A SAINTLY IMPOSTOR

Evening Star, Issue 19518, 28 March 1927, Page 14

A SAINTLY IMPOSTOR

- . THE STORY OF PSAUISAHAZER Dr Johnson was so fond of argument! that it was a matter of indifference to j him on which side he argued. Even the idolatrous Boswell, who regarded the Great Cham of Literature as the personification of infallibility, has admitted having listened enthralled while the doctor overwhelmed an opponent in argument, and a few days later listening with amazement to his idol take lip the opposite side of the subject, in order to overwhelm another opponent. According to modern standards of courtesy (says an ‘ Age ’ writer), the doctor’s method of dealing with an opponent was somewhat crude and boorish. He usually began by flatly contradicting some innocent remark or obvious truth uttered by a member of ' the company. But (mere was one man j he never contradicted—George Psal-1 manazer. “ I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop,’’ said Johnson to Boswell on one occasion, wnen Ihe name of Psalmanazar was mentioned. Psalmanazar, who was an old man when Johnson knew him—he was thirty years older than Johnson and died in 1873 at the age of 83—was _ greatly esteemed by the doctor for ins piety. Mrs Piozzi quotes Johnson as saying that Psalmanazar exhibited “ a piety, penitence, and virtue exceeding almost what we read as wonderful in the lives of the saints.” Sir John Hawkins, in his biography of Johnson, reports the Great Cham as having said that he never saw the close of a life of anyone that ho wished so much his own to resemble for its purity and devotion.” Sir John, who was personally acquainted with Psalmanazar, says of him: “ Scarce any person, even children, passed him without signs of respect”—from which it is evident that the manners of children in those days were somewhat better than the manners of the children of the present generation. “1 never sought much after anybody,” said Johnson to Boswell one Saturday in April, 1778, when Boswell was drinking tea with him “ Lord Orrery, i suppose,” suggested Boswell, to which the reply was, “No, sir; 1 never went to him but when he .sent for me.” “ Richardson P” was Boswell’s second suggestion. “ Yes, sir,” replied his idol, “ but I sought alter George Psalmanazar the most. I used to go and sit with him in an ale house in the city.” , • Who was George Psalmanazar? Nobody knows for certain to this day, though ho left a memoir of his life, which, in accordance with his will, was published after his death. But it was well known to Johnson and to the general public of Johnson’s day that this saintly old man had played the part of an impostor for years in early manhood, that ho had hoaxed thousands of people, including prelates of the church, and that he had lived on the proceeds of fraud. The saintly life of his later years was the expression of penitci-co for imposture. But in these modern days his saintly life is forgotten, end his name has come down to us as a remarkable literary forger. J 1 is name crops up in all books dealing with the subject of literary forgeries. In his published memoir ho deliberately refrained from stating where he was' born and from revealing his real name. The title of this publication is ‘ The Memoir of , commonly known by tho name of George Psalmanazar.” But, iu refutation of his former fictitious claim that he was a native of tho Island of Formosa, off tho coast of China, ho wrote in this memoir:—“Out of Europe 1 was not bore nor educated, nor even travelled, but continued in some of tho southern parts of it till about the sixteenth year of •my age.” He gives very little information about his parents and. boyhood; but from incidental statements in tlie memoir, and from other inadequate sources of information, it is supposed that ho was horn in the Languedoc district of France. His parents were zealous Catholics, strongly biased against all Protosants. His lather, he states, was “of ancient hut decayed stock,” and his mother was a good, pious woman. He wins educated ,at a s&hool conducted by two Franciscan monks, but its exact locality is not known. Ho displayed great ability in acquiring languages, but was shifted about from school to school, and neglected his studies. Ho became a tutor to two young boys, hut where is not stated, and underwent an experience similar to that of Joseph with Potiphar’s wife. The mother of the hoys encouraged him to make love to her, but “ray vanity of being thought more chaste than 1 really was ” held him hack, and the Indy dismissed him.

Ho began to wander about. France, Italy, and Germany, bogging his bread in tho guise of a pilgrim—first as an Irish student of theology and subsequently as a Japanese convert to Christianity. At the Jesuit college (locality undisclosed) which lie attended ho bad been taught a little about the • Far Fast, where Jesuit missionaries were at work. Ho enlisted in a Dutch regiment, but, being constitutionally unequal to tho fatigues of a soldier’s life, the colonel in charge of tho regiment got rid of him. He re-enlisted in a regiment of the Duke of Mecklenburg in the pay of the Dutch, and described himself as an unconverted Japanese. He gavo his name as George Psalmanazar, being satisfied that this unfamiliar name (which hn derived from Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, mentioned in Kings 11., xvii., J) would lie accepted as a Japanese name. At that time very little was known about Japan, as very few Europeans bad travelled in the Far East. When his regiment attended divine service he would turn his bade.

and. facing the sun, make a show of saying Japanese prayers, He, had prepared for himself a little book with figures of the sun, moon, and stars, and, having “ filled in the rest with a kind of gibberish of prose and verse, written in my invented character (j. 0., of tho Japanese language), winch f

muttered or chanted as the humor took me.” He gradually composed a grammar for bis invented language, and also a new calendar. His regiment was removed to Sluys, in Holland, where a Scottish regiment in Dutch pay was quartered. There he came into contact with the Rev. Alexander limes, chaplain to the Scottish regiment. Innes frequently invited Psalmanazar to his house, and soon discovered that he was a fraud. The youthful Psalmanazar, who was then only 23 years of age, fell into a simple trap which Innes set. He was given a passage of Cicero to translate from Latin into Japanese. Innes knew nothing of Japanese, and therefore Psalmanazar, who had acquired a mastery of Latin at school, readily complied. A few days later Innes pretended'that he had lost tho translation, and asked Psalmanazar to translate the passage again. When he had done so Innes produced tho first translation, and, comparing it with the second, showed Psalmanazar that there were remarkable discrepancies. But of exposing the impostor, Innes decided to make use of him. He suggested that Psalmanazar should claim that he was a native of tho island of Formosa, instead of Japan, because he felt that, whereas there were a few people in Europe who knew something about Japan, there was not likely to be anyone who had been to Formosa. Both Innes and Psalmanazar made tho mistake of believing that Formosa belonged to Japan, instead of to China, who ceded it to Japan in 1890, and Psalmainazar, who made a point of never retracting anything, however absurd, that he had said about tho Far East, always insisted that Formosa belonged to Japan when confronted with people better informed, who produced proof that it belonged to China. Innes “ converted ” Psalmanazar to Christianity, and publicly baptised him, and then wrote to Dr Compton. Bishop of London, about this interesting convert. The bishop invited them both to London, and Innes secured Psalmanazar’s discharge from his regiment in order to take him to England. The bishop proposed that Psalmanazar should go to Oxford and instruct in tho Formosan language some theological students who were to go to tho Far East as missionaries.

Psalmanazar adopted a diet of raw flesh, roots, and herbs, which he said was the diet of tho Formosans. _He lived a simple life, dressed plainly, avoided drink and vmmeu, and delighted in the services of the Church of England. Although many people in England scoffed at his claims, he was accepted by numerous divines, and was eagerly sought after. Ho dined at the tables of the great, but kept to his diet of raw flesh, roots, and herbs. He lodged in Pall Mall with Innes, who urged him to write a history of Formosa. It is this history which entitles Psalmanazar to a dishonored place in tho ranks of literary forgers. He got hold of a couple of books dealing with Japan, and with an ‘ Account of tho Island of Formosa,’ by George Candidus, a Dutch clergyman who had lived there. Candidus’s work is full of absurdities, but Psalmanazar’s was much more absurd. “ I resolved with myself,” he says in his memoir, “to give such a descripjion of it as should bo wholly now and surprising, ami should iu most particulars clash with all accounts other writers had given of itj particularly that it belonged to Japan, contrary to what all other writers and travellers _ have affirmed of its being subject to China.”

Tho book was published in 1704 under tho title ‘ An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa,’ by George Psalmanazar, a native of the said island, now in London. Among the remarkable customs of tho Formosans, according to tho author, was the annual sacrifice of 18,000 boys under nine years of ago to the supremo god of Formosa. To make good this wastage of boys tho men of tho island kept numerous wives, tho average being three to six, hut wealthy men had more. The Formosans lived on swine’s flesh, fowls, venison, and fish, tho fowls and venison being usually eaten raw. Broiled serpents were a favorite dish. Psalmanazar included in tho book Ids Formosan alphabet and Formosan translations of rile Lard’s Prayer and the Creed. He took care that there was no resemblance between his language and Japanese, and there was no one in England able to prove that his spurious language was not that in use in Formosa.

What increased the popularity of tho hook in Protestant circles was Psalmanazar’s criticism of the Jesuits and their missionary work in the Far East. Tho Jesuits had made themselves so detested in Formosa, lie said,, that the teaching of Christianity had been forbidden by the Government. Controversy raged about Psalmanazar and his book, but influential people believed in him, and stood by him. Ho spent six months at Oxford at tho expense ol the Bishop of London and other supporters, but did little more than revise his history of Formosa for a second edition and defend himself against criticism. The idea of training missionaries to go out to Formosa was abandoned. He came back to London, but after limes left England for Portugal on his appointment as chaplain-general of the British forces in that country lie lost confidence in his ability to maintain his imposture. Path in him gradually weakened, and friends, fell away. He became a hack writer for tho booksellers, and lived in poverty. He never publicly acknowledged his fraud. hu t did so privately in conversation with friends. To tho ‘ Complete System ol Geography,’ brought out by Archibald Bower in 1717 (when P.salmanazar was sixty-seven years of age), lie contri buted anonymously tho articles on China, Japan, and the neighboring islands, including Formosa. In dealing with Formosa lie wrote in tho third person. “P.salmanazar bath long since ingenuously owned the contrary, though not in so public a manner as he miglte perhaps have done, had not such an avowment been likely to have affected some few persons, who for private ends took advantage of his youthful vanity fo encourage him in an imposture which Jig might otherwise never have had the thought, much less the confidence, to have carried on.” Ps'almanazar’s closing years wore spent in piety, penitence, and poverty in a house in Ironmonger row, Old street, Clerkenwell. London; and it was at an alehouse in tho neighborhood that Dr Johnson used to meet him. They talked about many things, but the talk was kept far away from the Far East, When Johnson was asked if be bad over, referred to Formosa in Psalmnnaznr’s presence, be replied: “ I was afraid to mention even China.”