One of the most incredible hoaxes of the 18th century was the story associated with the charismatic, mysterious personage - George Salmanazar. This gentleman was first seen in the capital of Great Britain in the early 18th century. What he was doing and where he came from to witness those events was unknown. Today, by the way, the situation with this odious personality is not at all clear.
Salmanazar published his own "Memoirs", which stated: "I was not born outside Europe, nor did I dwell, nor did I wander in search of adventure. My whole life until I was 16 years old was spent in its southern provinces". To tie up loose ends, George's birth date was between 1679 and 1680, and his childhood memories of his early years concern the southern regions of France. At the age of six, the boy was taken in by Franciscan friars in their school. George showed exceptional ability to linguistics, so he was assigned to a class of older boys.
And in his last school years he was educated by Jesuits and Dominicans. Salmanazar's attempts to try the profession of a teacher were not successful. Annoyed young man decided to step on a risky path of fraud: in public he called himself an Irish pilgrim, who is mercilessly persecuted in his native country, and who passionately wants to get to Rome.
There is no point in hiding that the life of a wanderer was full of breathtaking adventures. Daredevil George was recruited into the regiment of the noble Duke of Mecklenburg under the false name of an unbaptized Japanese named - Salmanazar (so in ancient biblical legends called one of the characters of the 4th book of Kings). He defended the pagan faith and argued to a frenzy with his buddies on religious topics, supported the pagans. During the sacred service George turned his face to the sun disk and mumbled some words to himself in his native tongue.
Early in 1702, Salmanazar's regiment was transferred to Sluys. In the position of governor there sat a native Scotsman - Brigadier D. Lowder. When rumors of a strange Japanese heathen reached him, the governor had an idea - to invite Salmanazar, several officers and Alexander Innes, the chaplain of the Scottish regiment, to visit him. During his visit to the governor's chambers, Salmanazar outwitted the priest d'Amalvi himself, an authoritative speaker on matters of religion. Chaplain Innes was impressed by the victory of the stubborn Salmanazar and suggested that he replace paganism with the true faith, inviting George to England.
Salmanazar told the chaplain a marvelous story of how he had been taken by missionaries from Formosa (the site of modern-day Taiwan) and taken to Avignon, France, where he was threatened with conversion to the Catholic faith. He was forced to flee and without a second thought enlisted in an army unit. The chaplain gave Salmanazar a simple task - to write a translation of a passage from the speech of the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero in Formosan. George quietly completed the task. However, after some time had passed, Innes asked him to translate the same speech again. The two translations were strikingly different.
It was only one step away from exposing the deceiver, but the chaplain decided to join George and became his assistant in organizing future hoaxes. It was Inez who proposed to remake the fictitious legend of Salmanazar, for whom it is more plausible to pretend to be a resident of Formosa than a native of the distant Japanese islands. After an entertaining "conversion" to the Christian faith, the chaplain volunteered to baptize Salmanazar. The godfather was D. Lowder, whose name was given to the convert.
Not thinking long, Innes sent a message to the Bishop of London, Dr. Compton, which concerned the "newly converted" pagan. The astonished bishop praised the chaplain and summoned him and George to London for Salmanazar to give Formosan lessons to his men. After the training they were to go to Formosa and convert the local people to Christianity.
In the middle of 1703 Salmanazar and Inez arrived in Rotterdam. The people of Holland greeted his sermons with more than a little skepticism. To look more credible, George grabbed a piece of raw meat in front of the astonished crowd and began to eat it greedily with roots and herbs. In doing so, he demonstrated that he belonged to the indigenous people of Formosa, where these foods were commonplace. Eventually, the hoax partners found themselves in the capital of Foggy Albion, at the reception of the Bishop of London. The English doubted the honesty of the preachers as much as the Dutch. Fortunately for the "Formosian" he was almost exposed in the course of detailed questioning. The fact that Europeans knew almost nothing about the inhabitants of distant Asian states played into the hands of impostors.
Salmanazar gained fame among the local public. The public with sincere curiosity and undisguised delight perceived the pilgrim, born from an exotic country. Even representatives of the royal family watched the adventures of a strange inseparable couple with wonder. Innes was thinking of ways to take advantage of the current situation and suggested to his fellow swindler to translate a sacred treatise into Formosian and document the history of Formosa.
Brilliant mastery of the subtleties of linguistics Salmanazar began to write a large-scale essay on the "History of Formosa". In recent years he had mastered 6 languages, including Latin. Using the works of Dutch geographer Bernhard Varen's "Description of Japan" and Candidius' stories about the life and life of Formosa inhabitants, Salmanazar began to invent his narrative. Sixty days later, a book with fictional characters saw the light of day.
At the end of 1704, the manuscript was translated into English by a man named Oswald. A couple of days later, readers were able to familiarize themselves with the publication of a historical and geographical description of Formosa by D. Salmanazar, a native of the aforementioned island, who lives in London. In 1705, French and German publishers also gave the green light to Salmanazar's book.
Unexpectedly, George had a serious confrontation with a Jesuit, Father Fontenay, who had spent 18 years on the island of Formosa before their personal encounter. In late winter they clashed in a public verbal altercation at the Royal Society. Incredibly, Salmanazar emerged from the dispute victorious: his words sounded so convincing that the meeting participants believed him rather than Fonteneuil. George told them that the island was considered the property of the Japanese Emperor and not the domain of China, as his opponent firmly maintained.
Salmanazar was asked one tricky question, "Why is his skin of a light shade, and not swarthy like that of Asians?" The swindler managed to get out of this sensitive situation, explaining that his family belonged to the elite, status class of Formosa and they were forced to live underground, where sunlight did not penetrate.
Salmanazar's authored work is categorized as a highly skillful artistic creation. George told the reader how on his native island sailed Father de Rode of the Jesuit order, who hid under the guise of a Japanese loyalist and began to teach the natives Latin. The traveler convinced Salmanazar to go to Europe. In France he was forcibly kept for 15 months, tried to convert to the Christian faith, but he was lucky to avoid meeting with the Inquisitors. The fantasist went on to recount exciting journeys, amusing incidents from his military service, a fateful acquaintance with Chaplain Innes and connections with the Church of England.
