References for the summary & highlights of the following articles taken from:

Peter Fleming's book "Brazilian Adventure" - Mystery of Colonel Fawcett, page 25-27

The Geographical Journal Volume LXXXVIII of 1936 "The Fate of Colonel Fawcett",  page 66

May 1933. Stefan Rattin came out of Mato Grosso with a story about Fawcett who was in the hands of an Indian tribe on the Iguassu Ximary, a tributary of the Rio Sao Manoel. He claimed that he had spoken with him. What follows is the official declaration made to the British Consul General in Rio de Janeiro while later Rattin was crossed-examined by the Brazilian authorities.

‘’Stefan Rattin said that he was a trapper and that  in the preceding year he had made a prodigious journey into the heart of Mato Grosso, in a direction roughly NNW, of Cuyaba, along the Rio Arinos and somewhere near the point marked 'R' on the map he found a white man in an Indian village; he was tall, advanced in years, with blue eyes and long beard. He was a captive, and very disconsolate. Rattin managed to have a few words with the prisoner, who was dressed in skins. They conversed in English when the old man opened the conversation by announcing that he was a colonel in the English army, and implored Rattin to inform a friend of his in Sao Paulo, called Paget, of his plight.

It subsequently transpired that a Major T. B. Paget had helped to finance Fawcett's last expedition.

The old man showed Rattin a signet ring, the description of which, according to Mrs. Fawcett, corresponds to a ring which her husband wore; and he made some reference - showing signs of great distress - to his son, who he said was 'asleep'.

Rattin promised to go to Sao Paulo and deliver the message to Major Paget; and at dawn he departed on a journey which was to take him five months. The Indians made no attempt to detain him."

According to the reports of Brian, second son of Fawcett, Stefan Rattin discouraged any attempts to organize an official rescue expedition, and set off himself to bring back the old man saying “The English Colonel will reward me afterwards.”  Stefan Rattin was never heard of again.

The statement of Stefan Rattin to the British Consul General at Sao Paulo is curious, full of discrepancies and inconsistencies. 

Why did the white man disclose only his rank, and not his name? 

Why did they talk in English?

Why did Rattin bring back no written massage? Under the circumstances, he used a pencil and paper to copy some meaningless carvings which the white man made on a tree.

What did Rattin hope to gain by his entire story?

He made out that he had never heard of Fawcett before; He said that he was prepared to lead an expedition back to the Indian village and bring the prisoner out. But, as he insisted, it must be a small expedition and its members of his own choosing.

What is really hidden behind all these?

The regions bordering on civilization, where the ‘degenerate tribes’ (as Fawcett called them) live, are often visited by white men such as prospectors, hunters, fugitives,  naturalists, botanists, and so on. Rattin himself was wondering there! It is quite possible that some white man was indeed held prisoner by those Indians, but there are many reasons for doubting that it was Percy Harrison Fawcett. 

The last news of Rattin, dating from may 1933, was that he had embarked with two companions in a small canoe at Porto Velho on the Arinos, to descend it to the Tapajoz. It seems probable that the party, said to be ill-equipped, met with disaster on the river, for no further news of them has been received.

Reference for the summary & highlights of the following article was taken from:

“Exploration Fawcett” by Lt.–Col. P. H. Fawcett, D.S.O. , F.R.G.S., Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.

On July 8^th 1932 , a friend of Fawcett, Senhor Hermenegildo Galvao, wrote to Fawcett’s wife Nina, referring to some ‘top-heavy’ expeditions in the area where her husband disappeared.

“These expeditions are considered as scientific ones, but are composed merely of adventurers who, while saying that they are looking for your husband, make it sort of picnic and do not take it seriously. In such a case is the Swiss trapper Stefan Rattin , who, arriving recently in Cuyaba and advised of the direction in which Colonel Faucetti went, took an entirely different direction, leaving Cuyaba via Rosario, then Diamantino; and from this last city of Mato Grosso he left for the Arinos River, where he embarked in a canoe with his two companions. This river is a tributary of the River Joruena, which is the principal tributary of the great Tapajos, which is itself a tributary of the Amazon. This expedition can in no way give any true about your husband….

Colonel Faucetti…when he was about to make this last expedition…informed me of the course he was to follow, and as I have observed that all who come here to look for him do not follow that route, and that when they do follow it, do not make any attempt to find out the real truth – nor try to find out from the Indians of these regions anything about it – I have resolved to place myself at your disposal to take charge of an expedition to find the whereabouts of the party…”