FORMOSA 



BY OLD CATHAY. 



The island of Formosa, or Taiwan, originally the largest 

 insular possession of China, was formally ceded to Japan in 

 1895, and is now becoming so thoroughly surveyed and 

 developed by its new rulers that the following notes may 

 prove not uninteresting from a European point of view. 



Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark that under the fierce 

 latter-day competition of the Japanese, the trading interests 

 of all European firms on the Island have steadily declined. 



"Formosa," or "The beautiful Isle," as the Portugese 

 first named it, extends between 22° and 26° N. Lat., and 

 120° to 122° E. Long. By the British Treaty signed in 

 Peking in 1858 three of its ports were thrown open to foreign 

 commerce; viz. Tarnsui and Kelung on the North, and Takao 

 on the South. From thence an increasing trade has been 

 carried on by a few British firms; branches from the Main- 

 land ports of Amoy and Foochow; the principal exports being 

 Manchester goods, opium and a few sundries; the chief 

 exports are sugar and rice from the South; tea, sugar, hemp, 

 camphor, liquid indigo, rice and coal from the North. 



A large traffic is also carried on by Chinese merchants in 

 junks; they, in exchange for export products supplying the 

 emigrants to the Island with clothing materials, agricultural 

 implements, raw cotton, crockery, and many other articles of 

 every-day use which are best obtained from the mainland 

 ports. The Island is rich in natural products and extremely 

 fertile. Its Northern coalfields are extensive and only await 

 the introduction of mining machinery to turn out large 

 supplies of coal for steam purposes; its mountain ranges 

 abound with valuable timbers — sixty different kinds have 

 been collected — some of very fine grain; two Solfataras are 

 known, from which the purest sulphur might be readily 

 procured; whilst the locale of petroleum oil springs has been 

 discovered, the natives in their vicinity employing the oil 

 in its crude state for lighting purposes. 



The great drawbacks of the Island are, want of deep- 

 water harbours, — that of Kelung on the North being the only 

 one suited to a deep-draught vessel, — and the excessive 



