PSALMANAZAR, George (c. 1679-1763), the assumed name of a pretended native of Formosa, who was in reality a Frenchman, and was born about 1679, probably in Languedoc. According to his own account he was sent in his seventh year to a free school taught by two Franciscan monks, after which he was educated in a Jesuit college “in an archiépiscopal city.” On leaving college he was recommended as tutor to a young gentleman, but soon fell into a lazy and idle life and became involved in pecuniary difficulties. This induced him to assume various personations in order to obtain a supply of ready money, his first being that of a pilgrim on the journey to Rome. Afterwards he travelled through Germany, Brabant, and Flanders in the character of a Japanese convert. At Liege he enlisted in the Dutch service, shortly after which he altered his character to that of an unconverted Japanese. At Sluys he made the acquaintance of a Scotch chaplain, by whom he was brought over to England and introduced to the bishop of London. Having undergone conversion to Christianity, he was employed by the bishop to translate the church catechism into what was supposed to be the Formosan language. In 1704 he published a fictitious Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, and was shortly afterwards sent to complete his studies at the university of Oxford. The work of course was founded on previous publications, but the compilation was done with great cleverness, in addition to which he printed a so-called Formosan alphabet, and specimens of the language accompanied with translations. In 1707 he published Dialogue between a Japanese and a Formosan. There also appeared without date An Inquiry into the Objections against George PSalmanazar of Formosa, τvith George PSalmanazar's Answer. To ...