The strange story of the Princess of Javasu, which perplexed and fascio nated fashionable English society during the Regency, will be told in "Caraboo," in today's programme from Daventry.
The story began on a spring evening in 1817, when a bewildered villager of Almondsbury, in Gloucestershire, called on the local squire, bringing with him a strange young girl who had come to his house in a state of great distress. She seemed unable to understand English, and after the squire had tried in vain to discover what country she came from he published a description of her, hoping that it would lead to the girl's identification. Many "learned and eminent gentlemen" visited Almondsbury to question the "unknown female foreigner," and at last a man who had travelled in the East Indies declared that he had extracted her history from her by means of signs and a few simple words. Her name, he said, was Caraboo: she was a princess from the isle of Javasu, and had been carried off by pirates.
Listeners to John Richmond's production will hear of the excitement aroused by this story—and of the surprising sequel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.