By Paul McNamee — Captain, Frontier Partisans New England Ranging Company
Once again, I find myself south of the border. In this case, trudging into the Central American jungle in search of the “Lost City of the Monkey God,” a.k.a. “Cuidad Blanca”— the White City. Douglas Preston, who is probably more famous for his fiction co-writes with Lincoln Child, delivers a nearly modern-day jungle pulp adventure with his non-fiction chronicle, The Lost City of the Monkey God (2017.)
Deep in the Mosquitia region of Honduras, there was a long-rumored “lost city,” with all its attendant fables of gold, and curses. The Lost City of the Monkey God not only chronicles a modern expedition but delivers the history of the region and the fabled lost city.
In 1940, Theodore Morde, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a man from an old whaling family, explored the region and claimed to have seen the lost city with his own eyes. He conveniently would not reveal the location for fear of looters. He got caught up in World War Two, never returned to Honduras, and committed suicide in 1954. Preston’s research reveals it was all a lie. Morde had gone seeking gold, under the pretense of archaeology. Later, in 1959, a geologist named Sam Glassmire reversed the dynamic. Hired to prospect for gold, he searched for the lost city while he explored the region.
Enter the modern era, where Steve Elkins, cinematographer and explorer, puts together a modern expedition. As things go, there is a gap of years between his first meeting with Preston and when the expedition chronicled in the book (2015) occurs. The rise of lidar technology — using lasers to three dimensionally map out a landscape, allowed for discovering more likely “targets” of lost cities buried under the unrelenting growth of jungle rainforest.
Douglas Preston.
Even in the modern age of lidar and GPS, pulp characters still appear — such as Bruce Heinicke, a tough brute, a “fixer,” a former smuggler (of drugs and looted artifacts,) who “made things happen” with Honduran government officials and others.
Despite the advances of the modern era, going deep into the jungle still is fraught with as many dangers today as in the past. And there are the new wrinkles of drug smuggling operations often setting up in remote areas where they could possibly clash with explorers.
Initially, the scariest aspect of the jungle had to be the formidable and dangerous viper, the fer-de-lance. Six feet of venomous death, Preston encountered one his first night in camp. Though, the usual jungle fare was also present—biting insects, downpours, sucking mud, stalking jaguars. The one thing missing were natives — the area was uninhabited, and natives nearby shunned the area and spoke of curses.
Spoiler: the city is found. Mostly, they found foundation blocks that would have had wooden and earth structure built over them, which have long since rotted away. However, they also discovered an amazing cache of stone-carved artifacts, representing were-jaguars and vulture-men and other anthropological treasures.
Preston presents the question “what happened to these people?” and possible answers. The most likely being Old World disease.
In the end, the worst of the expedition’s fears were not artifact looting, deforestation, drug smuggling, vipers or jaguars. The worst was disease. The last fourth of the book chronicles the team’s discovery that they had all been exposed to virulent parasitic disease, leishmaniasis. The pathogen dates as far back to the dinosaurs. About half of the team came away with dangerous symptoms — symptoms that took months to appear. Ironically, given that the book was published in 2017, the book quotes Dr Anthony Fauci about the disease:
[He] told our team bluntly, that, by going into the jungle, and getting leishmaniasis, ‘You really got a cold jolt of what’s it’s like for the bottom billion people on earth.’
There is also a dire prediction, courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, though the pathogen wound up being Covid-19:
The world’s last great pandemic was the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918… If a pandemic like that were to happen again, it would spread faster and might be impossible to contain. … This is not scaremongering: Most epidemiologists believe such a pandemic will eventually happen.
Perhaps leishmaniasis is still awaiting its turn in the pandemic spotlight.
It seems that over the march of time the world will surely run out of new frontiers, and yet, here in the 21st century, there are still ‘lost’ cities being rediscovered. The Lost City of the Monkey God is a fascinating look at the history of the Mosquitia region, modern archaeology, and the logistics of a modern-day jungle expedition.
Recommended reading for Frontier Partisans, jungle pulp aficionados, and anyone with a taste for history and adventure.
*
(Paul McNamee is a fellow stalwart of the Robert E. Howard Shieldwall, a Patreon supporter of Frontier Partisans, and a reader, critic and writer of fantastic fiction. His latest book, “Hour of the Robot,” is available for preorder. For more information visit http://paulmcnamee.blogspot.com)
Matthew says
Great piece, Paul. I haven’t read the book but I probably should. I believe Preston is an old pulp fan.
Paul+McNamee says
Thank you. It’s nice book-end with THE LOST CITY OF Z.
Rick+Schwertfeger says
Wonderful, Paul. Even though I earned Herpetology Merit Badge in Boy Scouts, I’m steering clear of that viper! And, checking my schedule, it seems that I don’t have any expeditions deep into any jungles currently planned – er, like for the rest of my life!
Paul+McNamee says
Thanks, Jim!
Also wanted to note there are some interesting asides which I couldn’t fit neatly into the review, as it was running long as it was.
Among the historical characters, there is a little about the Banana Wars in Honduras. Fascinating guy, Samuel Zemurray, a Russian Jew immigrant who founded his own fruit company that rivaled the biggest. In 1910, he defied (President) Taft, proverbially spit in J. P. Morgan’s eye, orchestrated a government overthrow in Honduras so his bananas wouldn’t get taxed, and later took over his rival fruit company and fired the antisemitic board.
Also, the brief mention of the Honduran Special Forces, who are largely recruited from indigenous tribes and live off the jungle, including hunting for their food. (later, when they were found killing endangered deer for food, MREs where shipped in.)
lane+batot says
Great post about a great book! Yes, I couldn’t resist it when it came out–I was NOT disappointed! Highly recommended archaeological adventure! But off topic(somewhat)–the mention of the 1918 epidemic and it’s effects on the “bottom half”. Just now rereading all my Jim Corbett books(after reading a biography about him made that a mandatory response!), and just finished his classic “The Man-Eating Leopard Of Rudraprayag”, which was believed to have become a man-eater scavenging all the bodies that were dumped in the jungle during the 1918 epidemic. Talk about some gruesome consequences! Once all the easy dead meat stopped, the leopard naturally just started killing his own humans, and did it for 8 years before Corbett finally got him!
Quixotic Mainer says
I didn’t remember the disease connection to the man eater, but it’s been a long while since I read Corbet. I wonder if the Tsavo lions got started down their path the same way?
lane+batot says
The Tsavo lions had numerous potential reasons for becoming man-eaters. The area already had a long standing tradition producing man-eaters, since the slave trade caravans went right through the area, and dead or dying slaves were discarded in the bush with gruesome regularity, providing lots of easy meat for the resident carnivores(one reason the Brits were building the railroad, was supposedly to help squash the slave trade). Also, the Tsavo area was(and still is) a hard environment for lions to make a living–very thick thornbush, almost desert-like conditions for a large part of the year, and big game animals scattered and hard to hunt–so the lions take whatever they can get, when they can get it–no being picky in Tsavo. The Tsavo lions were two young males probably recently ousted from a pride, and living on their own with no pride females to help hunt for them, so they probably were having a harder time than an established pride. It really was NOT unusual what they did when a modern construction project put easy meat right in their territory…..
Quixotic Mainer says
That really makes sense when you put it that way; less sinister folklore and more pure survival.
I’d love to see the mounts of the lions, but I don’t have occasion to pass through the Midwest much these days.
lane+batot says
Lots of photos of the stuffed Tsavo boyz, but they certainly don’t seem very intimidating after all these years….kinda motheaten. The original photos of Patterson beside the fresh carcasses of the lions are rather more awe inspiring! And yes, despite the folklore and people’s imaginations surrounding the story leading to inaccurate exaggerations(“The Ghost And The Darkness” movie included, although dangit, I LOVE that movie!), it really was not that unusual lion behavior or beyond typical lion abilities. There WERE some bizarre lucky(?) breaks for the lions during the effort to kill them, but most man-eater stories have some of those(Corbett’s “Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag” has to take the cake on lucky breaks regarding that elusive leopard!), and when people PANIC(and who wouldn’t?), they are always likely to fumble things badly!
Quixotic Mainer says
They’re just making a big deal of the leashmaniasis to distract you from the real threat; the team were also exposed to were-jaguars! Good luck quarantining from those!
This looks like a fine read though, and a happy change from the drivel pop culture history stuff where nothing is found and no new theories are even formed. My library has “Ridgeline” en route for me, but I’ll be taking this track up after that adventure concludes.
JimC says
“Frontier Partisans — busting book budgets since 2011…”
Quixotic Mainer says
Absolutely! Luckily my wife remains ever patient with my Jeffersonian “man can never have too much literature or ammunition” bend.
JimC says
Synchronicity strikes again:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/25/1009885640/flesh-eating-parasites-may-be-expanding-their-range-as-climate-heats-up
Now endemic in Texas and Oklahoma, the parasites may be moving north
Americans, it turns out, can be exposed to Leishmania parasites without leaving the country. The parasites are currently endemic in Texas and Oklahoma, and new studies suggest that they might be present in other states, including Florida. While reported cases of leishmaniasis contracted in the U.S. are currently negligible, they may soon be on the rise: As climate change pushes rodent and sand fly habitat northward, scientists caution that in the future, an increasing number of U.S. residents could be exposed to different varieties of the flesh-eating parasite.
So… there’s that…
Paul+McNamee says
Yup. That was mentioned in the book, too.
Love me the idea of jungle pulp adventure but in real life the disease aspect is absolutely terrifying. And like all my backyard wildlife, such things can adapt and infiltrate ‘civilization’ far more easily than we want to believe they can.
lane+batot says
Sheesh! As if the recent explosion of tick carried diseases in the Southeast wasn’t enough….
Slap says
Great book. I read it for a community book club a few years ago (where I was told I was the only man who ever came to the club). What really amazed me about it is that this is one of the oldest “lost cities” ever found, and its only been lost for 500 years. Feels like the world is shrinking.