GEORGE, the fictitious name of a pretended Formosan, a person of learning and ingenuity. He was born in France, and educated in a free- free-school, and afterwards in a college of Jesuits, in an archiepiscopal city, the name of which, as likewise those of his birth-place, and of his parents, are unknown. Upon leaving the college, he was recommended as a tutor to a young gentleman; but soon fell into a mean rambling life, that involved him in disappointments and misfortunes. His first pretence was that of being a sufferer for religion. He procured a certificate that he was of Irish extraction, that he left that country for the sake of the Catholic faith, and was going on a pilgrimage to Rome. Being unable to purchase a pilgrim's garb, and observing one in a chapel, dedicated to a miraculous saint, which had been set up as a monument of gratitude by some wandering pilgrim, he contrived to take both the staff and cloak away; and, being thus accoutred, begged his way in fluent Latin, accosting only clergymen or persons of figure; whom he found so generous and credulous, that, before he had gone 20 miles, he might easily have saved money, and put himself in a much better dress; but as soon as he had got what he thought was sufficient, he begged no more; but viewed every thing worth seeing, and then retired to some inn, where he spent his money as freely as he had obtained it. Having heard the Jesuits speak much of China and Japan, he started the wild scheme, when he was in Germany, of passing for a native of the island of Formosa; and what he wanted in knowledge, he supplied by a pregnant invention. He formed a new character and language on grammatical principles, which, like other oriental languages, he wrote from right to left with great readiness; and planned a new religion, and a division of the year into 20 months, with other novelties, to credit his pretensions. He was now a Japanese convert to Christianity, travelling for instruction with an appearance more wretched than even that of common beggars. He then entered as a soldier in the Dutch service; but, full of dreams of passing for a Japanese, he altered his plan to that of being an unconverted heathen; and at Sluys, Brigadier Lauder, a Scots colonel, introduced him to the chaplain, who, with the view of recommending himself to the bishop of London, resolved to carry him over to England. At Rotterdam, some persons having put firewood questions to him, that carried the air of doubt, he took one more whimsical step, which was to live upon raw flesh, roots, and herbs; which strange food he thought would remove all scruples. The bishop of London patronized him with credulous humanity; and Philomannazar found a large circle of friends, who extolled him as a prodigy. Yet were there some who entertained a just opinion of him, particularly the Drs Halley, Mead, and Woodward; but their endeavours to expose him as a cheat only made others think the better of him, especially as those gentlemen were esteemed no great admirers of revelation. But in this instance at least, easiness of belief was no great evidence of penetration. He was employed to translate the church-catechism into the Formosan language, which was examined, approved, and laid up as a valuable MS; and the author, after writing his well-known History of Formosa, was rewarded and sent to Oxford to study what he liked, while his patrons and opponents were learnedly disputing at London on the merits of his work. The learned members of the university were no better agreed in their opinions than those at London; but at length the sceptics triumphed. Some absurdities were discovered in his history, of such a nature as to discredit the whole narration, and saved him the trouble of an open declaration of his imposture; which however he owned at length to his private friends. For the remainder of his life, his learning and ingenuity enabled him to procure a comfortable support by his pen; he being concerned in several works of credit, particularly The Universal History. He lived irreproachably for many years, and died in 1763.