Sketches from Formosa.

THE SEK-HWAN ABORIGINES 35
were considered worthy of being received into Church
fellowship, and I was glad to see that the Christian
education of the children was not being neglected. Many
of those were already able to read the Chinese New Testa-
ment, and a class for learning the Romanized form of the
language had some bright lads in it, who may yet become
useful schoolmasters or preachers of the Gospel.
We regretted that an engagement to be in Toa-sia on
Sabbath evening prevented us from spending the whole
day at Lai-sia, but our two short services in the early
morning proved to be most helpful. At the former, Dr.
Dickson preached from Rom. x. 1-4 before the thirteen
enquirers were baptized ; and, on reassembling soon
after, I simply tried to narrate the events of " that night
on which He was betrayed." While looking over the
large and deeply interested audience, one could scarcely
realize that, only two years ago, tfye very name of this
village was unknown to the outside world, and that
every man and woman before me was then an ignorant
worshipper of heathen gods.
It was truly worth the toil
of all our long walk to have the privilege of even seeing
the change which had taken place.
The brethren were very sorry when the time came for us
to leave. On account of the distance from headquarters,
and there being only one clerical member of the Mission
at Taiwan-fu (myself), they cannot have more than two
pastoral visits during the course of each year, while our
stay with them on the present occasion had been most
helpful to every one. I suppose the whole of the inhabitants
lined the way to the gate of the village when we
were about to start : I could see tears in many an eye.
They kept signalling after us till our little company was
out of sight, and took every way of showing their deep
appreciation of our visit. I shall not soon forget my first
brief sojourn at Lai-sia. It is a cleanly, sequestered, and