fine harbors on the east coast;’ whereas we of the Hancock searched in vain for any such
place of refuge along that entire shore. On the north and west coasts they are quite
plentiful.
“ •After anchoring in one of these ‘ fine harbors,’ the Count goes on to give us an idea of
the people who received him : they were Indians, savages, and very fierce, — so much so
that they soon attempted the murder of a party that had visited their village. He now
killed a great many of them, got up his anchor, and went to an adjoining harbor, where he
was most graciously received for having slain so many of their enemies of the place they
had just left. Here he fell in with a prince, who persuaded him into an alliance against
another prince, and thus they fought for some time. Finally, he drags himself from the
island, much to the distress of the prince his ally, who loads him down with gold and silver.
It is impossible to read the Count’s narrative and say what he did see. He was evidently a
blood-relative of the Munchausën family.
“ And now, having shown what others say in regard to Formosa, let us return to the
‘ old John,’ whom we left at anchor under shelter of its west coast, at the close of a stormy
day. Here is what my journal says in regard to our arrival, and to what we saw and did
upon the following days :•—
“ s We could see nothing that night save an extensive stretch of white sand-beach backed
by a sloping green, in the rear of which we imagined we saw a village slumbering under the
deepening shadows of a high range of mountains. But this village existed, many said, only
in the vivid imaginations of a few, and it was not until darkness had become sufficiently
dense to reflect its many lights, that the fact was generally admitted. The next morning,
however, we had a most refreshing view spread out before us, ■—green slopes and waving
fields of grain, broken here and there by extensive tracts of table-land, over which we could
see the cattle roving in their lazy search for the more tender mouthfuls of the abundant
grass.’ * * * * .
“ ‘During the night the gale fortunately abated, and the next morning ‘bust-proof’ and
his master, several others of the mess, and myself, ventured into our best-pulling boat and
struck out boldly for the beach. It was a hard and wet pull ; but something over three-
quarters of an hour sufficed to cross the stormy half mile that separated us, and, as the
keel grated with welcome harshness on the sand, we felt ourselves once more on shore.
What if the boat was half full of water, and we like half-drowned rats? we were still on
shore.
“ ‘ We landed upon this strange and crowded beach without fear, simply from the fact
that, while yet some distance off, we had readily recognised the natives as Chinese, and,
although they were all armed with either the matchlock or bow and arrow, we knew too
much of their race to anticipate violence. This crowd, which received us in a most noisy
manner, was composed of men, women, and children,—the males of almost every age being
armed. We had taken the precaution to bring one of our Chinese mess-boys with us ; but,
their language being neither the Mandarin, Canton, or Shanghæ dialect, he at first found
great difficulty in making himself understood. After a while, however, by the aid of the
few words common to each, and a fearful amount of violent pantomime on our part, we succeeded
in exchanging ideas with tolerable freedom.
“ ‘ From all that we could learn from them in this way, it seems that they exist in a state
of perpetual warfare with their savage neighbors of the east coast. The island being very
narrow there, the latter find no difficulty in crossing the mountain-ridge which, like a huge
back-bone, divides the two territories, capturing cattle, making prisoners, burning isolated
habitations, and then retreating into their mountain-fastnesses, where they are never followed
by their unwarlike victims. Thus, we always found the latter armed with sword
matchlock, or bow and arrow, and confining themselves strictly to their fields and pasture-
grounds. Whenever we evinced a disposition to ascend the bushy sides of the neighboring
hills, they became greatly alarmed, caught hold of our clothes, threw themselves in our
paths, and made signs to us that our throats would be certainly cut and we roasted for
supper by bad men who were very strong and fierce, and who wore large rings in their ears.
We did not know what to make of all this at first; but Hartman, who had wandered off by
himself in search of snipe, rejoined us shortly before dark, and opened our eyes.
“ I Having unconsciously wandered over the low land and ascended a neighboring elevation,
he had seated himself upon a fragment of rock, and was admiring the view which
opened before him, when his ear suddenly caught a sound as of some animal making its
way cautiously through the bushes. He turned quickly, and saw a party of three, whom
he had no difficulty in recognizing as ‘bad men who wore large rings in their ears.’
‘“ Here was a fix for our innocent sportsman: he must either retire with an imaginary
tail between his legs, or face boldly the unlooked-for danger. Fortunately, he was a man
of nerve, and was moreover armed with a shot-gun, bowie-knife, and revolver.. Choosing,
therefore, the latter alternative, he arose with a great air of non-she-lan-cy (as I once
heard the word pronounced by an American who had been to Paris), and advanced to the
nearest, a tall, fine-looking fellow, who rested upon his bow and fixed his gaze curiously
upon him. Hartman says that he whistled with considerable success portions of a popular
air as he thus went, as it were, into the lion’s mouth, but never before felt such a longing
to be safely on the distant decks of the much-abused ‘ old John.’ He soon joined this
princely-looking savage, and as the others drew near he made a careful but hurried survey
of their personal appearance, exchanged a Mexican dollar for the bow and arrow of one of
them, evidently against the will of the surprised owner, and then leisurely retraced his way
until an intervening clump of trees enabled him with safety to call upon his legs to do their
duty. It is needless to remark that the vocal music and the air of ‘non-she-lan-cy’ expired
in each other’s arms at this point. He ran for a mile or more before evincing the slightest
curiosity to know if he was followed.’
“ He described them as being of large stature, fine forms, copper-colored, high cheek-bones,
heavy jaws, coarse black hair reaching to the shoulders, and boasting no clothing save the
maro, and a light cotton cloth over the shoulders,—very much like our North American Indians,
he thought. No wonder that such a miserable race as the Chinese should hold them
in dread: in fact, the only wonder is that they have the courage to remain on the same
island. I suppose that our innocent sportsman is the first member of civilization who has
had a close view of these reputed cannibals since Benyowsky, the Polish Count, cruised
along their shelterless shores in 1790, since which time they have been more out of the
world even than the Japanese. These singularly-captured bow and arrows are now in the
collection of the Expedition. * * * * *
“ More than once, however, impelled by our excessive curiosity to learn more of these
unknown people, did we attempt to land; and more exciting attempts at shore-going I never
participated in. Upon one of these occasions we entered upon the dangerous trial with two
of our best boats; but, upon nearly losing the inner one, with all who were in her, we
wisely returned on board. We got more than one near view of the savages, however, heard
their voices, and answered their signs; but all this only increased our desire to know more
of them, for now we saw that they were veritable red men; and what were red men doing
on the island of Formosa?
“ From what I could see over the distance which separated our boat from the crowded
beach, I found the previous description of our ‘ innocent sportsman ’ substantiated by my
own eyes and those of others. We saw an excited crowd of fine-looking men and women,
copper-colored, and possessed of the slightest possible amount of clothing,— the former
boasting only a cloth tied around the head, while the latter had but a thin loose garment
that seemed to gather around the throat and extended no farther than the knee. Some of
the men were armed with bow and arrow, others with very serviceable-looking matchlocks;
the women held various articles in their hands, probably for barter, and, as we pulled
away after our narrow escape, they evinced their sorrow and desire to trade by loud cries
and the most violent gestures. Our Chinese boy had almost fainted from fright as the inner