384 EfeUMl 



owing to the higher mountain ranges. The large island 

 of Formosa has had many jealous eyes on it for years, 

 hut, so far, no opportunity has been obtained by any 

 to give a fair excuse why it should change hands. 

 China, of course, prefers retaining it in her own hands. 

 The greater part of the island is mountainous and wUd, 

 and to this day is in the hands of the aborigines of the 

 land, who are of a Malay type, and not Chinese or 

 Mongolian. On the east side are magnificent plains 

 teeming with sugar-cane. The extraction of the sac- 

 charine substance is done in the most wasteful and 

 pitiable manner possible. A large field for European 

 enterprise may be found here if only the island were in 

 other hands. One drawback, by no means a small one, 

 is the great want of harbours ; the few that there are, 

 are all on the west side, and these are only small and 

 indifferent ones. 



H.M.S. "SYLVIA," 



