mediately joined
by his countrymen the Chinese who had emigrated thither. With these
added to his command, Coxinga demanded Formosa from the Dutch, requiring
them to depart at once or "hoist the red flag," that is, prepare to
fight. This they did, and after sustaining a siege of nine months,
surrendered the fort, and were allowed to proceed to Java.

Had they conciliated the Chinese, who had come to live amongst them,
they might have had their support, and retained possession of the
island, but by barbarous treatment they had alienated them, so that
Coxinga found in them willing allies.

Since the expulsion of the Dutch, there has been no attempt at
settlement on this desirable island by any European power; which, when
its fertility and position are considered, is somewhat remarkable. As I
have before stated, its productions are distributed by Chinese junks, of
which between two and three hundred are engaged in carrying rice to the
neighboring provinces, and nearly one hundred are said to be employed in
transporting the article of sugar alone to one single port in China,
that of Tein-tsin. The trade between it and Canton is also said to be
considerable, camphor being the principal export thence.

But if gain will not induce civilized powers to occupy this as yet
undeveloped island, the cause of humanity should interest some such
maritime nation as England or America, to at least chastise those
barbarous savages who overrun its eastern shores; it is from these that
many a peaceful mariner, coasting them in trading voyages, having been
caught in those dreadful Typhoons which ravage those seas, and thrown
helpless into their hands, has met with a cruel and torturing death, and
from the fact of numberless shipwrecks along that coast, of which no
survivors have remained, it is but fair to judge that the hapless crews
have only escaped the angry waters, to meet a more violent end on these
inhospitable shores. An instance occurred in the crew of the "Larpent,"
an English merchant vessel, which went ashore here, about the time we
passed the island, of which but four escaped, and these by a miracle.
They saw their unfortunate shipmates lanced, and decapitated, and
themselves, being hotly pursued, escaped in their boat, and landing at a
point unobserved, were, whilst pushing their way to the interior,
captured and sold as slaves, from which condition they were released by
a chief from another part of the island, and put on boar