Entranoa to the Harbour of Ta-kau. 



CHAPTEE III. 



FORMOSA. 



TA-KAU-CON, AND THE PESCADORES ISLANDS. 



Character of Native Race —Dutch Occupation — Treaty Ports — East Coast — 

 Arrive at Ta-kau— Lagoon — Apes' Hill— Land Crabs— Leaping Fishes 

 — Walk in the Country —Water Buffaloes — Padi Birds — Village of 

 Pi-hi-kun — Chinese Ladies — The Pescadores — Ponghou — Makung — 

 Cheap Provisions— Cuttle Fish — Absence of Trees and Birds — The 

 Socks — Visit the Mandarin — Photography — Wreckers. 



The CMnese do not appear to have been acquainted with 

 the existence of the Island of Formosa, or Tai-wan, untU the 

 year 1431 a.d., a circumstance which does not speak much 

 for the naval enterprise of a people who had possessed the 

 mariner's compass for so many centuries. It was originally 

 inhabited by a race who were described as — ^the men of tall 

 stature, very corpulent, and having a complexion between 

 brown and yellow, who went naked during the summer — 



D 2 



