Sketches from Formosa.

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pitied and hated for having accepted the invitation of the
foreigner that he should come for Christian training to
Taiwan-fu. Indeed, some of the Thaw-khaw people
seriously believed that we had made away with Mr. Tiau,
and that there was no likelihood of his ever being seen
again. In spite, however, of all their absurd rumours,
he was here amongst them once more ; and although he
had departed for a season, it would be difficult to infer
from his neat, genteel appearance, or the brave, earnest
words he spoke, that the Church was an institution for
harming people, and giving them hearts of beasts, as
some of the Chinese firmly believe.
Brother Li Pa, the senior colporteur, also spoke with
great liberty, his address occupying more than an hour.
It was while noticing the effect which their fervent
evangelical words produced, that I felt increasingly the
importance of having a band of well-trained natives to
assist us in our work. Oh, that we had even one such
man stationed in every town and village of the island !
Although our meeting was a protracted one and we were
feeling very tired, the people urged us to begin the sale of
tracts to them, and were quietened only when we
promised to remain a day longer that they might have
another opportunity of hearing and obtaining copies of
our publications. We, accordingly, had three large
open-air meetings on Thursday, at which about five
hundred tracts were readily purchased.
It was also about this time that three of the students
and myself had rather a good day at Sin-kang, a large
Chinese market-town about eight miles northward from
Taiwan-fu, and interesting as having been the head-
quarters of the Dutch Mission to Formosa during
the first
half of the seventeenth century. Many of the present in-
habitants had been inmates of the Taiwan-fu Hospital at
one time or another ; and, only a few weeks before the visit
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