d bright. The
college, the girls' school, the hospital, were all in splendid working
order. Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson were giving their best assistance. A Hoa
and the other native pastors were working faithfully. God's blessing
seemed to be showering down upon the work and on every side were signs
of growth. And then, right from this shining sky, there fell a storm
of such fierceness that it threatened to wipe out completely the whole
north Formosan mission.

CHAPTER XI. UNEXPECTED BOMBARDMENT

An enemy's battle-ships off the coast of Formosa! During all the spring
rumors of trouble had been coming across the channel from the mainland.
France (*) and China had been quarreling over a boundaryline in Tongking.
The affair had been settled but not in a way that pleased France. So,
without even waiting to declare war, she sent a fleet to the China Sea
and bombarded some of her enemy's ports. Formosa, of course, came in for
her share of the trouble, and it was early in the summer that the French
battle-ships appeared. They hove in sight, sailing down the Formosa
Channel or Strait one hot day, and instantly all Formosa was in an
uproar of alarm and rage. The rage was greater than the alarm, for China
cordially despised all peoples beyond her own border, and felt that the
barbarians would probably be too feeble to do them any harm. But that
the barbarians should dare to approach their coast with a war-vessel!
That was a terrible insult, and the fierce indignation of the people
knew no bounds. Their rage broke out against all foreigners. They did
not distinguish between the missionary from British soil and the French
soldiers on their enemy's vessels. They were all barbarians alike, the
Chinese declared, and as such were the deadly foe of China. This Kai
Bok-su was in league with the French, and the native Christians all over
Formosa were in league with him, and all deserved death!

* War in 1844.

So hard days came for the Christians of north Formosa. Wherever there
was a house containing converts, there was riot and disorder. For bands
of enraged heathen, armed with knives and swords, would parade the
streets about them and threaten all with a violent death the moment the
French fired a shot.

In some places near the coast the Christian people dared not leave their
houses, and whenever they sent out their children to buy food, often a
heathen neighbor would catch them, brandish knives over the terrified
little one