In 1996 Renê Delmontte and James Lynch organized the AUTAN Expedition to retrace Percy Harrison Fawcett’s footsteps on his last expedition to the unknown in 1925, in the unexplored region of the Brazilian Mato Grosso. During the expedition, a group of natives including among them the Kalapalos who claim to have been the last to see Percy Harrison Fawcett, held the expedition's team hostage requesting ransom to set them free.

 Colonel Fawcett in front of his secret door to "Z"

Those who organized and participated in the Autan Expedition

James Lynch

Renê Delmontte, James Lynch Junior, Hermes Leal

How the expedition was born with the involvement of Hermes Leal

Hermes Leal, a Brazilian book writer, 36 years of age, a journalist and a post-graduate in cinema and director of journalistic programs was amongst the expedition's team and one of those who were involved with the disappearance of Colonel Fawcett. Hermes had made an extensive research into the various facets of Colonel Fawcett’s life and that was a very good source of information for the Autan Expedition and as he wanted to finish his book earlier, a book written in Portuguese entitled “Coronel Fawcett, A verdadeira historia de Indiana Jones” (Colonel Fawcett, the true history of Indiana Jones) he asked Renê Delmontte and James Lynch to organize an expedition into the Xingu to follow in the footsteps of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett and here is  how the AUTAN Expedition was born.

Our first contact with James Lynch, the first member of the Autan expedition, was on the 6th of September 2002 and it has given us the opportunity to find out more about their plans and their final goal, no matter what really had happened during that expedition and no matter what the results might have been.

-          Dear Emmanouel, James began to say, as you know our Autan Expedition in 1996 attempted to follow in the footsteps of Percy Harrison Fawcett's last reported expedition to ‘Z’. The idea came from Hermes who was writing a book about our 'friend' (he means Percy Harrison Fawcett) and did not want to finish it before getting to know the Xingu. He had heard of our previous expeditions into South America and he felt that we could put together a successful incursion into the hinterland (that was a big mistake) for his purposes.

and James continued...

Daniel Muñoz, Jacalo, James Lynch and Narro

-          He asked Renê and I to organize an expedition to follow in Fawcett's footsteps. We bought into the idea and Expedição Autan was born with all the media attention and funfair necessary to satisfy our sponsors who put up a few hundred thousand dollars for the honor of being associated with the event. The rest is history, and the information we have recently gathered is the future.

-          The Autan Expedition started at Cuiaba in 1996 following the routing to Chapada dos Guimaraes, Bacairi post, Barra do Garças, Nova Xavantina, Canarana, Xingu (Kuikuro tribe), Posto Leonardo (this is the area where were held hostage), Canarana, Água Boa and Sao Paulo having as sponsor the German aspirin company Bayer Brazil.

-          It seems that you have followed a route to reach the area of Kalapalos after gathering useful information that they (the Kalapalos) might be the solution to Percy Harrison Fawcett’s case. I said to James. How could you be so sure of that?

-          Hermes was the proponent of the first expedition Autan. We followed Percy Harrison Fawcett's steps to the Bakairi village, then to the Xingu following up the version of the story of Orlando Villas Boas. We also planned to locate Dead Horse Camp but were sidetracked by the kidnapping. The clues we found at that time must all be considered as hearsay. Stories abound in the Xingu about our friend Colonel Fawcett and on this last trip we heard of a new version... BS abounds - we are after facts.

Renê Delmontte and Hermes Leal in Rio Xingu during the Autan Expedition

-          The Kalapalos were not considered as one of the wildest in the territory, I tried to remind James, so the question that comes next is, was it them (the Kalapalos) that captured you and your team with your equipment in that territory or was it another tribe that you were misled of its pure originality and you did not wish to mention about them for various reason? What is the real story from your side that hasn’t been told yet? Were the Kalapalo involved?

-          The objective of our kidnapping was purely financial, James replied, and as far as we can tell, was organized by a diverse group of individuals from different tribes. Yes, the Kalapalo were involved but individuals from other tribes, seeking financial gain, were at the head of the conspiracy. We left some US$ 30,000 in equipment with them for the payment of our ransom...

-          Experienced explorers throughout the world, I said to James, have expressed many ideas regarding the exact position of Colonel Fawcett’s disappearance but all of them are really too far from the reality of the exact location of our 'friend's disappearance and much further on the subject concerning those who might have "killed" him.

-          Contrary to what the Indians have told us, James continued, we do not believe they (the Kalapalo) killed our friend. We highly respect our friend Orlando for all he has done for the Indians of Brazil, but do not think the bones he was given by the Indians have anything to do with Percy Harrison Fawcett. We are convinced his passing came in a different form. Not much else to say about the Kalapalo other than I am convinced they did not kill Percy Harrison Fawcett.

Finally James finished with the following:

-          Do you really know that the real story is hidden far below the surface.... no pun intended.

The probable routing of Colonel Fawcett into the unknown

The correspondence with James seemed to have enlighten some parts of his expedition's goal concerning Colonel Fawcett's disappearance and the probable routing he (Fawcett) might had followed in 1925 during his eighth expedition into the unknown, even if we know that the truth was absolute hidden. In a private correspondence I had with Misha Williams, director of the Fawcett's play "Amazonia" in the same year 2002, Misha talked to me about Brian and his willing to publish the book of his father in the early 50's. 

According to what was written in the Fawcett's log-books when they reached into his family's own hands, Brian found amazing secrets. Nina (Fawcett's wife) urged him to do a book and Brian did it but he left out eighty percent of what he read as he was convinced quite rightly that England in the early 1950's was not ready for esoteric knowledge. Brian therefore cleverly created an adventure story for the general public, and the general public loved it not realizing it was only a small superficial part of the actual truth.

-         Fawcett had not succeeded in getting his own book "Adventures in South America" published either in Britain or in the USA. Misha told me during that correspondence. Brian made the style contemporary and accessible and I believe he was a great communicator. The great irony is that BRIAN PUT HIS FATHER ON THE WORLD MAP AGAIN BUT DEPRIVED THE WORLD OF THE REAL STORY.

Hermes Leal’s book “Coronel Fawcett, A verdadeira historia de Indiana Jones”

The members of the first Autan expedition Renê Delmontte, James Lynch and Lynch Jr. are still working together nowadays and recently have returned from a three weeks low profile incursion in the ‘interior’ of the Roncador and Xingu, coming into contact with Deusinha (Dozynia) and spending much time with her in the “Portal”, in the caves of Roncador and with the Indians in the Xingu.

The theory of Ibez and the portal to access the "Others"

However, the combination between Hermes’s work and the organizing members of the Autan expedition, contributed to the story’s contents with the involvement of Timothy Paterson and the formation of a group of partnership consisting of very important persons including among them Deusinha, the Indian woman who was Timothy’s collaborator and “medium” friend who has maintained contact with Colonel Fawcett over the years, and this group of partnership began to broaden the story leading it towards the theory of Ibez.

As far as Timothy Paterson is concerned, on September 20, 2002 James had provided me with a new information on this story that amazingly emerged to an extraordinary factor that has to do with the “Portal” in the caves of Roncador and the event of Fawcett's disappearance in 1925 and James informed me of the following:

-          It was Timothy's intention to be with Deusinha tomorrow, September 21^st, 2002, for the opening of the “Portal” in the caves of Roncador, which is the access to the "others". Over 300 people from various groups from around the world will be there. Deusinha has become a good friend as a result of the research we have done on Percy Harrison Fawcett. However, Timothy in fact was wheelchair ridden and in very poor health so he was not able to make it to the Roncador that year because of his badly health condition.

This amazing interference of the "Others" in our story and the incredible results of our research concerning the series of our journals entitled "Xavante, a bellicose nation of Mato Grosso and Percy Harrison Fawcett" revealed the unexpected. The existence of Colonel Fawcett today in the subterranean world of Ibez. This is the reason that I tried to find out more about the "Others" and their intention to penetrate the portal to access the humans. What was about to be happened in that part of the earth, in the caverns of Roncador on the 21st of September 2002? A very important date that was the beginning of the end where the opening of the portal in the caves of Roncador would take place to access the "Others"?

-    I was unable to participate to the opening of the portal on September 21, 2002 James told me, and the person who was to report back to me in writing regarding the event never did. I did speak to him over the phone and got the impression that it was a nice but uneventful ceremony, at least for those who were not sensitive to "other powers" as Deusinha is...

James also mentioned about locating the exact whereabouts of the Fawcett's Camp or "Dead Horse Camp" as it is more commonly known.

-     I can now confirm the existence of Dead Horse Camp. He said to me. As you may know, many people thought Fawcett’s Dead Horse Camp was a Red Herring to confuse any persons who might be following him and trying to reach his final objective. Orlando Villas Boas personally told me he didn’t believe the location existed, that at the Latitude and Longitude given by Fawcett as being that of Dead Horse Camp, was in fact thick jungle.

-     Few people know that part of the jungle as well as Orlando did. Fawcett believed that giving out false information about his location was how Fawcett got Marechal Rondon not to find where he was going. Well, I found Dead Horse Camp at the location given by him and the location meets the exact description given in Brian’s book. It is in fact a clearing in the middle of the jungle, a location very difficult to get to on foot.

-     The only explanation I can come up with is that there must be some sort of anomaly in the soil, which prevents large vegetation from growing. While this discovery does not help clear up the greater Fawcett's mystery, I guess it is the only new factual information to surface in many decades related to the story!