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First published in 1896 and based on extracts from diaries, notes and reports, this work, edited by J. A. Macdonald, tells of the nearly three decades that George Mackay (1844-1901) spent on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan). In 1872 the Canadian Presbyterian priest arrived in northern Taiwan and set up a new missionary station. Within a month of his arrival he had made his first convert, a Chinese named Giam Chheng Hoa. Mackay married a local woman, with whom he had three children, and made numerous trips around the island, founded a hospital and established a college. He also gathered specimens of local fauna and flora that formed the cornerstone of a museum. Mackay offers vivid descriptions of Formosan geography, culture and animal life; his interpretation of the syncretic 'heathenism' of Formosa as a 'dark damning nightmare' is characteristic of the Western viewpoint of his time.
List of contents
Editorial preface; Introductory: 1. Early years of the author; 2. At Princeton and Edinburgh; 3. Toronto to Tamsui; 4. First view of Formosa; The Island: 5. Geography and history; 6. Geology; 7. Trees, plants, and flowers; 8. Animal life; 9. Ethnology in outline; Among the Chinese: 10. The people; 11. Government and justice; 12. Industrial and social life; 13. Chinese religious life; 14. Beginnings of mission work; 15. The first native preacher and his church; 16. Establishing churches; 17. How Bang-Kah was taken; 18. Touring in the north; 19. The Waiting Isles; 20. The coming of the French; The Conquered Aborigines: 21. Pe-Po-Hoan characteristics; 22. Rice-farming in Formosa; 23. Mission work among the Pe-Po-Hoan; 24. A trip down the east coast; 25. A Sek-Hoan mission; 26. Life among the Lam-Si-Hoan; The Mountain Savages: 27. Savage life and customs; 28. With the head-hunters; At Headquarters: 29. A sketch of Tamsui; 30. Training a native ministry; 31. Oxford College; 32. Native workers for native women; 33. Medical work and the hospital; 34. Foreigners and the missions; 35. With the English Presbyterians; 36. Retrospect and prospect; Index.
Summary
First published in 1896 and based on extracts from diaries, notes and reports, this work, edited by J. A. Macdonald, tells of the nearly three decades that Presbyterian missionary George Mackay (1844–1901) spent on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan). Mackay vividly describes Formosan geography, culture and animal life.
