Sketches from Formosa.

208 SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
and where he now renewed some friendships among
people he was intimate with before he became a Christian
three years ago. We reached this town on Wednesday
afternoon, and at once noticed the improved appearance
of the place and people as compared with what is seen
in other Chinese and aboriginal centres. It was really
remarkable to miss the long rows of gambling tables at
this time of the year.
of the kind going on at all ;
There seemed to be no occupation
and on enquiry it turned out
that Tan Toa-lo, the local mandarin, was one who exer-
cised the strictest discipline on all offenders who were
brought before him. Opium-smoking was sternly dis-
couraged, and he simply would not tolerate gambling on
any account.
Being off the main road to the North, Europeans
seldom visit this town, so that curiosity must have been
the leading motive in now causing such large crowds to
follow us. On saying we had come to preach to them,
they cried out that the largest temple was unoccupied,
that if we went there they could hear better, and we
would be out of the way of interrupting other people.
To this temple, therefore, we went, and in less than half
an hour, there met before us an audience which our senior
colporteur characterized as being the largest and best
behaved he had ever addressed in Formosa. The templekeeper
kindly brought out a bench, and on this we
alternately stood while addressing the dense crowd which
filled the temple, and every part of the first court.
I think that the three of us who spoke received the aid
of God's Holy Spirit, and it was most delightful to witness
in which Brother
the entirely manful yet modest way
Tiau was enabled to speak. It was his first visit to the
place since he left Ka-gi. He was then a poor ignorant
lad, who had no hope of rising above the position of an
ordinary coolie or petty hawker ;
one, too, who was both