198 HILL TRIBES OF FORMOSA. 
hearsay of their existence. All, however, of the border tribes have 
come in contact with the hardy Chinese pioneers, and have acquired 
thereby certain knowledge, such as the use of fire arms, of gun- 
powder, of the beneficial effect of salt as a condiment, and of the 
soothing influence of tobacco (which plant seems to be indigenous 
like hemp, camphor-tree, &c.**) ; like other savages too, they have 
developed most perfectly an insatiable liking for alcoholic drinks, 
Drink will assuredly prove their ruin, for it is the best weapon 
the Chinese have and they often use it freely and after making the 
poor savages drunk, cut their heads off, and so assist materially in 
the incessant work of extermination. and consequent acquisition of 
new territory, 
It has been said that certain savages living towards the south of the 
island claim to be descendants of Dutchmen, but I have never seen 
them. and am disinclined .to believe that the Dutch made much 
impression beyond the plain lands of the west in the neighbour- 
hood of Taiwanfoo and other places on the western and northern 
coast. Books have been written by Dutch travellers about For- 
mosa, giving descriptions of the country and its savage inhabitants, 
but I am inclined to think that the savages they came in contact 
with, instructed and improved, were our friends the Pepowhans of 
the plain lands and not the savages of the mountains. 
The most powerful evidence to be brought to bear on the proba- 
ble origi of the hill tribes will possibly come from craniologists, 
but here again a difficulty of an almost insurmountable nature will 
arise, as the small round-shaped heads of the northern tribes may, 
on examination, shew many diversities of configuration, and when 
compared with the larger skulls of the mop-headed savages of the 
southern hills, the differences in the facial angle may be, as 1 am 
sure they are, very great. 
In the north, the heads of savages seem to be extremely small 
and almost circular, and the caps they wear are nearly all quite 
round, resembling somewhat an inverted finger-glass. 
The hair of the northern savages is lank and straight, invariably 
black, and much finer than the hair of Chinese. They wear it 
* (‘Tobacco was introduced into the Far Hast by the Portuguese in the 16th 
Century.—ED. | 
