Sketches from Formosa.

IO8 SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
to be dealt with, while the careful examination of fifty
candidates resulted in five men and five women being
passed for baptism. The afternoon congregation numbered
about six hundred, some of the people coming
from distant sequestered villages, and all of them show-
ing an amount of intelligent interest which was truly
gratifying.
It is well to think of the remarkably fine opportunity
we have in Po-li-sia at present. Our work has brought
the place into considerable prominence of late, and I
should not be surprised if a large number of Chinese
soldiers and immigrants soon found their way into it.
Now is the time for us to build up and extend with all our
might. I feel much satisfied that the erection of the
three chapels is nearing completion. They are made
of sun-dried bricks, and covered with tiles instead of the
usual grass ;
each of them having also an upper storey or
loft for our own personal accommodation. In the Toa-
lam building, the upper gallery makes quite a comfortable
place in which to sleep. It is both wide and cleanly, and
is carried round three sides of the chapel, leaving the
middle part open, and giving the whole interior an
appearance like some of the little country churches in
Scotland. This chapel could not be put up in Ka-gi
or Taiwan-fu under a thousand dollars, but materials and
work are much cheaper in Po-li-sia. It is the first build-
ing there on which any money from England
has been
expended. The erection of it by the brethren had been
such a large undertaking that I promised to send fifty
dollars from the Mission purse for finishing the roof.
We think our native friends are much to be commended
in thus showing the value they attach to Christian
ordinances. Their example has been very stimulating
at the other stations. One of the adherents (a wor-
shipper who has not yet received baptism) gave