Plurk paste

CHAPTER I
APPEOACHING FOEMOSA
How we came to visit Formosa—Departure from North Borneo— The Sourabaya Maru—We reach Hong Kong—Passport difficulties— Our frustrated shopping expedition—We sail at midnight for Formosa —Arrival at Takao—Some account of Formosan geography—Area and position—The jungle hills of the east and the fertile plains of the west —Early history—Chinese intercourse—Dutch and Spanish settle- ments—Spaniards driven out by Dutch—Dutch surrender to Koxinga, the Chinese rebel chief—Formosa a dependency of China—The Japanese occupation.
§ 1
I AM sent by the Governor-General to be your attache. ' ' These words, uttered by a bowing and bespectacled officer in the black uniform of the Civil Service, greeted my wife and me as we steamed through the narrow portals of Takao, the southern harbour of Formosa.
We were travelling to England from North Borneo by way of Japan and America. Even in the Far East few people know anything of Formosa, the island-colony of the Japanese, which lies in the China Sea, two days' steam north-east of Hong Kong and three south-west of Nagasaki. It is a land far from the beaten track of the tourist, nor has it yet been penetrated by the myrmidons of Thomas Cook. The passing traveller is not en
15 16 APPROACHING FORMOSA
couraged, and, unless a foreigner visits the island under the auspices of the Government or speaks Japanese himself, he may well find his path beset with difficulties.
The opportunity of seeing Formosa had been placed in my way by my friend Mr. G. C. Irving, a senior officer of the British North Borneo Civil Service. In North Borneo there is an increasing colony of Japanese, the settlers being mostly of the better class, for Japanese labour, though it has been tried often enough, does not thrive in the tropics.
There is a considerable number of them at Tawau, on the east coast, where they cultivate coconuts and rubber, the Kohara Estate owning the largest planted area under rubber in the State. Mr. Irving had been Resident of Tawau at one time, and while there not only had he been able to give the Japanese planters considerable assistance in his official capacity, but he had also found himself on terms of personal friendship with many of them. No people in the world are more eager to return a kindness than the Japanese, and when Mr. and Mrs.
Irving were going home on leave, they received and accepted an invitation to visit Formosa as the guests of the Japanese Government. Mr. Irving 's account of the little-known country fired us with a desire to see it for ourselves, and when he suggested sending a letter of introduction to the Governor-General, in order that our way might be made easy, we gladly accepted his offer, although at the time we little realized how magical its effects would be.
§ 2
As we were to have many inevitable changes on our journey home, we thought it would be as well to THE SOURABAYA MARU 17 take advantage of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, a ' Japanese line whose boats, on the Japan-Java run, touch at Sandakan, the capital of North Borneo, and the Formosan ports, calling at Hong Kong on the way. Accordingly, against the advice of our friends, we booked our passages by the Sourdbaya Maru.
She was several days late, but in her own good time she dropped her anchor in Sandakan Harbour. As we surveyed her through field-glasses one sunny morning from the veranda of our host's bungalow, our hearts sank, She seemed the only unlovely thing in all that glorious bay, pansy-blue and locked with green jungle hills. She appeared to have no cargo, and her side below the plummet line showed a broad expanse of rusty red, like a flannel petticoat hanging below a dress of dingy black. She was as gaunt as an Eastern fowl. People began to say : "We told you so. You can't possibly take your wife on a boat like that. ' ' My wife, however, had her own views on the subject, and (in our innocence) we replied: "Anyhow, it's only four days ... we can pig it for four days." At that time the Chinese coolies in North Borneo had instituted a boycott on Japanese ships; consequently the cargo had to be worked by natives. It was said that on a previous visit of the Sourdbaya the captain, exasperated by the behaviour of a Chinese coolie, had exacted punishment by the simple expedient of dropping the offender overboard, and to avoid the possibility of retaliation or other unpleasantness the ship on this occasion lay out in the harbour instead of coming alongside the wharf.
We were due to sail at eight in the evening, so we embarked at seven. The boat was so high out of the water that the steps from the launch to her iron 2 18 APPROACHING FORMOSA
deck seemed as unending as the rungs of Jacob's ladder, and as we watched our heavy boxes being dragged up by coolies, at every moment we expected to see them topple over and plunge into the phosphorescent waters of the harbour. We found that our cabin was a fair size, though the portholes obviously had not been opened for weeks, and the saloon, though small, looked cosy. Our spirits began to rise. I discovered a steward and ordered whisky and soda for the friends who had come to see us off.
Then the first blow fell. There was no whisky. Not because either the captain or the company had leanings towards the Anti-Saloon League, but merely because it had not occurred to the purser to order any. However, there was Japanese beer, and we had to be content with that.
Having said last good-byes to our friends and watched them clamber hesitatingly down the ship's steps, I made a few inquiries about dinner. Then came the second blow. There was no dinner. It had been served and eaten at 5.30. After a little gentle persuasion the steward brought us some bread and cold meat, but as the boat did not sail till midnight, we regretted that we had not dined with our hosts on shore.
Before turning in we went on deck to take a last look at Sandakan. The lights of the houses glimmered on the hillside ; across the harbour came faintly the sound of a gramophone playing a record of Chinese music, rasping as the calls of a flock of seagulls; below us the phosphorescent water, lapping the Sourabaya's side, flickered with green fire. As we leant over the rail we felt a few regrets at leaving the jungle country we had come to love, but the thrill that was in our hearts made them seem of small account. We were bound for Home, that ever-desired KUDAT CHAIRS 19 haven of the wanderer—particularly when it is far away. Their native heath always has the glamour of the unattainable for the exiles, although those who sigh the loudest for England when they are in the tropics are often the same people who wonder how anyone can live in the place after they have been home three months.
The only place to sit in the Sourabaya, apart from the iron decks, was on the captain's bridge, and here, next morning, we made ourselves comfortable in the Kudat chairs we had brought with us. The Kudat chair is a kind of super deck chair, with a foot-rest and convenient holes for glasses in its wooden arms ; unfolding it is good exercise, and, once adjusted, no better chair of its kind exists. It was originated by a Chinese carpenter in Kudat, the old capital of North Borneo, and is now exported to all parts of the East. We intended to take ours to England and pictured ourselves spending many a pleasant hour in them under a shady tree in the garden ; but having got them as far as San Francisco, we found that it was going to cost us twenty dollars gold—rather more than they had cost—to get them across America, so we basely abandoned them in the Customs, where they went to swell the army of less superior companions in distress discarded by other travellers.
The Sourabaya's bath was a quaint arrangement; it was always kept full of water, which did away with the necessity of turning on taps or letting water run away. The first time my wife went for a bath the steward appeared doubtful whether there was anyone inside (the bathroom-door had no lock) and solved matters by peering through the keyhole.
After that, having perhaps more prudish ideas on such matters than the Japanese, we hung our dressing-gowns over the door once we were within. 20 APPROACHING FORMOSA We found that we were the only European passengers. All the Japanese were very polite; some spoke indifferent English, others none at all. Those who fancied the so-called European food fed with us; they were all noisy eaters, and most of them had as much success with their knives and forks as I have with chopsticks. Those who preferred their own diet had a Japanese meal after us, except at the 5.30 dinner, when a kind of compromise between the two was produced. We found dining at 5.30 a little trying, but fortified ourselves with biscuits before going to bed, doing our best to make each other believe that it was good for us to get out of the conventional rut of 8 o'clock dinner for a while.
After all, our great-grandfathers had dined somewhere about the same time, although they certainly had a bottle of port each to console themselves with —a more stimulating beverage than Asahi beer.
I found the purser an amusing character, with a passionate admiration for the writings of Lafcadio Hearn, and had long conversations with him at meals.
The second evening, seeing 'Hamburg steak' upon the menu, by way of a feeble joke I suggested 'Yokohama steak' as a fitting substitute. The purser appeared to find this a tremendous jest, roared with laughter and said several times, "Very curious, very curious." The next night we had 'Victory steak,' a tactful alteration which avoided showing favouritism either to Great Britain or Japan.
The skipper, a stocky little man with an enormous chest and slits of eyes, made up in politeness what he lacked in knowledge of English. He resembled an amiable and very active bear, and by the way he and his minions scuttled about the bridge, especially when performing the noonday ritual of taking the position of the sun, one might have thought that we AN OCEAN TORTOISE 21
were in imminent danger of striking a coral reef.
He seemed to be a rigid economist in the matter of coal, for I have never travelled in a slower boat.
She was an ocean tortoise, only not so steady, for she reeled like a bottle in the water. One rather stormy day when we had left the lee of the Phillippine Islands she only managed an average of 4-9 knots an hour, with the result that it took us seven days instead of four to reach Hong Kong.
The captain had assured us that we should arrive by midday. That meant that we should have the whole afternoon to transact our business and a night ashore. As it was, the Sourdbaya weakened when she was getting up to the green, and it was not until 5 p.m. that we came to anchor in that noble harbour which, with its Peak rising steeply above the water, always reminds me of Gibraltar and is as full of movement as Trafalgar Square.
I had sent a wireless message to the Hong Kong Hotel for accommodation, and after we had packed a suit-case in readiness for going ashore we leant over the side bubbling with excitement at the prospect of seeing civilization once more. Only those who have spent many months in a jungle country know what it means to come among shops and traffic and comfortable hotels again. We made all kinds of plans. It was the day we had been looking forward to for weeks. We hadn't had the chance of spending any money for ages. We would have an orgy of shopping. I had only visited Hong Kong previously as a bachelor, but I was able to assure my wife that there were hat-shops. Also there were other shops where one could buy all manner of 22 APPKOACHING FORMOSA pleasant things. I called to mind one with ties, collars, shirts, and socks, of which I stood badly in need. A good shop. Not quite so good as those of the Burlington Arcade, perhaps, but good enough to replenish one's wardrobe for the voyage home.
Then there was the passport to be vis'e by the Japanese Consul, none such existing in North Borneo. There were the tickets for the voyage to America and onwards to be collected. Most important of all, there was money to be obtained from the bank, for North Borneo notes are at a discount in any country except their own. We thought of all these things with a sense of delightful anticipation. There was a cold tang in the air that was exhilarating. We began to feel that we were almost home.
We watched a launch with the O.S.K. flag threading its way towards us through the crowd of vessels.
She ran alongside and the agent, a Japanese, came up. The launch was followed by a fussy little motorboat bringing the police authorities. Then came the shattering of all our dreams.
We were to sail at midnight.
"Let's pack our junk and get off the beastly boat," said I bitterly, feeling like a small boy who had been cheated out of a party. "We can get another on to Formosa in a couple of days." But even this was not to be, for the agent handed me a message from the Hong Kong Hotel to say that every room was full. We learnt from the cheery Police Inspector who looked at our passport that there was no accommodation to be had in any hotel in the colony. Thereupon I suggested to the agent that the Sourdbaya was so late already that she might just as well stay till noon next day. As well might I have tried to argue with the Nelson Column. SHATTERED HOPES 23 He had his instructions. An agent always has. So there was nothing for it but to put the suit-case sadly back into the cabin and to go ashore in the launch, intent on making the best of the few hours we had.
As we had feared, by the time we landed all the shops we wanted were shut; the shipping office was shut; the bank was shut; the Consul had long departed. It was very trying. Our shopping expedition could wait, but we had very little money, and, as I knew well, the Japanese officials are the last people in the world to overlook any irregularities in the papers of itinerant foreigners. The agent did his best for us. He rang up the Consul at his house and at the Japanese Club, but without finding him.
Finally, at my urgent request and because I think he wanted to get off to his dinner, he gave us a document written in Japanese, explaining the position; with this I hoped to be able to pacify the outraged Japanese officials.
Our spirits were wilting like boiled collars at a tropical dinner-party, but outside the agent's office the bustle of the traffic, the lighted streets, and the atmosphere of civilization revived them. We found a chemist who by a lucky chance sold chocolates, and we laid in a store to keep away the pangs of hunger that were wont to assail us between 5.30 dinner and 8.30 breakfast. A packet of Mothersill's seasick cure was also considered a judicious investment. I have been twice round the world and pride myself (though not, I hope, aggressively) on never having been ill ; nevertheless I always make a point of carrying with me a packet of Mothersill's pink and brown capsules. As the old lady who always made a point of bobbing at the mention of the Evil One said, ''You never know." But I often wonder what would happen if, groping in the dark, you were to take two 24 APPROACHING FORMOSA
capsules of the same colour instead of one of pink and one of brown. A solemn thought. I suppose the best plan would be to send a wireless message to Mr. Mothersill to ask him what to do about it. Having spent as much as we dared at the chymist's (he was such a godsend to us that he really deserves to be spelt with a 'y'), we made our way to the Hong Kong Hotel. There we found an unsigned cable from Formosa which appeared to come from an authoritative source. It was thus quaintly worded : "Saw Irving 's letter welcome your visit. Kindly wire when arrive here." It did not bode very well for the ease with which conversation would be carried on in Formosa, but it sounded extremely hospitable and was answered forthwith.
Feeling a little more braced with life, we dined in the grill-room of the Hong Kong Hotel. It would need a Newnham-Davis to do justice to that meal.
To my mind the Hong Kong Hotel is the best in the whole of the Far East, but in any case one's first dinner after one has come out of the wilds is a thing to be remembered. It is symbolical of so much; it stands for all that one is, for all that one has been trained to be. However gladly one escapes from civilization into the jungle, one is always glad to get back again, just as a dog who howls to get out of hi9 kennel in the morning is glad to go into it again at night. Things taste so much better—physically and mentally—when one has missed them for a little ; a platitude many people do not realize or they would not become the creatures of habit they do. The shaded lights, the gleaming tables—snowy islands glittering with glass and silver—the soft music, the murmurous buzz of conversation and the snatches of laughter, cheery men in boiled shirts and white ties, THE CASE OF WILLIAM JONES 25 women in pretty frocks : it all seems so much more attractive the first night one comes back to it than it does when one can have it every night of one's life.
At least it did to me that evening, even though, until the bill came all my mind, like King Arthur's, was 'clouded with a doubt' as to whether I had the wherewithal to pay.
I can imagine only one thing worse than discovering one hasn't enough money to pay for a dinner after one has had it, and that is making the same discovery beforehand. And it is a thing that may so easily happen to anyone. From long-ago days when I was reading Common Law the leading case of E. v. William Jones has always stuck in my mind.
Mr. Jones had, to put it briefly, entered a restaurant, and ordered and eaten an excellent dinner, whereupon it transpired that he was without resources of any description. He was promptly given in charge by an unsympathetic manager and was subsequently convicted for obtaining credit by false pretences.
My sympathies have always been with William Jones, and if I had been in Court when he left the dock I should have murmured, ' ' There, but for the grace of God, goes me." As it was, on this particular night the memory of his little trouble rather spoilt the taste of the iced pudding. However, when the bill came I found, to my great relief, that it was not so violent as I had feared it might be, and out of sheer joy at not having to leave a good cigarette-case in pawn, I gave a handsome and quite unnecessary tip to the head waiter as a thank-offering to the fates.
After dinner we took a walk along Queen's Road, fluttering, as ever, with Chinese street-signs and golden with lighted shops full of wares so strange that it seemed extraordinary that anyone should ever want to buy them. Then, regretfully, we caught the 26 APPEOACHING FORMOSA
launch back to the Sourabaya. Regretfully, for there were so many things in Hong Kong to have done and seen: the Funicular Railway, that draws you almost perpendicularly to the Peak; the sight from the Peak when once you reach the summit, either in daylight when the ships and the harbour are spread out far beneath you like toys upon a pond, or at night when the lights gleam as close together as sequins on an eastern scarf; Happy Valley, home of concentrated sport; walks to Deepwater Bay across the hills; mysterious Chinese byways to explore, and—yes, shopping.
But we did none of these things, for in spite of the faint hope we still cherished that she would not sail till noon next day after all, the Sourabaya got under way on the stroke of midnight, the only oc- casion when she had done anything up to time since we had been aboard.
As we watched Hong Kong fading from our portholes, the lights of the scattered houses on the Peak hanging in the darkness like stars, we wondered idly why Providence had been in such a hurry to get us away. We thought of the number of people who just got out of San Francisco before the Fire, and decided that a disaster of the same kind must be afoot. Hong Kong must be going to have a 'quake'—that was surely it. We almost felt that we ought to go back and mention it, or at least get the captain to send the Governor a message. Perhaps it was as well we didn't, for we never heard of a public disaster happening in Hong Kong about that time. Therefore we must have avoided a private one. We have since decided that had we stayed I should probably have been bowled over by a tram. We like to feel that our speedy removal from the colony was well meant.
There followed two calm, uneventful days, as we NOISY EATERS 27 plodded across the 360 miles of China Sea that separates Hong Kong from Takao. As time went on, the meals lost their novelty and became a nightmare. You may possess sufficient sense of humour to laugh at unpleasantness for one day, but you have to be a philosopher indeed if you can laugh at it for nine. Moreover, even the Asahi beer gave out, and apparently it had not struck the purser that it would be a good thing to get some more in Hong Kong.
Our fellow-passengers became, if anything, still noisier over their food. I always think that the human race is divided into two classes: the people who make a noise when they eat and the people who don't, and I have often tried to puzzle out why the average better-class Japanese, having picked the brains of Europe and America, should not abandon their own methods of eating and learn to consume food without imitating the last gasp of water going down a waste-pipe. It is strange that the sound of men sucking soup should be so soul-racking when the sound of a dog lapping water is such sweet music, but so it is. Our voyage drew to an end at last, however, even in the Sourabaya, which moved as leisurely across the sea as a cloud across a windless sky. We found with no little irritation that, after all, we might just as well have waited in Hong Kong, for on the evening of the second day the Sourabaya made Takao too late to get into the harbour and had to remain outside all night, like a returning reveller who has been locked out of his hotel. Doubtless the thrifty captain was still chuckling to think how he had saved his company the cost of a night's lodging for the ship in Hong Kong harbour. Nor did his passion for economy stop there, for, to make matters thoroughly cheery, all the lights were switched off just as we
* 28 APPEOACHING FORMOSA
were thinking of going to bed, and it was only by dint of harrying the cabin-steward that we managed to procure a smelly paraffin lamp. But all such minor worries were forgotten when, next morning, I looked out of my porthole and saw the coast-line of Formosa starting from the sea with the half-risen sun peeping above it like a golden hill.
Takao lies on the south-western coast of Formosa, which is roughly plum-shaped, the tapering peninsula in the south, 30 miles long and 12 broad, forming a kind of stalk. The island itself has an area of just under 14,000 square miles, and so is nearly twice the size of Wales. From north to south, as the crow flies, the distance is about 250 miles, while the greatest breadth is 90. The island is, as it were, a great stepping-stone between Japan and the Philippines, the centre bead of the necklace of islands, great and small, which are strung out from north to south where the Pacific Ocean merges in the China Sea. The most southerly island of Japan proper lies 650 miles to the north, the most northerly island of the Philippines 250 to the south; 100 miles to the west is Amoy and the mainland of China ; on the east the nearest land of any size is the Hawaian Islands, 5,000 miles across the vast Pacific.
In his monumental and exhaustive work, The Island of Formosa, 1 a model of its kind, Mr. J. W.
Davidson thus recounts the Chinese legend of Formosa's origin : "Some fierce dragons which had dwelt for ages at Woo-hoo-mun (Five Tiger Gate), the entrance to Foochow, bestirred themselves into activity and for a day's frolic glided out unseen
1 p. l. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES 29
through the depths of the ocean. Arriving in the vicinity of the present island of Formosa, they became extraordinarily playful, and after ploughing through the earth itself they made their ascent, throwing up the bluff at Kelung Head, and then writhed their way towards the south and with violent contortions heaved up a regular series of hills and mountains until at last, with a flap of their formidable tails, they threw up the three cliffs which now mark the extreme south of the island." The geographical features caused by the gambols of the picnicking dragons have some peculiar characteristics, which have greatly influenced the island's history. It is divided, almost as if someone had drawn a line down the centre, into two halves, the eastern and the western.
The eastern half is composed mainly of highlands ; one lofty mountain range, jungle clad, running from north to south, forms the backbone of the island, its outstanding peaks being Mount Sylvia (12,895 feet) and Mount Gokan (11,133 feet) in the north; Mount Morrison, or Niitaka (13,015 feet), and Mount Pinan (10,818 feet) towards the south. Mount Morrison, so named by Vice-Consul Mr. Swinhoe, after the captain of the first British steamer to enter Anping and renamed Niitaka after the late Emperor, is the loftiest mountain in the Japanese Empire, and its summit is nearer heaven by 625 feet than the noble peak of Fuji.
From the principal mountain chain minor ranges and spurs run down to the east and west. Those on the east fall steeply to the coast, in some places forming cliffs which tower a sheer 8,000 feet above the sea, the highest in the world. The natural result of this formation is that on the east there are no navigable rivers and no natural harbours of any import-30 APPROACHING FORMOSA
ance. In this region of switchback hills and tumbling streams dwell the aborigines, or 'savages' as the Japanese call them, driven thither long ago from the plains to seek refuge from the invader's hand. Here they hold sway to-day, their territory largely unexplored, practising the head-hunting habits which have been handed down to them by their forefathers.
Had the features of the western half of the island resembled those on the east, it is unlikely that Formosa would have had the troubled history it has.
No one would have coveted it. No one would have fought for it. It would have been left alone. But the west presents a strange contrast to the east, for the mountains slope down into lesser hills and thence to undulating plains, 5,000 square miles in extent, watered by many rivers and dipping into fertile valleys, a smiling land fought for by the Dutch, the Chinese, and the Japanese in turn.
§ 5
Formosa seems to have been known to the Chinese from very early days, but no great attention was paid to it by the authorities, and when, in the latter half of the seventh century, it was invaded by bands of wild Malays from the south who drove the existing inhabitants to the hills, the conquerors were found by such expeditions as did come to the island to be so fierce and uncompromising that they were left entirely alone. As in all probability the only object of the Chinese in visiting them was to exact tribute and make them profess allegiance to the Emperor, their attitude is intelligible. It was a case of "Cet animal est tres mediant. Quand on Vattaque il se defend." Nevertheless, during the following seven hundred THE RISE OP THE PIRATES 31
years it is probable that there was considerable commercial intercourse between Chinese traders and the islanders. The shallow bays and harbours along the northern and western coasts also provided convenient strongholds for the Japanese and Chinese pirates who infested those seas. In fact the island was an admirable haven for a pirate, lying as it did close to important trade routes and within convenient raiding distance of the settlements on the coast of China, while it afforded many a refuge difficult to approach and more difficult still to destroy. The mere fact that Formosa was a kind of No-man's-land without any form of settled government made it a popular rendezvous for all manner of criminals and other fugitives from justice, besides giving sanctuary to victims of tyranny and persecution in China or Japan. In Formosa these folk found fertile land for the taking, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they settled there in increasing numbers, always driving the natives of the island farther and farther inland as they encroached upon the plains.
The Chinese devoted their attention to the southwest, the Japanese to the north, and the pirates of both nations were for many years the pioneers of trade in those seas, making long and extensive voyages as far south as Borneo, Malacca, and Siam.
As pirates they plundered defenceless boats and villages ; as traders they bartered the loot which had fallen into their hands. Their calling was a happy compromise between the monotony of a commercial life and the excitement of a freebooting existence.
It was not until 1592 that a band of Japanese merchants, having received special permission from their Government to engage in foreign commerce, formed a settlement at Tainan on the west coast, whence they carried on a regular and legitimate trade with 32 APPROACHING FORMOSA
neighbouring countries. After this the Japanese Government made two attempts to subjugate the island, but without success, although the Japanese and Chinese elements continued to carry on their trade without open hostilities, and Chinese settlers, mainly Hakkas, who are born gardeners and the most hardworking immigrants that any country could desire, continued to flock to Formosa from their own overcrowded land.
It was not likely, however, that so attractive an island as Formosa should long remain neglected by the European powers which were then bent on ex- tending their conquests and influence in the Eastern seas. The Portuguese were the pioneers in the East, and although there is no record of any Portuguese settlement on the island, it was they who, struck by its beauty as they sailed past its western shores, gave it the appropriate name of Ilha Formosa, by which it still is best known, although the Japanese official name is Taiwan.
In 1557 the Portuguese established themselves at Macao, an island opposite the mouth of the Canton River. This settlement was always looked upon with jealousy by the Netherlands East India Company, and many were the attempts made from the Dutch base in Java to capture it. Finally, in 1622, after an expedition consisting of six warships and two thousand men had failed to oust the Portuguese from their stronghold, the Dutch obtained a footing on the Pescadores, a group of small islands lying thirty miles off the west coast of Formosa, as a convenient base for competing with their rivals in the trade with China and Japan. They built a fort on the main island, and proceeded to enslave the inhabitants and treat them with great brutality. Negotiations were made by representatives of the company for permis-THE DUTCH TAKE POSSESSION 33
sion to trade with China, and in 1623 an agreement was arrived at with the Chinese authorities whereby the Dutch were to be allowed freedom of commerce on undertaking to move their base to Formosa itself.
Indeed, in their desire to see the Dutch established as far away from their own shores as possible, the mandarins complacently ceded the whole island, which, as Mr. Davidson remarks, 1 " considering that the Chinese had no right to it and had never claimed any, was probably not a heart-rending task for them." The Dutch established forts at Tainan, on the west coast, and remained in possession until they were driven out of the island by the Chinese rebel chief, Koxinga, in 1662. In the meantime the Spaniards made two settlements in the north, one at Keelung and the other at Tamsui, and built forts, which they were compelled to surrender to the Dutch in 1641.
After Koxinga had been succeeded by his son Cheng Ching as King of Formosa, representatives of the Honourable East India Company visited the island in 1670 and were granted permission to take over the old Dutch factory at an annual rental and to hoist the company's flag above it, the company on its side undertaking to keep two gunners for the King's ser- vice and also a smith for supervising the making of his guns.
2 Cheng Ching seems to have been anxious to see an English factory established, but, although the East India Company recognized the favourable position of the settlement, it was found that the trade did not offer the opportunities which had been anticipated, and in 1682, the expenses of the establishment being considered unjustified by the returns, it was 1 Op. ciL, p. 12.
2 Formosa under the Dutch, p. 498.
3 34 APPEOACHING FORMOSA
withdrawn. In the following year, after having been ruled by Koxinga and his descendants for twenty-one years, Formosa was attacked by the Tartars and was surrendered unconditionally by Koxinga *s grandson, a boy of thirteen. The young King and all his followers were forced to shave their heads in ac- cordance with the detested Manchu custom, and the island became part of the dominions of the Emperor of China.
At this period next to nothing was known in England of Formosa, and this gave an impostor who called himself George Psalmanasaar the opportunity of perpetrating one of the most impudent literary fakes on record. Psalmanasaar, who subsequently admitted that he was born at Avignon, passed himself off as a native of Formosa and stated that he had been brought from the island to Europe by a Jesuit priest in 1694. He published a book in Latin giving an entirely fictitious account of the island (which, as he said, was subject to the Emperor of Japan), its model government, its flourishing towns, its king, its prosperous inhabitants and their religion. He even went so far as to invent a Formosan language in which he gave translations of the Lord 's Prayer, the Commandments, and the Apostles' Creed.1 His book was dedicated to the Bishop of London and was translated into English, and later into French and German. Copies are scarce, but an English version exists in the library of the Royal Geographical Society, and I was lucky enough to find one
1 Dr. Laconperie is inclined to think that Psalmanasaar had come across some information concerning a dialect of Formosa from some Portuguese sailor who had picked up a few words in his travels. He considers, however, that the prayers are forgeries. Vide Formosan Notes, pp. 52-56. PSALMANASAAR 'S IMPOSTURE 35
at Hatchard's recently. Speaking of the inhabitants, he stated : "Besides the ships they have for going long voyages into remote Parts, they have other Vessels which they call Balcones and Floating Villages, or Arcacasseos, which belong only to Noblemen, and are made use of by them to travel, or to take their pleasure upon the River. . . . They have no Coaches to travel by Land, but they have another kind of Carriage which is much more convenient, for they are carried by two Elephants or Camels, or Horses, in a thing like a Litter, called by the natives Norimonnos, into which thirty or forty Men may enter." 1 Illustrations were given of these convenient methods of transport.
The litters, said Psalmanasaar, were introduced into Formosa by Meryaandanoo, an imaginary Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces. This worthy, according to the gifted author, murdered his Emperor and Empress with a poisoned dagger, seized the throne of Japan, and then set himself to invade Formosa. He first stated that he wished to sacrifice to the god of the islanders. "He presently commanded a great Army to be made ready, and ordered the soldiers to be put in great Litters, carried by two Elephants, which will hold Thirty, or Forty men ; and to prevent any suspicion of the Formosans, they placed Oxen and Rams to be seen at the Windows of the Litters." The litters were conveyed to Formosa and when they were opened the soldiers emerged and subdued the inhabitants. 2 One may imagine that Psalmanasaar, if nothing else, was a student of Homer. But it was a long time before all this rubbish (admittedly rather picturesque rubbish) was exposed. Psalmanasaar became the 1 An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, pp. 276-7, 8 Idem, pp, 150 et seq. 36 APPEOACHING FORMOSA lion of the day. He spoke before the Royal Society and was on intimate terms with some of the most eminent men of the time. At length he became discredited, however, and eventually, seeing the error of his ways, he reformed. For the last fifty years of his life he led an exemplary existence, and wrote the story of his life, which, in accordance with his directions, was not published until after his death.
He became on terms of friendship with Dr. Johnson, who used to go and sit with him "at an ale house in the City." Boswell mentions that Johnson reverenced Psalmanasaar for his piety and said of him, "I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop." To have inspired that remark was perhaps the adventurer's crowning achievement. 1
§6 | After its capture by the Tartars, Formosa was administered as part of the Fokien Province, and Taiwan, the name of the then capital, 3 was applied to the whole island and has been retained by the Japanese. During the two centuries which followed the island was barbarously governed by China. The officials were corrupt. The mandarins were unable to maintain order. The strong oppressed the weak, the wealthy battened on the poor, and the result was chaos. No less than twenty-two serious risings and insurrections took place, while by their acts of cruelty and oppression the settlers earned and merited the implacable hatred of the aborigines. Nevertheless, so rich and so fertile was the island that, even under this regime of inefficiency and confusion, its trade 1 In his recently published Pious Opinions Sir Chartres Biron has an interesting paper on this peculiar character.
a The present town of Tainan. OUTRAGES UPON MARINERS 37 flourished and expanded, and every year it was enabled to send a larger snpply of much-needed rice to the maritime provinces of China. Immigrants continued to pour into the island, but owing to the state of the government and to the absence of any attempt to enforce order or administer justice impartially, every man became a law unto himself, with the inevitable result that there was a return to almost savage conditions. Under such lack of social discipline the veneer of civilization quickly wears off (one can imagine that in this case it had never been very thick) and the human being reverts to the primitive animal.
It was not long before Formosa gained an evil name among mariners for the treachery and barbarity of its inhabitants. And not without just cause. As late as the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury several ships belonging to European nations and to the United States were wrecked upon the storm-tossed coasts and the survivors who reached the shore were plundered of their possessions and either killed, sold into slavery, or cast into filthy prisons to die of sickness and disease. In the case of the British steamer Ann, which was wrecked near Tamsui in 1842, fifty-seven of the crew, including fourteen Europeans and Americans and thirty-four British Indians, were captured by Chinese soldiers.
They were dragged stark naked to the capital and imprisoned; several died under the fiendish treatment to which they were subjected, and the re- mainder, together with over a hundred and fifty Indians, survivors of a previous wreck, were eventually brought out in irons and beheaded one after the other on the plain beyond the city, ten being kept back to be sent to Peking for execution there. The heads of the victims were placed in cages upon the 38 APPROACHING FORMOSA
sea-shore and their bodies were flung into a common grave.
1 For these atrocities the Powers concerned never succeeded in obtaining any adequate redress from the Imperial Government at Peking, and, with the exception of a small expedition undertaken by a detachment of American marines after the crew of the United States bark Rover, including the captain and his wife, had been murdered by the inhabitants in 1867, no attempt was ever made to inflict punishment on the guilty parties or to exact retribution from the authorities. Even the American force was unable to make any useful example of the natives, who took to the jungle on the approach of the marines, and it had to retire after a senior officer had been killed while gallantly leading a charge. A few months later, however, General Le Gendre, the United States Consul at Amoy, by penetrating personally into the country of the aborigines, succeeded in meeting Tokitok and his brother chiefs whose people were responsible for the massacre of the Rover's crew, and exacted from them a promise that so far from molesting shipwrecked mariners they would give them succour.
This undertaking, so far as that section of the inhabitants was concerned, was faithfully carried out, and only goes to show what influence the Chinese authorities themselves might have obtained over the natives had they cared to do so and had they acted in a manner calculated to command respect and inspire confidence. As it was, they looked on with indifference, and the outrages upon foreigners both on the part of the Chinese and the natives continued unabated along the Formosan coasts.
1 The Island of Formosa, p. 105. JAPAN TAKES ACTION 39
It is to the great credit of the Japanese that, after a number of their own subjects had been brutally treated by the aborigines and the Chinese Government had disclaimed responsibility, they took matters into their own hands and, in 1874, sent a punitive expedition 3,500 strong against the Botal tribe which inhabited the district in the south of the island. After failing to effect a settlement by peaceful methods, they forced a passage, in the teeth of bitter opposition, through a rocky defile known as 'The Stone Gate,' the portal of the Botan country, and burnt the villages of the murderers ; then, having inflicted upon them the lesson they so richly deserved, they encamped on the east coast and sent out ex- ploring parties into the interior. Thereupon the Chinese authorities, who had but a few months before expressly stated that the districts inhabited by the aborigines were beyond their control, squealed out that the whole island belonged to them and that the Japanese had no right there.
This did not deter the Japanese from continuing the operations they had begun, and the Chinese, fearing that Japan was planning a general attack on them, suggested that they should co-operate in the expedition, and sent a commissioner with this offer to Saigo, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief in Formosa. As by this time the object of the expedition had been practically accomplished, the offer was naturally refused, but after a prolonged and oc- casionally acrimonious conference a basis of agreement was reached and forwarded for the ratification of the respective Governments.
In the meantime consternation as to the intentions of the Japanese prevailed not only in Formosa, but also in China itself: 10,000 reinforcements were despatched to the Formosan garrison and existing 40 APPROACHING FORMOSA
fortifications were strengthened. Relations between the two countries became strained to breaking-point. A settlement was only reached and war only averted by the intervention of Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister at Peking, after the Japanese envoy had broken off negotiations. Thanks to his agency an amicable arrangement was reached, whereby China agreed to pay Japan 100,000 taels for the relief of the families of the shipwrecked Japanese who had been ill-treated or murdered, and to take over, at a price of 400,000 taels, the roads and buildings left by the Japanese—thus sparing herself the humiliation of the word 'indemnity,' although the sum paid was nothing less. China further agreed to recognize Japan's action in sending the expedition as a just and proper proceeding, while, on the understanding that China would establish authority over the unsettled districts and give protection to shipwrecked sailors, Japan agreed to withdraw her troops. War was averted—or rather postponed—and while there is no doubt that Japan got the best of the bargain, there is also no doubt that China deserved to get the worst of it.
The action of Japan in avenging the death of her subjects turned out to be an excellent thing for the welfare of the island in general. The authorities at last bestirred themselves, a better system of administration was introduced, and Taipeh (now known by the Japanese pronunciation Taihoku), a few miles from the northern port of Keelung, was proclaimed the capital of the island. But in 1884 the Chinese received a further shock, for at the close of the Franco-Chinese y?ar a French squadron blockaded FORMOSA CEDED TO JAPAN 41 the island and occupied Keelung for nine months, until the indemnity imposed by France on China was paid.
The Imperial Government then set to work to establish itself more securely in the island, realizing that if it were to be left without more effective defences and in a condition of internal unrest it was a weak spot in the empire 's armour. The island was also created an independent province, administrative reforms were carried out, and a programme of development introduced for improving the harbours and for extending inland communications, the construction of a railway which was to run through the island from north to south being sanctioned.
A certain amount was accomplished, but in 1894 the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and when it was rumoured that the Japanese intended to invade the island the population promptly began to panic. The Japanese started the Formosan campaign in March 1895 by attacking and capturing the Pescadores Islands without serious loss. Three weeks after this, on April 17, Formosa was formally ceded to Japan by the provisions of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty.
The military party in Formosa were in despair. The Treaty had cut the ground from under their feet and surrendered the island before a Japanese soldier had set foot on it. Eather than tamely hand their territory over to the 'Japanese dwarfs' they resolved to make a fight for it, and, as a last resource, hurriedly proclaimed a republic and declared Formosa an independent State, with its former Governor as President.
The Japanese, however, wasted no time in claiming the prize war had brought to them, and, with a loss of two killed and twenty-six wounded, they captured Keelung by June 3. The fall of the capital 42 APPROACHING FORMOSA followed a few days later and the brief sway of the so-called republic in the north came to an untimely end.
The occupation of the central and southern parts of the island presented more formidable obstacles.
The countryside was infested with large bands of quasi-soldiers who adopted guerrilla tactics and gave considerable trouble, while the republicans themselves concentrated at Tainan, electing as their President and Commander-in-Chief a famous pirate called Liu Tung-fu. This worthy was the chief of a gang of rapscallions known in China as the Black Flags, and on the outbreak of hostilities in 1894 had been sent over to Formosa with a number of his band by the authorities, who, too weak to suppress him, thought they had found an excellent way to rid themselves of his embarrassing presence in China. Liu's troops, however, did not live up to the reputation as tigers and fire-eaters they had brought with them from China, and, together with the republican army, they gave way in every action against the Japanese infantry, which pushed on steadily towards Tainan.
Finally, on October 18, Liu, finding that three columns were advancing upon his capital and having made tentative suggestions for a conditional sur- render, realized that his work in Formosa was done and, disguised as a coolie, escaped with his eight dogs on the British steamer Thales. His disappearance put an end to organized military resistance in Formosa. Tainan surrendered unconditionally and was entered by Japanese troops on October 21, and the Formosan republic, its second wind having failed it, breathed no more.
It is difficult not to feel a certain admiration for Liu, even respect. He may have been a pirate, but he certainly loved his best friends : I doubt whether CHINA'S DUPLICITY 43
any other person in history, escaping from a country that has become too hot for him, ever gave serious thought to the saving of one of his dogs—let alone eight of them. Although the Thales was pursued and searched by a Japanese man-of-war, Liu reached China safely and made his way to Canton, where he was received by the authorities with every mark of esteem. Since the former president of the north met with a similar official reception on his arrival in Shanghai, there seems little doubt that China approved, if she did not actually connive at, the formation of the so-called republic and its resistance to the enforcement of the treaty to which she herself had set her hand. This was Mr. Davidson's view. "No further evidence," he maintained, "is required to prove that the opposition in Formosa, the loss of over 12,000 men, Japanese and Chinese, and many millions of dollars, is directly attributable to the duplicity of the Chinese Government. In this trickery, for which modern history shows no parallel, China not only threw herself open to additional punishment from Japan, but she became liable for the total expense that the Japanese incurred in destroying the republic. Had any other nation attempted like treachery it would have been the signal for the immediate recommencement of hostilities." 1 The Japanese, however, realized that there was nothing to be gained by revenging themselves on China. They had got what they wanted. The sur- render of Tainan put them in complete possession of the explored portions of the island; during the campaign they had lost only 164 killed and 515 wounded, although there were many more casualties
1 Op. cit., p. 366. 44 APPROACHING FORMOSA
from sickness and 4,642 deaths. H.I.H. Prince Kitashirakawa, who was in command of the Imperial Guards, himself fell a victim to malaria.
Notwithstanding the surrender of the republic, there still remained a considerable amount of 'mopping up' to be done by the Japanese military authorities, for there were innumerable bands of outlaws and brigands who defied any form of government and resisted the operations to round them up for many years. Gradually, however, the country became pacified, and the Formosans themselves came to realize that the advantages of living a peaceful life under a settled form of government outweighed the attractions of an adventurous existence under a rebel chief.
Like most beautiful things, Formosa has had many owners, but it was left to the Japanese to cut and polish the gem they had coveted so long. During the twenty-eight years Japan has been in possession of the island she has succeeded in developing it in a manner which must be almost, if not quite, unparalleled in the history of civilization. I had heard much of this development, I had read much of it, and, thanks to the good offices of my ' attache ' and to the hospitality of the Japanese Government in Formosa, I was able to see the results with my own eyes