Ingram existed. We can say that because several people independently stated they met him and they had no reason to make that up, but we know nothing else about the man save he was born in Barking, Essex. If he was typical of Elizabethan sailors however we can make some assumptions. He was probably illiterate. This meant that when he later gave his story to Peckham he didn’t write it down but answered Peckham’s questions, all of which had a specific purpose Ingram may not have been wise to. He was religious; most likely protestant, and this meant that his contacts with indigenous people were filtered through a mindset that most probably didn’t allow for their belief systems while his own was wracked with peculiar superstitions.