CKUISE OF THE YACHT MAECHESA. 



CHAPTEK I. 



FORMOSA. 



Bad reputation of tlie coast — Treaty with the natives — Islauel of Samasana — Origin 

 of its inhabitants — Cervits 2}seudaxis — A national school — East coast of Formosa 

 — Gigantic precipices — Ascent of a gorge — Steep Island — Keelung— Filthiness 

 of the town — Formosan coal — Overland to Tanisui — Peculiarities of the 

 avifauna — -Chui-teng-ka — Tamsui — Old Spanish fort — Importance of Formosa 

 — Its harbours — Geographical peculiarities — Products — Climate. 



llOWEVEE Uas6 or clis-illusioned a traveller may have become, 

 there must surely be something in the first glimpse of a new land to 

 arouse in him a more than ordinary interest. His last expedition has 

 been, perhaps, a failure. He has projected a book on the religions 

 of West Africa, and has discovered that the gods he has intended 

 for illustration have been constructed in Birmingham ; or he has 

 been hunting in the far interior of the Dark Continent, and has 

 found a billiard talkie and a Good Templars' Lodge where he had 

 hoped for elephants.^ If he be a naturalist he has possibly 

 experienced more instances than he could wish of the destructive 

 powers of the white ant, or, worse fate still, he has reached his 

 journey's end with no collections to destroy. But, with a new 

 country lying before him, all these recollections vanish, and, even 

 if its exploration be impracticable, he none the less conjures 

 up the images of its infinite possibilities. 



^ These two evidences of civilisation are — or rather were in 1877, actually in 

 existence at Molipolele, the capital of Sechele's country, more than a thousand miles 

 north of Cape Town by road. 



VOL. I. B 



tV 



