I S L E O F F O R M O S A. ,149 



On the ille of A-mwy is a vaft rocking flone of forty tons Rocking Stone. 

 weight, moveable by the flighteft touch. Whether it is treated 

 with fuperftitious refpecft, as the Britons did their Loggan-Jione, 

 Hamilton does not inform us. A ftone of this kind is found in 

 Cachemire, which the Mullahs or priefts fay is moved by the 

 miraculous power of the faint to whom it is dedicated. 



The great ifland of Formofa, or 'Ta-zvan as it is called by the Isle op 



Formosa; 



Cbinefe^ lies off the coaft of Foo-tchieny at the diftance of about 

 fixty miles from the neareft place. The length is ninety leagues, 

 the greateft breadth about thirty. It is of a curvated form, with 

 the convexity facing the continent; the tropic of Cancer palTes 

 over it, at the diftance of a hundred and five miles from the 

 fouthern end, almoft dividing it in equal parts. It is very lin- 

 gular, that notwithftanding its proximity it was unknown to the 

 Chinefe till the year 1430, when a eunuch of that nation, returning 

 from the weft, was driven there byatempeft. This was not imme- 

 diately produfl^ive of any confequences, nor did his countrymen 

 profit of the difc{)very before the laft century, when, in the reign 

 of the emperor Kang-Hi, it was invaded by the famous Coxinga^ 

 who conquered at Lift the weftern part, not for the empire of 

 China, but for himfelf. At that time the kings oi ^ang-tung 

 and Foo-tchien had revolted from the empire. As foon as their 

 rebellion was quelled, Kang-hi, in 1683, was put in poffeftion of as 

 TCiWi^ oi Formoja as the young defcendant oiCoxinga had power 

 to yield. 



The Japanefe feized on this ifland about the year 1620. 

 The Dutch, in their way from 'Japan, about the year 1633 rnade 

 here a fettlement. The manner of obtaining it, and their future 



expulfion, 



