HILT, TRIBES OF FORMOSA. 73 
disposed towards foreigners, they succeeded in extracting a pro- 
mise, that in the event of European ships landing their crews to 
obtain water, or in the case of wrecked mariners being cast on shore; 
they were, in future, to be well treated and taken care of, &c. One 
stipulation of Tox i Tox’s was, that vessels anchoring there must 
fly a red flag, boats landing men and people wrecked in that neigh- 
bourhood must shew a red flag, and Tox ?t Tox and his tribe would 
not molest them. It is to be hoped that Tox t Tox and his sue- 
cessors will abide by the terms of this important little treaty. 
There was also the case of a Li Chiian junk lost higher up on 
the East Coast, the crew of which was supposed by the Japanese 
Government to have been murdered by the savages. The event 
led to a serious misunderstanding between China and Japan, 
which was patched up by the payment to the Japanese of a heavy 
indemnity. ; 
The chances, in recent times, of wrecked people being allowed to 
settle in the country, especially on the East Coast, seem to have 
been very slight, but, in earlier times, many unfortunate castaways 
may have been permitted to retain a footing in the island, and may 
have been strong enough to establish one, and, in course of time, 
may have married into a tribe and become amalgamated with it. 
In continuation of the subject. and bearing very closely on the 
general idea that the population of the island has been mixed up 
by the periodical advent of castaways, it is probably in the re- 
collection of one or two residents in the island that, on a certain 
day not many years ago, two or three savage-looking canoes of a 
huge catamaran type suddenly made their appearance in the bay of 
Kelung, and, on being encouraged to land, out jumped a dozen or 
more of half-starved men, who proved to be Pellew islanders. 
On looking at the Map of Asia and Pacific Ocean, it will be 
seen what an enormous distance these men must have come in 
these open boats. They were a dark-skinned frizziy-haired lot, 
a half-starved, wild-looking set of men, and were anxious to en- 
gratiate themselves with the friendly foreigners and inquisitive 
Chinamen whom they found on shore. Attempts were made to 
interrogate them in many different dialects, but not a single word 
except one struck the ear as being familar, and that was the word 
