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After native people in the far south of Formosa kill survivors from the wrecked US merchant vessel The Rover in 1867, the Americans send a punitive expedition. A few years later, the survivors of a Japanese (Ryukyuan) shipwreck are also killed, near Pingtung's Mudan. The Qing authorities' weak response to the incidents will sow the seeds for Japanese colonization of the island.
Cover image: A map of southern Taiwan in the map Formosa Island and the Pescadores, 1870, by Charles W. Le Gendre. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Below: Another map made by Charles W. Le Gendre, United States consul for Amoy (Xiamen) shows the area where the survivors of the Rover were killed. Titled: Map of The Rover’s Case—South Formosa, in Notes of Travel in Formosa ,1869.
Below: "Attack of United States Marines and sailors on the pirates of the island of Formosa, East Indies." Harper's Weekly (7 September 1867): "In order to avenge the murder of a number of shipwrecked seamen of the bark Rover by the savage Malays of Formosa, Admiral Bell, on June 13, made a descent on that island with a force of 181 men and officers. They advanced a mile into the interior, encountering a few savages, who continually ambushed them in true Indian fashion. After penetrating a mile into the jungle, losing Lieutenant-Commander Mackenzie killed and a dozen or fifteen men prostrated by sun-stroke, killing none of the savages, and failing to destroy their huts, the troops returned on shipboard and abandoned the expedition. Rear-Admiral Bell concludes his report with the recommendation that the Chinese authorities be required to occupy the island with a settlement of their own; and this is to be effected, he says, through our Minister at Peking." (Via Wikimedia Commons)
The agreement between Kenting-area Indigenous people and the U.S. consul for Amoy (current day Xiamen, China):
Village of the Sabarees, February 28, 1869
At the request of Tauketok, the ruler of the eighteen tribes south of Liangkiau, and between the range of hills east of it and the Eastern Sea including the bay known as the Southern Bay of Formosa where the crew of the American bark Rover were murdered by the Koaluts, I, Charles W. Le Gendre, United States consul for Amoy and Formosa give this as a memorandum of understanding arrived at between myself and the said Tauketok in 1867, the same having been approved by the United States Government and assented to, I believe by the foreign ministers at Pekin viz:
Cast-aways will be kindly treated by any of the eighteen tribes under Tauketok. If possible, they are to display a red flag before landing.
Vessels requiring supplies are to send a crew on shore, displaying a red flag, and must not land until a similar token has been shown from the shore, and then only at the spot indicated. They are not to visit the hills and villages, but, when possible, are to confine their visit to the Tuiahsockang, being the first stream on the east coast north of the southeastern cape of South Bay, and to the Toapangnack, to the west of the rock where the Rover's crew were murdered, the latter being the better watering place in the northeast monsoon. Persons landing under other than these conditions do so at their own peril, and must not look, I believe, for protection from their government if molested by the natives, who in such case will not be held responsible for their safety.
CHAS. W. LE GENDRE, United States Consul.
Witness: I. ALEX. MAN, Commissioner of Customs for Southern Formosa.
Witness and interpreter: W. A. PICKERING
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Below: A stone tablet recording the agreement was later made by a Qing dynasty official, and was created by the Fude Temple 福德廟 in the Pingtung village of Checheng. It can reportedly be found near the parking lot of the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, in Checheng.
Below: William Pickering and Dr. James Maxwell, two of the westerners in South Taiwan at the time of The Rover incident (Pickering would play a major role in the affair) Via the TAKAO CLUB
Below: A photograph showing Commander-in-chief (Marquis) Saigō Tsugumichi pictured (sitting at the center) with leaders of Seqalu (Native tribe), Tokitok. Isa. S. Midzuno during the Japanese punitive expedition to Taiwan in 1874. (Anonymous Japanese photograph)
Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became was famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
