He was abandoned at the age of 14 in late September or early October, 1858, during the dry season, on eastern Cape York Peninsula in Australia. He was discovered and rescued by an Aboriginal family and went on to live with the Uutaalnganu speakers for the next 17 years until he was found by the crew of the John Bell on 11 April 1875.
Accounts differ as to how Pelletier got left behind after they found water ashore, but he was later found by three Aboriginal women who went off to tell their husbands. Pelletier must have been very weak from the long journey, the wounds he had received at Rossel Island and with his feet cut by the coral. He was taken in by the Aboriginal group, adopted by one of the men called Maademan, and was given the new name, 'Amglo'.
On 11 April 1875, a pearling boat, the John Bell, captained by Joseph Frazer was anchored off Night Island (Queensland) and some men were sent ashore to find water. The landing party came across a group of Aborigines accompanied by a white man and reported the encounter to the captain. Joseph Frazer sent his men back with some things to barter in exchange for the white man.
Pelletier always maintained that he was kidnapped, not rescued, and that he did not want to leave his Aboriginal family. He could not communicate with the sailors who spoke English and believed that they would shoot him if he tried to escape.
After returning to France he was offered a job in a travelling show but, when he found out he was to be displayed as 'the huge Anglo-Australian giant,' he firmly refused. He later got work as a lighthouse keeper of the Phare de l'Aiguillon near Saint-Nazaire. In 1880, then aged 36, he married a seamstress, Louise Désirée Mabilou, who was 22 at the time. They lived near the entrance to the harbour of Saint-Nazaire where he worked, but had no children. He died on 28 September 1894, aged 50.