Sketches from Formosa.

XLVIII
WORK OF THE EARLY DUTCH MISSION
ACCORDING to the narrative of the historian Valentyn,
it was in 1624 when the Dutch East India Company
had secured its position on Formosa, and had commenced
to trade with the natives and to colonize the country
that the Authorities in Holland began to be solicitous
about sending forth ministers of the Gospel to benefit
their fellow-countrymen, 'and to seek the extension of
God's Kingdom among the rude
the Island.
heathen inhabitants of
To begin with, only two Scripture readers were sent
out ;
but as one of them, Michiel Theodori, was recalled
to Batavia soon after his arrival, the carrying on of the
work devolved upon Dirk Laurenzoon, who continued
till May, 1627.
The first Christian minister designated to Formosa
was the pious George Candidius. He arrived on the
4th of May, 1627, an(^ entered immediately upon those
labours which proved so helpful to the furtherance of
a most gracious and widespread movement. Like a true
zealot, he began by making himself familiar with the
language and religion of the natives, and then led them
into the right way of salvation, having much fruit amongst
this poor people, and being the means, not without great
toil, of bringing many of them from the power of sin and
superstition into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
After labouring thus for about two years, the Rev.
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