Princess Caraboo

March 18, 2006 10:43 AM

In April of 1817, a distraught, exotic, bizarre young lady wearing a black turban appeared in the village of Almondsbury, England. She spoke an unintelligible language, and mystified villagers brought her to see the local magistrate. Linguistic experts of the day were baffled: until a Portuguese sailor appeared, who claimed to be able to translate. He explained that she was kidnapped royalty from the island of Javasu. She called herself Princess Caraboo.
posted by Count Ziggurat (11 comments total)

I actually thought the film version was pretty good.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:03 AM on March 18, 2006

Great story. Thanks.
posted by samh23 at 11:09 AM on March 18, 2006

Pheobe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, still good.
posted by 517 at 11:23 AM on March 18, 2006

This is an amazing post! Thank you so much!
posted by piratebowling at 11:45 AM on March 18, 2006

Neato. My favorite part is the discovery of the random Portugese sailor who claims to be able to understand her made-up language. Its like something Mark Twain would have written.
posted by gsteff at 11:51 AM on March 18, 2006

In April of 1812

1817, according to the articles. A good post--I just thought I'd point it out.
posted by cerebus19 at 2:49 PM on March 18, 2006

i can't believe you arn't getting more comment love, this post rocked, thanks.
posted by sourbrew at 10:26 PM on March 18, 2006

Excellent post, Count Z, regardless of comment volume.

What gets me is how naive / gullible folk were back then. Living in an information vacuum. If Princess Caraboo tried to pull this shit on MetaFilter we'd have her outed in 10 minutes...
posted by Meatbomb at 11:07 PM on March 18, 2006

Thanks, cerebus. Corrected.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 9:17 AM on March 19, 2006

Great post, Count Ziggurat.

I knew there was a movie called Princess Caraboo, but never had any idea it was based on a true story. I'll have to check it out.

Mary Baker must have been very bright to pull off everything she did. Wonder how she'd fare in this century. With her imagination, she'd probably have had a huge future in children's books or television.
posted by aine42 at 12:09 PM on March 19, 2006

Great post, a fun read! Funny how people still try to pull off such stunts..Anyone remember the story of a guy who claimed to be the son of Sidney Poitier?
posted by annieb at 1:35 PM on March 19, 2006