‘Die if you must, but never kill’ was the injunction to his officers of Candido Rondon, first leader of Brazil’s Indian Protection Service established in 1910, as a new age of development and exploration began in the Amazon rain forests. Die If You Must completes John Hemming’s authoritative trilogy on the history of the Brazilian Indians and covers the fate of the Indians in the twentieth century as ‘civilized’ life began inescapably to invade their world.

John Hemming describes tough expeditions and thrilling first contacts with Indians, notably by the dedicated and exuberant Villas Boas brothers on the Xingu river. The book also tries to show the trauma of contact from the indigenous side and the devastating pressures on their lands and way of life.

But the story of the Indians’ fightback is as exciting as the contacts deep in the rain forests and was achieved by a coalition of activists – non-governmental organisations, some government officials, missionaries (most of whom radically changed their attitudes), and above all by the indigenous peoples themselves. John Hemming has created a exuberantly vivid, brilliantly detailed picture of the Indian way of life. It is nothing short of a masterpiece.