I.] SAMASANA. 



now be considered tolerably safe, but for any one in search of 

 adventure, the east coast still remains open. It is more than 

 doubtful, however, whether the results of the explorer's experiences 

 would ever be given to the world. 



We ran in towards the land to reconnoitre the fort to which I 

 have just alluded, and made out the Chinese flag which was hoisted 

 above it. We had, however, no intention of landing, and on rounding 

 the Nan-sha Cape altered course for the little island of Samasana. 

 Aided by the Kurosiwo or Japanese current, which sweeps up the 

 eastern side of Formosa at the rate of from thirty to forty miles a 

 day, we passed the coast rapidly, and finally dropped anchor about 

 noon in a bay on the north-west side of the island. 



Samasana was visited by Sir Edward Belcher in the Samarang 

 in 1845, and again by H.M.S. Sylvia in 1867, but we could not 

 discover that any other vessel had been there subsequently. It is 

 a small island, hardly two miles in length, chiefly composed of 

 coralline limestone, which at the western point forms curiously- 

 shaped pinnacles of rock, pierced in places with high arches. We 

 were soon in communication with the natives, who are partly the 

 descendants of Chinese from the Amoy province, intermixed, to 

 judge from the darkness of their skin and other characteristics, 

 with Formosan aborigines, or possibly with natives of the Meiaco- 

 sima, or Liu-kiu islands. They had brought off some vegetables in 

 their clumsy-looking sampans, which they bartered for tobacco and 

 handkerchiefs, and made signs to us that, if necessary, more could 

 be obtained. We rowed ashore through a curious little channel 

 cut m the coral reef to enable boats to be launched at all states of 

 the tide, and found that the whole viUage had turned out en masse 

 to inspect us. The people were in many respects unlike the 

 Chinese in appearance, being guiltless of pig-tail, and wearing the 

 hair in a tangled mass behind. The huts were mud-built, and 

 roofed with the leaves of the Pandanus, which grew in abundance 

 tlu'oughout the island. Tied up to stakes in close proximity to them 

 were several of the bea\itiful species of spotted deer peculiar to 



