Sketches from Formosa.

THE SEK-HWAN ABORIGINES 37
hard travel through a wild and uninhabited region, where
bands of head-hunting savages kept roaming about,
fifty-eight of the Sek-hwan brethren, armed with guns
and long knives, volunteered to act as our body-guard ;
but, on declining the use of their services, they said their
weapons were only meant to secure some of the heavy
game we were sure to meet with on the way. I may say
that our opposition was afterwards withdrawn on account
of the little we ourselves knew of the true position of
things, and because travelling in this somewhat militant
style received a certain amount of sanction from the
Chinese mandarin who joined our party for the sake of
the escort.
We walked single file, and the party presented quite a
warlike appearance in passing along. For the first few
miles our course lay in a south-easterly direction. Soon,
however, the last houses were left behind, and we struck
inland to begin the real work of climbing over hills and
wandering through jungle and water in what seemed the
most aimless and zigzag fashion. There was no trace of
a road here, and the knives of the advance-party had
constantly to be used in clearing our way. Although it
required a considerable amount of exertion to keep
together, the greatest good-nature prevailed, and every one
seemed willing to help his neighbour. At one stage we
had to break up into small companies while breasting the
waters of a deep rushing river ;
at another, the least false
step over the great shelving rocks we had to cross would
have hurled us into the tarn beneath ; while, further on,
we walked through narrow gorges from which the light
of the mid-day sun was well-nigh excluded by over-
hanging masses of thick foliage. So far as the magnificent
scenery of this part of Formosa is concerned, I cannot
attempt even a brief description. The luxuriant brightlycoloured
vegetation, the forests with their tangled