12. Narcisse Pelletier: The Fourteen-Year-old French Cabin Boy adopted by Australian Aborigines.
Narcisse Pelletier was just 14 when he set out on what turned out to be the voyage of a lifetime. In August 1857, Pelletier signed up as a cabin boy on a ship, the “Saint Paul.” The “Saint Paul” was leaving the French port of Marseilles for Bombay. There it was to drop off its cargo of wine and pick up a party of 300 Chinese laborers bound for the Australian gold mines. The return journey to Australia began in September 1858. However, when the “Saint Paul” began to run low on the supplies, the Captain decided to take a shorter but riskier route to Sydney.
The gamble did not pay off. Just off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the ship ran aground on a reef. So some of the crew, Pelletier among them set off for nearby Rossel Island for the much-needed supplies. However, when they were violently driven away by the inhabitants of the islands, the party paddled for two weeks before they landed on the eastern Cape York Peninsula of Australia. By this time, Pelletier was dangerously ill. So, no doubt to save wasting resources on a what they believed was a hopeless case, the crew restocked with supplies and then sailed away, leaving the cabin boy behind.
Pelletier, no doubt terrified at his predicament was not alone for long. Three women from a local Aboriginal tribe quickly discovered him. Known as the Sand Beach people, the tribe welcomed and adopted Pelletier, nursing him back to health. The Sand gave him a new name: “Anco” or“Amglo” and learned their language, Uutaalnganu and lived as one of them for the next sixteen years.
In this time, Pelletier had no contact with Europeans. This ended on April 11, 1875, when he encountered the crew of a Pearl Lugger, the John Bell. The crew, no doubt believing they were doing Pelletier a favor ‘rescued’ him. This, however, was not how Pelletier saw it as in his account of events he described himself as ‘kidnapped”. However, he did not return to his adopted Sand Beach family. Instead, after a month in Sydney, in July 1875, Narcisse Pelletier set sail back to France.