an island in the Pacific Ocean, between 119° and 122° of E. Long. and 22° and 25° N. Lat. about 100 miles east of Canton in China. It is subject to the Chinese; who, however, notwithstanding its vicinity, did not know of its existence until the year 1430. It is about 85 leagues in length, and 25 in breadth. A long chain of mountains, which runs from north to south, divides it into two parts, the eastern and western. The Dutch formed an establishment in the western part in 1634, and built the fort of Zeeland, which secured to them the principal port of the island; but they were driven from thence in 1659 or 1661 by a celebrated Chinese pirate, who made himself master of all the western part, which afterwards submitted in 1682 to the authority of Kang-he emperor of China.

This western part of Formosa is divided into three distinct governments, all subordinate to the governor of Tai-ou-an, the capital of the island, who is himself subject to the viceroy of the province of Fo-kien.

This island presents extensive and fertile plains, watered by a great number of rivulets that fall from the eastern mountains. Its air is pure and wholesome; and the earth produces in abundance corn, rice, and the greater part of other grains. Most of the Indian fruits are found here, such as oranges, bananas, pine-apples, guavas, papaws, cocoa-nuts; and part of those of Europe, particularly peaches, apricots, figs, raisins, chestnuts, pomegranates, water-melons, &c. Tobacco, sugar, pepper, camphire, and cinnamon, are also common. Horses, sheep, and goats, are very rare in this island; there are even few hogs, although these animals abound in China. Domestic poultry, such as fowls, geese, and ducks, are exceedingly plenty; pheasants also are sometimes seen; and monkeys and tigers have multiplied so much, that they wander through the country in large flocks.

The inhabitants of Formosa rear a great number of oxen, which they use for riding, from a want of horses and mules. They accustom them early to this kind of service, and by daily exercise train them to go as well and as expeditiously as the best horses. These oxen are furnished with a bridle, saddle, and crupper. A Chinese looks as big and proud when mounted in this manner, as if he were carried by the finest Barbary courier.

Wholesome water fit for drinking is the only thing wanting in the island of Formosa. It is very extraordinary, that every kind of water in it is a deadly poison to strangers, for which no remedy has hitherto been found. "One of the governor's servants," says Father de Maillet, "whom I had in my train (a strong and robust man), trusting too much to the force of his constitution, would not believe what had been told him concerning this water: he drank some of it; and died in less than five days, after every medicine and antidote had been administered without success. There is none but the water of the capital which can be drunk: the mandarins of the place therefore always took care to transport a sufficiency of it in carts for our use." Our author adds, that at the bottom of a mountain a league distant from Fong-kan-hien, there is a spring that produces a stream, the water of which is of a whitish blue colour, and so noxious, that no one can approach it.

There are few mulberry-trees in Formosa, consequently little silk is made in the country. Numerous manufactures, however, would soon be introduced into it, were the Chinese permitted indiscriminately to transport themselves thither, and to form establishments in the island. Those who go to it must be protected by passports from the Chinese mandarins, and these passports are sold at a dear rate; securities are besides required. This is not all: when they arrive, money must be given to the mandarins who are appointed to examine those who enter or quit the island, and who generally discharge this duty with the most rigid severity. If they give no present, or offer only a trifle, they meet with little mercy; and are sure to be sent back, whatever passport they may have. The Chinese, through policy, connive at these exactions, to prevent too great a number of people from emigrating to this island, which is rendered a place of great importance by its proximity to China. They fear, and with great reason (especially since Tartar emperors have been on the throne), that if any revolt should happen in Formosa, its influence might spread, and occasion great disturbance in the whole empire. On this account, the Tartars keep a garrison there of 10,000 men; which they take care to change every three years, or even oftener if they judge it necessary.

Besides the capital, the Chinese have also two other cities, and some villages, where they inhabit alone; for they do not permit the Indians, who are their subjects, to live among them; they suffer none to remain but those who are either their slaves or domestics. These Indians are united into 45 villages; 36 of which lie to the north, and 9 towards the south. The northern villages are very populous, and the housetops are built almost after the Chinese manner. The habitations of the southern islanders are only heaps of huts or cottages of earth. In these huts they have neither chairs, benches, tables, beds, nor any piece of furniture; the middle part is occupied by a kind of hearth or chimney, raised two feet high, and constructed of earth, upon which they dress their victuals. Their ordinary food is rice, other small grain, and the game which they catch by coursing or kill with their arms. These islanders run with such surprising swiftness, that they can almost outstrip the fleetest greyhound. The Chinese attribute this agility to the precaution they take of confining their knees and feet by a close bandage until the age of 14 or 15. Their favourite arms are lances, which they dart to the distance of 60 or 80 feet with the greatest dexterity and precision. They use bows and arrows, and can kill a pheasant on wing with as much certainty as an European sportsman could with a fowling-piece. These people are very dirty in their manner of eating. They have neither plates, dishes, nor spoons, nor even the small sticks used in China. Whatever they dress is placed on a plain board or mat, and they make use of their fingers for conveying it to their mouths. They eat flesh half raw; and provided it has been only presented to the fire, it appears to them excellent. Their beds are formed of fresh-gathered leaves. They go almost naked, and wear only a piece of cloth which hangs from their girdle to their knees. Those among them who, according to the judgment of the chiefs of the village, have borne away the prize for agility in running or dexterity in the chase, obtain the honourable privilege of making on their skin, by a very painful operation, several fantastic figures of flowers, trees, and animals. All have the right of blackening their teeth, and of wearing ornaments of bracelets and crowns made of shells and crystal.

The islanders who inhabit the northern part, where the climate is something colder, clothe themselves with the skins of the fogs which they kill in hunting. They make a kind of dress of them without sleeves, that pretty much resembles a dalmatic, or vestment worn at the altar by the Roman clergy. They wear on their heads caps in the form of a cylinder, made of palm-leaves, and ornamented with several crowns placed one above another, on the top of which they fix plumes composed of the feathers of a cock or pheasant.

The marriage ceremonies of the inhabitants of Formosa approach near to the simple laws of nature. They neither purchase, as in China, the women whom they espouse, nor does interest ever prejudice their unions. Fathers and mothers are scarcely ever consulted. If a young man has a mind to marry, and has fixed his affection on a young girl, he appears for several days following near the place where she lives with a musical instrument in his hand. If the young woman is satisfied with the figure of her gallant, she comes forth and joins him: they then agree, and settle the marriage-contract. After this they give notice to their parents, who prepare a wedding-dinner, which is always given in the house where the young woman resides, and where the bridegroom remains without returning again to his father. The young man afterwards considers the house of his father-in-law as his own. He becomes the whole support of it, and he has no farther connection with that of his father; like married women in Europe, who generally quit their paternal home in order to live with their husbands. These islanders therefore seldom offer up vows for obtaining male children: they prefer daughters, because they procure them sons-in-law, who become the supports of their old age.

Although the Formosans are entirely subjected to the Chinese, they still preserve some remains of their ancient government. Each village chooses three or four old men from among those who have the greatest reputation for probity. By this choice they become the rulers and judges of the rest of the hamlet. They have the power of finally determining all differences; and if any one should refuse to abide by their judgment, he would be immediately banished from the village, without hopes of ever being able to re-enter it, and none of the inhabitants would afterwards dare to receive him.

The natives pay in grain the tribute imposed on them by the Chinese. To regulate every thing that concerns the laying on and collecting of this impost, government have established a Chinese in every village, who is obliged to learn the language, and act as interpreter to the mandarins. These interpreters are most cruel extortioners to the miserable people, whom they ought rather to protect: they are such infatuated leeches, that they can scarcely ever be satisfied. This daily and domestic tyranny has already caused the defection of three villages in the southern part of the island, where formerly there were twelve. The inhabitants of these villages revolted, expelled their interpreters, refused to pay tribute any longer to the Chinese, and have united themselves to the independent nation in the eastern part of the island.

It was in the island of Formosa that John Struys affirms to have seen with his own eyes a man who had a tail more than a foot in length, covered with red hair, and greatly resembling that of an ox. This man with a tail said, that his deformity, if it was one, proceeded from the climate, and that all those of the southern part of the island were born with tails like his.—But John Struys is the only author who attests the existence of this extraordinary race of men; no other writer who has spoken of Formosa makes the least mention of them. Another circumstance, no less singular, and which appears to be little better authenticated, ticated, is, that in this island women are not permitted to bring forth children before they are 35, although they are at liberty to marry long before that age.

Rechteren thus expresses himself concerning this strange custom:

"When women are first married, they bring no children into the world; they must, before that is permitted, have attained the age of 35 or 37. When they are big with child, their priestesses pay them a visit, and tread on their bellies with their feet, if it be necessary, and make them miscarry, with perhaps greater pains than they would have in being brought to bed. It would be not only a shame, but an enormous crime, to bring forth a child before the term prescribed. I have seen some females who had already destroyed the fruit of their womb 15 or 16 times, and who were big for the 17th when it was lawful for them to bring forth a living child."

To our description of Formosa we shall add the following account of the dreadful disaster that lately befell this unhappy island. The details were conveyed by a letter from Peking, addressed to M. Bertin, and dated the 14th of July 1782.

The waters of the ocean have well nigh deprived China of one of its most valuable maritime possessions. The island of Tayouan, known in Europe by the name of Formosa, has been almost swallowed up by them. It has been reported here, that part of the mountain which divides the island has sunk and disappeared; that the rest has been overturned; and that the greater part of the inhabitants have perished. Such have been for some days the popular reports in this capital. Government, however, has put a stop to them, by informing the public of the real truth; such as it is has been announced to the emperor by the officers who have this small portion of his territories under their jurisdiction. I cannot do better than transcribe what they have written. The dispatches of the Chinese officers, addressed to the emperor, run thus:

"Beehen, governor-general of the provinces of Fokien and Tche-Kyang-ya, viceroy of Fokien, and others, make known to your majesty the disaster that has lately befallen the island of Tayouan. Monha-hon, and other principal officers of this island, have acquainted us, that on the 21st of the fourth moon (May 22d, 1782), a most furious wind, accompanied with heavy rain and a swell of the sea greater than ever remembered, had kept them under continual apprehension of being swallowed up by the waves, or buried in the bowels of the earth, from the hour of yn until the hour ouei (a). This dreadful tempest seemed to blow at the same time from the four cardinal points of the compass, and continued with equal violence during the above mentioned time. The buildings where the tribunals were held, the public granaries, the barracks, salt warehouses, and works, have been totally destroyed, and every thing they contained is lost: warehouses and work-shops, as well as private houses, for the most part, present nothing but ruins and heaps of rubbish. Of 27 ships of war which were in the harbour 12 have disappeared; two others have been dashed to pieces, and 10 are shattered in such a manner that they are rendered entirely unfit for service; other smaller vessels of different sizes, above 100 in number, have shared the same fate; eighty have been swallowed up; five others, which had just taken in a lading of rice for Fokien, have sunk, and their cargoes, which amounted to 100,000 bushels, are wholly lost. With regard to other vessels, whether small or great, which had not entered the harbour, 10 or 12 of the largest are reckoned to have been swallowed up; those of inferior size, as well as a prodigious number of barks, boats, and other small vessels of different kinds, have disappeared, without leaving the least piece of wreck behind them. As the whole island has been covered with water, the provisions have been either swept away or spoilt, so as to render them prejudicial to the health of those who use them in their present state. The crops are entirely lost. When we shall have been informed of particulars, we shall not fail to give your majesty the earliest intelligence of them.—After having received this letter from Monha-hon, and the other principal officers residing at Tayouan, I employed the utmost diligence to give every assistance in my power to this unfortunate island; and I ordered the travelling commissary, and Trey-ouer, general of the province, to get particular information of the number of those who have perished, of the houses destroyed, and of the quantity of salt and other provisions that has been lost: I have likewise enjoined them to rebuild with the utmost expedition the tribunals, granaries, and other public edifices; to dispatch proper persons to search for the vessels and ships that have disappeared; to repair those which are not altogether unfit for service, and to send immediately to the neighbouring countries for salt and other necessary provisions; but above all, to ascertain in the most accurate manner the different losses sustained by the inhabitants, and the precise number of people that have perished, in order that I may be able to give the fullest information to your majesty."

"The emperor of China caused a particular detail of these losses to be published, together with the following letter:

"Tchang-yu, &c. Tchem-hoei-Thon-Tsong-tou of Fokien, and others, have informed me of the dismal event that hath taken place in the island of Tayouan, which is a district of the province of Fokien. They have written to me, that on the 21st of the fourth moon. [Here the emperor repeats what is contained in the preceding letter, and continues thus]: I command Tsong-tou to get the best information he can of the different losses sustained by the inhabitants of the island, and to transmit the particulars to me, in order that I may give them every assistance to repair them. My intention is, that all the houses which have been thrown down shall be rebuilt entirely at my expense; that those be repaired which are only damaged; and that provisions, and every thing which the people stand in immediate want of, be supplied them. I should feel much pain, were even one among them to be neglected: I therefore recommend the utmost diligence

(a) The hours of the Chinese are double ours: the hour yn begins at three in the morning and ends at five; ouei begins at three in the afternoon and ends at five. ligence and strictest inquiry, as I am desirous that none of my subjects should entertain the least doubt of the tender affection which I have for them; and that they should know that they are all under my eyes, and that I myself will provide for their wants. With regard to my ships of war, tribunals, and public edifices, let them be restored to their former state with money taken from the public treasury, and let the general account of the whole expense be laid before me."

The missionary who sent this account farther says, From these letters it evidently appears, that this disaster happened in consequence of an earthquake; but he adds, that the volcano which occasioned it must be at a prodigious depth below the sea. He does not pretend to give an explanation of it; he is contented with observing, that the same scene seems to have passed at the island of Formosa as at Lima and Lisbon.