HILL £RIBES OF FORMOSA. #5 
quently carried by the force of the Ku-ro-si-wo from the neigh- 
bourhood of the South Cape of Formosa to the North-east end of the 
island, in perfectly calm weather, without any assistance of sails. 
This fact is well known to mariners, and, in certain seasons of the 
year (North-east Monsoon), it is considered often advisable to go 
to the Eastward of the island rather than to beat wp the Formosa 
Channel—the “Black Stream,” as it is called, being nothing more 
nor Jess than a strong tide running in a Northerly direction. 
This current, flowing as it does past the Philippines, directly 
towards Formosa, possibly, in the far away past, brought to the 
island the first specimens of humanity. It is not unlikely that 
boats containing fishermen, perhaps their wives or daughters and 
sons, engaged in fishing on the Coast of Luzon or Mindanfo or even 
further South, have, on numerous occasions, been carried away by 
the force of the Ku-ro-si-wo Northward, and, like the fishermen of 
the Bashee Island, been taken to the Coast of Formosa. It is indeed 
most probable that the force of the storm drove the Pellew Islanders 
right into this current, for, without the assistance of some such aid, 
it is hard to understand how, after the gale had abated, they were 
able to propel their canoes to such a distance as Kelung. It will 
be seen from the foregoing, that a separate creation of man was not 
absolutely necessary in this Eden of islands. 
On questioning the aborigines of the hills, as to where they 
originally came from, they invariably pointed Southwards, remark- 
ing that the place was distant very many “sun-go-downs,” mean- 
ing many days’ journey Southward. The expression “ Jib wa gti,” 
our day of twenty-four hours, timing from sunset to sunset, is a 
common mode of expressing the distance, or time it would take to 
so from one place to another. IJ feel convinced that the hill tribes 
originally came from the South and gradually extended themselves 
Northward, keeping always to the mountains in preference to the 
plains. I do not believe that any body of them were the offspring 
of men from the Eastern and Northern islands of Mei-a-co-si-ma, 
Lu Chi, or Japan, although it is said that a Japanese Colony once 
existed at Kelung, and at a time when perhaps the savages, and 
certainly the Peppowhans, resided there (as many of the latter 
do to this day) though their numbers are yery insignificant. 
