Meanwhile, Jack and Raleigh enthusiastically began to explore the luxurious decoration of the ship.They were no longer two obscure guys: they were, if the newspaper praises are to be believed, "brave", "inflexible Englishmen", and each of them was the spitting image of Sir Lancelot. They met respectable gentlemen who invited them to sit at their table, and women with long cigarettes who gave them, as Colonel Fawcett put it, "looks of sheer shamelessness." Apparently, Jack did not really know how to behave with women: it seems that for him they were as mysterious and distant as the city of Z. However, Raleigh soon began to flirt with one girl, probably boasting to her of his upcoming adventures.

Fawcett knew that for Jack and Raleigh, this expedition was still just something speculative.While Fawcett gained endurance gradually over many years of wandering, Jack and Raleigh were to acquire all the necessary qualities overnight. However, Fawcett had no doubt that they would succeed.

Shouts were heard among the crew of the ship: “Give up the mooring lines!” The captain blew his whistle, and this piercing sound reverberated over the port. The ship creaked and rose on the waves, pulling away from the pier. Fawcett could see the landscape of Manhattan, with the Metropolitan Insurance Tower, once the tallest on the planet, and the Woolworth skyscraper that now surpassed it. The huge city sparkled with lights, as if someone had collected all the stars from the sky in it. Jack and Raleigh stood next to the traveler, and Fawcett shouted to the reporters gathered on the pier: "We will return, and we will get what we were looking for!"

But they didn't return.

disappearance

How deceiving the Amazon. It begins as a meager stream, the most powerful river in the world, more powerful than the Nile and the Ganges, than the Mississippi or any of the rivers of China.

This area is difficult to explore in any conditions, but in November, with the onset of the rainy season, the task becomes almost impossible. With floods lasting months, many of these and other rivers burst their banks, rushing through the forest, undermining trees and demolishing stones, turning the southern part of the Amazon almost into a continental sea, which was here millions of years ago. And then the sun comes out and incinerates these lands. The ground is cracking like an earthquake. The swamps evaporate, the piranhas in the drying backwaters devour each other. Swamps turn into meadows; the islands become hills.

So the dry season comes to the southern part of the Amazon basin. At least that's how it has always been for as long as people can remember. So it was in June 1996, when an expedition of Brazilian scientists and adventurers went to the local jungle. They were looking for traces of Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared here with his son Jack and Raleigh Rymel over seventy years ago.

The expedition was led by the forty-two-year-old Brazilian banker James Lynch. After one of the journalists mentioned Fawcett's story to him, the banker read everything he could find on the subject. He learned that the Colonel's disappearance in 1925 shocked the world — "along with the most famous cases of disappearances that have occurred in our day," as one commentator noted. For five months Fawcett sent despatches, which, crumpled and soiled, were carried through the jungle by Indian runners, and which, as if by magic, eventually ended up on telegraph tapes and were reprinted on almost every continent; it was one of the first examples of a global "news story" and the people of Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and America were constantly following the same events taking place in a remote corner of the planet. This expedition, as one of the newspapers wrote, "captured the imagination of every child who has ever dreamed of uncharted lands."

Then the messages stopped coming. Lynch read: Fawcett warned in advance that he might not contact for several months; but a year passed, then another, and the curiosity of the public grew and grew. Maybe Fawcett and the two boys had been taken hostage by the Indians? Maybe they died of starvation? Maybe they were enchanted by the city of Z and decided not to return? There were heated discussions in the sophisticated parlors and illegal taverns. Telegrams were exchanged at the highest government level. Radio shows, novels, poems, documentaries and feature films, stamps, children's fairy tales, comic books, ballads, theatrical plays, museum exhibitions were devoted to these adventures. Fawcett earned himself a place in the annals of world travel history, not because of what he discovered, but because of what he withheld. He vowed that he would make "the great discovery of the century", but instead he created "the greatest mystery left to us by the travelers of the twentieth century."

In addition, Lynch was amazed to learn that scores of scientists, travelers, and adventurers made their way into the wild, determined to find Fawcett's party, dead or alive, and return with proof of City Z's existence to the world. In February 1955, the New York Times claimed that Fawcett's disappearance spawned more exploratory expeditions "than have been sent in search of the fabled country of Eldorado in several centuries". Some search parties perished from starvation and disease; others turned back in despair; others were killed by the natives. There were those who, having gone to look for Fawcett, also, like him, disappeared into the forests, which travelers long ago dubbed the "green hell". Since many such seekers set out without much fanfare, there are no reliable statistics showing how many of them died. According to one recent estimate, the total number of victims reaches no less than a hundred people.

Lynch seemed to be resistant to daydreaming. Tall, fit, with blue eyes and pale skin that burned in the sun, he worked at the Chase Bank in São Paulo, Brazil. He was married and had two children. But at the age of thirty, a strange anxiety took possession of him, and he began to disappear for whole days in the Amazon, making his way through the jungle on foot.

He soon took part in several grueling travel competitions: once he spent seventy-two hours on a hike without sleep and crossed a canyon, balancing on a rope stretched over it.

Lynch was more than just an adventurer. He was attracted not only by physical, but also by intellectual tests, and he hoped to shed light on some little-studied aspects of our world, often sitting in the library for months studying this or that issue. One day he made his way to the headwaters of the Amazon and discovered there a Mennonite colony living in the Bolivian desert. But he had never come across a story like Colonel Fawcett's.

Not only did the search parties fail to figure out the fate of Fawcett's party, but no one was able to solve what Lynch considered the main mystery: the secret of the city of Z. Indeed, Lynch found out that, unlike other missing travelers, Fawcett did everything to make his route almost impossible to trace. He kept it a secret to such an extent that even his wife Nina admitted that her husband hid essential details from her.

Lynch rummaged through the old newspapers with accounts of the expedition, but they were almost unable to extract any real clues from them. He then found a battered copy of The Unfinished Journey, a collection of some of the traveller's notes edited by his surviving son Brian and published in 1953. The Journey seemed to contain one of the few allusions to the Colonel's last itinerary.

It quotes Fawcett as saying: "Our present route will begin at Dead Horse Camp (11°43'S, 54°35'W) where my horse died in 1921." Although these coordinates were just a starting point, Lynch entered them into his GPS navigator, which gave him a site in the southern part of the Amazon basin, in Mato Grosso (this name translates as “dense forest”), a Brazilian state larger than France and Great Britain combined. To get to the Dead Horse Camp, one would have to cross some of the most impenetrable Amazonian jungles; in addition, one would have to penetrate into the regions under the control of the native tribes, who, hiding in the thicket, fiercely guard their territory ...

(the fate of the Lynch expedition is also very interesting, but then we will go directly to the city of Z)

Most likely, Percy Fawcett took information for laying a route to the lost city from a document called "Manuscript 512"

First page of manuscript 512

The content of the document is a narrative left by an unknown group of Portuguese bandeirantes; the name of the direct author - the head of the expeditionary detachment (bandeira) - has been lost. The document tells about the discovery by the bandeirants in the depths of the Brazilian sertan of the ruins of a lost dead city with signs of an ancient highly developed civilization of the Greco-Roman type. It also contains an indication of the discovery of gold and silver deposits.

Today, access to the original Manuscript is severely restricted; in connection with the digitization of the books of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, an electronic version has become available on the Internet. BUT RECENTLY THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL WAS REMOVED EVERYWHERE! NO EVEN RUSSIAN TRANSLATION!

At that time, in Brazil, which had recently gained independence, they were preoccupied with the search for a national identity and the revaluation of primordially Brazilian attributes; it was desirable for a young nation to find its own great roots» in the historical past; the monarchical system was interested in exalting the idea of empire and political centralization, which could be facilitated by the discovery on the territory of the country of traces of ancient highly developed states that would provide a kind of legitimacy for the new Brazilian monarchy. Against this background, the authority of the manuscript in the first years after its publication quickly increased in the eyes of scientists, intellectuals, as well as the aristocracy and clergy of Brazil; Emperor Pedro II himself showed interest in it. The discovery in the same years of ancient monuments of pre-Columbian civilizations also played a role in assessing the Manuscript as an important source of the national past.

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

The subtitle of the document says that a certain detachment of bandeirantes spent 10 years wandering through the unexplored interior regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary " the lost mines of moribeki". Moribeca (Belshior Diaz) was known for his great wealth. Having promised the Spanish crown to transfer the mines in exchange for the title of Marquis das Minas or Marquis of Rudnikov, Moribeca then became convinced that he had been deceived by King Philip III of Spain, since this title was given to the new Governor General of Brazil, Francisco de Sousa. Moribeka refused to disclose the location of the mines, for which he paid with imprisonment in the royal prison.

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

Roman arch at Tamugadi (Timgad), Algeria. Its appearance is reminiscent of the description of the triple arch at the entrance to the lost city described in Manuscript 512.

Finally, the detachment in full strength entered the city, the only entrance to which passed along a paved road and was decorated with three arches, the main and largest of which was central, and two on the sides were smaller. As the author notes, there were inscriptions on the main arch that could not be copied due to the great height.

The houses in the city, each of which had a second floor, were long abandoned and did not contain any items of household utensils and furniture inside. The description of the city in the Manuscript combines the features characteristic of various civilizations of antiquity, although there are also details that are difficult to find an analogy. Thus, the author notes that the houses, in their regularity and symmetry, were so similar to each other, as if they belonged to one owner.

After a three-day journey down the river, the Bandeirantes discovered a series of caves and depressions dug underground, probably mines, where pieces of ore similar to silver were scattered. The entrance to one of the caves was closed by a huge stone slab with an inscription made in unknown signs or letters.

On the banks of the river, the bandeirants found a trace of gold and silver deposits. At this point, the detachment split up, and part of the people made a nine-day sortie. This detachment saw a boat near the bay of the river with some unknown white people, "dressed in European style"; apparently, the strangers hurriedly left after one of the bandeirants fired in an attempt to attract their attention. However, according to the surviving fragments of phrases in this part of the document, it can also be assumed that this part of the detachment then encountered representatives of some local tribes, “shaggy and wild.”

gold coin

One of the members of the detachment (Juan Antonio - the only name preserved in the document) found among the ruins of one of the houses in the lost city a gold coin, larger than the Brazilian coin of 6400 flights. On one side of it was a kneeling young man, on the other - a bow, crown and arrow. This discovery convinced the Bandeirants that countless treasures were buried under the ruins.

Mysterious inscriptions

Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett

The most famous and consistent supporter of the authenticity of Manuscript 512 was the famous British scientist and traveler Colonel Percy Garrison Fawcett, for whom the manuscript served as the main indication of the existence in the unexplored regions of Brazil of the remains of ancient cities of an unknown civilization.

« main goal Fawcett called his search "Z" - a mysterious, possibly inhabited city on the territory of Mato Grosso. Contrary to popular belief, Fawcett did not identify his "primary target 'Z'" with the dead city of Manuscript 512, which he tentatively referred to as " the town of Raposo» (Francisco Raposo is a fictitious name by which Fawcett called the unknown author of Manuscript 512) and indicated his location at 11 ° 30 "south latitude and 42 ° 30" west longitude (Bahia state) 11°30′ S sh. 42°30′ W d. / 11.500°S sh. 42.500°W d.; however, he, however, did not exclude that “Z” and “the city of Raposo” could ultimately turn out to be one and the same.

The world and us. Russia paranormal The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

gold coin

Mysterious inscriptions

Possible authorship of Manuscript 512

Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

In art

In literature

A source

Write a review on the article "Manuscript 512"

Literature

Translation into Russian

Notes

see also

Links

Excerpt characterizing Manuscript 512

The discovery of the document and its significance for Brazilian historiography of the 19th century

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

gold coin

Mysterious inscriptions

Possible authorship of Manuscript 512

Manuscript 512 by Richard Francis Burton

Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett

In art

original source

Translation into Russian

see also

Literature

We will return

disappearance

Narrative of Manuscript 512

The Lost Mines of Moribeki

Ruins of an unknown city in the brazilian sertan

gold coin

Mysterious inscriptions

Manuscript 512 and the Lost City "Z" by Percy Fawcett