THE MAN-EATERS OF FORMOSA. 
163 
penal settlement of the Chinese, and that those two fel- 
lows were convicts who thus escaped their punishment, 
I will say nothing more about Formosa for the present. 
We left its shores about as wise as we were upon our ar- 
rival, and it was not until our second visit that we picked 
up what little information now exists upon the files of the 
Expedition in regard to it. Upon leaving Keilung for 
Hong-Kong we kept along the east coast of the island, in 
the vain search for a reported harbour. There was nothing 
to be seen but an iron-bound coast with ran^e after rancre 
o o 
of lofty mountains lifting themselves above the heavy 
surf that broke along the entire beach. One day we 
thought we had discovered it: we saw ahead the smoke of 
distant villages rising back of a bight in the coast which 
looked very much like a harbour; but, upon approaching 
it, we found ourselves mistaken. We, however, lowered 
a boat and attempted to land, but the surf was breaking 
so furiously that it would have been madness to have 
entered it. Besides, the beach was crowded by naked 
and excited savages, whom it was generally reported 
were cannibals, and into whose company we should con- 
sequently have preferred being thrown with reliable arms 
in our hands. The two convicts, whom the captain had 
taken in the boat to interpret in case of his being able to 
land, became so frightened at the savage appearance of 
those reported man-eaters, that they went on their knees 
to him, protesting, through the steward, that the islanders 
had eaten many of their countrymen, and that if he went 
any nearer they would do the same by him and the 
boat’s crew. Finding it impossible to pass the surf, the 
boat returned on board, and we squared away for Hong- 
