Sketches from Formosa.

CONTROVERSY AMONG THE CONVERTS 113
I desired. After many months of this isolation, rumours
began to reach us of some trouble which had arisen ;
so serious that a considerable company of the worshippers
had hived off from the main body, and were meeting in a
great ramshackle bamboo building they had put up for
themselves in the adjoining village of Pan-san-chu.
I therefore hesitated no longer, but started at once with
a trustworthy Chinese friend on our long, toilsome journey.
We arrived on Friday night, and made full enquiry on the
Saturday
disturbance arose in a very simple way, and could easily
; being greatly relieved to find that the whole
be put right. I should here explain that the irregularly
issued yearly calendar sheet then made use of in Formosa
always changed the number of days in each month, and
on its appearance in that village one Saturday morning,
a brother came out of his house in the village, and commenced
vigorously to beat his bamboo drum which called
the people to worship ; whereupon
a crowd of the
neighbours came out, some of them unwillingly, because
they said that to-morrow was worship-day, but others
acquiescing and assembling in the chapel for Sabbath
observance in the usual way.
As an inkling of how things were to go had already
leaked out, I ascended the earthen platform next
morning with a somewhat heavy heart, because the
Saturday-ites contained the very cream of our congregation,
and I well knew I had no via media, or easy way
of letting them down. There was a very full attendance
of brethren and outsiders that morning ;
the Sunday-ites
forming a solid phalanx on the right, and our Saturday
friends presenting a rather subdued appearance on the
left.
I opened proceedings by explaining how the little
mistake had arisen, but expressed an earnest hope that
all would now agree
8
to let by-gones be by-gones, and