A German in Dutch Formosa: Caspar Schmalkalden – S6-E12
In the mid-1600s, Caspar Schmalkalden left war-ravaged Europe to work as a soldier and surveyor for the Dutch. After spending time in Brazil, he sailed to Batavia and finally to Formosa, where he lived among Dutch colonists, Chinese settlers, and Indigenous communities for several years.
Back home in Germany, Schmalkalden wrote a richly illustrated account of his travels. It remained unpublished for more than 300 years and has still never appeared in a complete English translation.
For the first time, we tell the story of this observant German traveler and the seventeenth-century Taiwan he encountered: a land of colorful feasts, deer hunts, strange tropical illnesses, herds of wild horses, and a mysterious creature he called the “Tayouan Devil.”
Cover: An overly-handsome AI imagination of what Caspar Schmalkalden may have looked like is in the center, while the background shows pictures he drew on his travels.
Below: From wiki: Titled "A Formosan," the words say (translated into modern German): We race and trot all day long – to the rhythm of our clappers, which we carry in our hands. We live by hunting, and everyone who is able goes hunting. If we miss our shot, we chase the prey with dogs.
Wiki: A map of Formosa, drawn by Caspar Schmalkalden (c. 1618–c. 1668) after he left the Dutch East India Company. Of particular note is the detailed depiction of the island's east coast, which had previously been neglected by European colonizers. The map reflects the knowledge gained at the time through several expeditions to the east coast by the East India Company in the 1640s.
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