ENGLAND HOAXED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 17 (Supplement)

ENGLAND HOAXED.

Cobbler’s Daughter Posed as Princess. SPOKE IN GIBBERISH. JfEW LIGHT has recently been thrown on one of the most wholesale hoaxes on record—a hoax that was swallowed by learned men from various parts of the world and that set all England agog with interest and curiosity. On April 3, 1817, a young, comely, ; dark-eyed woman, with red and black j shawls wound turban-wise about her i head, was found wandering at the vil- | lage of Almondsbury. near Bristol, and [ taken in by Mr and Mrs Wo rail, of Knole Park. She told them in a gibberish mixed with Malay and Arabic words, and by Outlandish gestures, that she was Princess Caraboo of Javasu, abducted by pirates from her home and deserted in Bristol. For ten weeks Caraboo lived with the W oral Is. Learned men, linguists and world travellers flocked to see her and listen to her strange language. The amazing part of the whole case is that this uneducated cobbler’s daughter proved such a consummate actress that never for a moment did she give herself away, although all sorts of traps were laid for her. One gentleman announced to her that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, and she never stirred a hair. Conclusive proof of genuineness, they said ! She was taken to Bath, dressed in a turban stuck with seven peacock feathers, and all the quality flocked to pay court to her. The newspapers were full of the doings of the mysterious Asiatic princess. An Extern traveller brought her a Malay sword and dagger, and she gave extraordinarily expert exhibitions of fencing She persisted in climbing to the roof to play. Caraboo became a growing wonder, until finally she was exposed by a woman with whom she had stayed for a short time in Bristol; and the whole story came out. Caraboo’s real name was Mary Baker, a Devonshire servant girl. She had picked up her knowledge of the East from a foreigner in London and had previouslv begged successfully in the guise of a Spanish woman. The discovery of the hoax set all England laughing. She was pushed off to America and eventuallv returned to Bristol, where she lived to the age of 72. always strange in her dress and always followed by urchins shouting “ Caraboo.”