Fawcett returned to Britain to serve with the British Army as a reserve officer in the Royal Artillery, volunteering for duty in Flanders and commanding an artillery brigade despite being nearly fifty years old.
his expectation that his indigenous hosts would look after them was likely to have antagonized them by failing to bring any gifts to repay their generosity.[27]
Allegedly, Fawcett and his companions had a mishap on the river and lost most of the gifts they had brought along for the Indian tribes. Continuing without gifts was a serious breach of protocol; since the expedition members were all more or less seriously ill at the time, the Kalapalo they encountered decided to kill them.
“the Negro problem”—which was really the national curse of white racial dysfunction—
