C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
George Psalmanazar (1679?–1763)
Psalmanazar, George (säl-män-ä-tzär’). A noted impostor; born probably in Languedoc, about 1679; died at London, May 3, 1763. He pretended to be a native of Formosa, and in that character traveled through Germany and the Low Countries: At Sluys he made the acquaintance of a Scotch parson, who brought him to England and introduced him to the bishop of London. He published a fictitious ‘Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa’ (1804), inventing an alphabet and a lingo professing to represent the Formosan tongue; ‘Dialogue between a Japanese and a Formosan’ (1707); ‘An Inquiry into the Objections against George Psalmanazar of Formosa, with George Psalmanazar’s Answer,’ both inquiry and answer doubtless written by the impostor; ‘Essays on Scriptural Subjects’ (1753).