Liar, Liar
MARY BAKER (AKA PRINCESS CARABOO)
It was the beginning of April, 1817, when a strange woman appeared in the rural town of Almondsbury, just north of Bristol, England. She was young, pretty and dressed in tattered clothes with a turban on her head – she also seemed worn out and totally confused. The locals were just as baffled: who was this mysterious lass spouting an unknown language and toting only some toiletries wrapped in fabric? They put her up in an inn for the night, where she refused meals and performed unusual prayers – she also got inordinately excited about a painting of a pineapple, prompting staff to assume she hailed from a far-off tropical land.
As luck would have it, a sailor soon passed through town who happened to speak the woman’s language. He translated her frantic ramblings: she was no drifter after all, but Princess Caraboo from the island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean. Apparently, she’d been kidnapped by pirates – she escaped by jumping overboard in the Bristol Channel, then was washed ashore near Almondsbury. The townsfolk couldn’t believe their
