Sketches from Formosa.

48
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
influences. No one seems to care for them, and one
generation after another has passed away without their
once having had an opportunity of listening to the words
one admits that much
of eternal life. Of course, every
Christian effort is needed for dealing with such a great
imperial race as the Chinese ;
but surely the claims of
the weak, the solitary, and the few, ought also to be
acknowledged. By so doing, we follow in the very footsteps
of Christ, while it would be difficult to name a more
patent means of blessing to the Church itself than the
labours of men like Williams in Erromango, of Gardiner
among the Patagonians, or of those noble Moravian
brethren who labour at many isolated parts of the Foreign
Mission field. In the present case, it may be suggested
that the junk which brings tribute annually from
Miyako Sima by way of Fuh-chau, might afford an
opportunity to the many missionaries in that Provincial
city for something being done.
There is almost nothing to remark about the occasional
glimpses we had of the land on our left. It is such a
shelterless rock-bound coast that we were compelled to
stand well out to sea, and only at Black-rock Bay and
Dome Point did the objects on shore come well into
sight. Immediately north of these, the great wooded
mountains rise six and seven thousand feet from the
water's edge, while, little more than a mile off, no bottom
can be found after running out one hundred and fifteen
fathoms of line. It will thus be seen that what with
strong currents, a very deep sea, and want of harbour
accommodation, Formosa can never be advantageously
developed from its eastern side.
On arriving at Tamsui, I called a small boat and was
rowed across to the residence of Mr. Mackay. He gave
me a truly Highland welcome. The thinness of our
ranks here tends all the more to increase the joy of