Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 674

FORMOSA

This island, one of the largest in Asia, is situated between latitude 22 and 26 degrees N., and longitude 120 and 122 degrees E., and is separated from the coast of Fukien, China, by a channel about one hundred miles in width. It is a prolongation of the Japanese and Loochoo Archipelagoes, and in 1895 was incorporated in the Jap anese empire. Its name Formosa, signifying “beautiful island," was conferred by the Portuguese, the first Europeans to visit it, but it was called Taiwan (Great Bay) by the Chinese, to whom it belonged from 1661 to 1894. It is said that the Japanese endeavoured to form a colony in the island in 1620, but large numbers of Chinese were settled there prior to that date. The Dutch arrived in 1634, and founded several settlements, and traces of their occupation are still to be found in the island, but they were compelled in 1661 to retire by the Chinese pirate chief Koxinga, who then assumed the sovereignty of western Formosa. His grandson and successor, however, was induced, twenty-two years later, to resign the crown to the Emperor of China. By the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which terminated the war between China and Japan in 1895, the island was ceded to Japan as one of the conditions of peace, and on the 1st June, 1895, the formal surrender was made, the ceremony taking place on board ship outside Keelung. The resident Chinese officials, however, declared a republic, and offered resistance, and it was not until the end of October that the opposing forces were completely overcome, the last stand being made in the south by Liu Yung-fu, the Black Flag General, of Tonkin notoriety. Takow was bombarded and captured on 15th October, and Anping was peacefully occupied on the 21st of the same month, Liu Yung-fu having taken refuge in flight.

Formosa is about 260 miles in length, and from 60 to 70 miles broad in the widest part. It is intersected from north to south by a range of mountains, which forms a kind of backbone to the island, the loftiest peak of which, Mount Morrison (Niitakayaına,) is 13,880 feet high. On the western side of this range the slope is more gradual than on the eastern side, and broken by fertile valleys which lose themselves in the large undulating plain on which the Chinese are settled. The whole of the territory east of the dividing chain is peopled by an aboriginal race who acknowledged no allegiance to the Chinese Government and made frequent raids upon the outlying Chinese settlements, and they have proved troublesome also to the Japanese, notwith- standing that the latter spare no effort to establish amicable relations with them. They are a savage and warlike people, allied to the Malays and Polynesians, and live principally by the chase.

The total population of Formosa is given as 3,221,886. The Chinese population is about 3,036,855, whilst 569 tribes of aborigines, described in the returns as savages. aggregate approximately 100,000 persons. The latest census returns give the number or Japanese in the island as 83,329. The revenue down to 1904 averaged about 20,000,000 yen a year, but in 1905-6 it amounted to yen 25,414,146, in 1906-7 to yen 26,127,608, 1907-8 to yen 29,257,171, and for 1908-9 it is estimated at yen 33,870,000. For the cur rent year the estimate is yen 29,951,449. The value of the exports to foreign countries in 1906 was yen 9,779,084, and imports from foreign countries amounted t yen 12,738,460. For 1907 the figures were: Exports yen 9,741,429, imports yen 11,220,686, and for 1908 exports yen 9,297,875 and imports 17,074,766. The trade with Japan in 1996 was returned as exports yen 18,259,527, imports yen 15,634,339; 1907 exports were yen 17,634,673, imports yen 19,750,445, and 1908 exports yen 24,423,387, imports yen 20,926,859.

The productions of Formosa are numerous, vegetation being everywhere st luxuriant, testifying to the richness of the soil. Tea and camphor are

are largely Rice cultivated and exported, and a considerable industry in sugar is also growing up. is likewise largely cultivated, and these two articles are extensively shipped Japan. The fauna includes bears, monkeys, deer, wild boar, badgers, inartens, the scaly ant-eater, and other smaller animals. Birds are not very numerous