2-690-572 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'George Psalmanazar (b. (?) 1679, d. 1763)', 1907. George Psalmanazar (c. 1679-1763) was a Frenchman who claimed to be the first native of Formosa (today Taiwan) to visit Europe. For some years he convinced many in Britain, but he was later revealed to be an impostor and proved fake. He subsequently became a theological essayist, and a friend and acquaintance of Samuel Johnson and other noted figures in 18th-century literary London. From The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. II by James Boswell. [Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., London, 1907]