The Indians inhabiting the western division are entirely subject to the Chinese governor, and pay a regular tribute in grain. They compose about forty-five villages, most of which are found in the more northern quarter of the pro vince. In each village is stationed a Chinese officer, whose duty it is to learn their language, and to superintend the col lection of the impost ; but these agents of the government often act in such a tyrannical manner, as to occasion the defection of the inhabitants, who have sometimes been dri ven to unite themselves with the independent tribes in the eastern part of the island. Even those which are most submissive to their invaders, still retain some of their an cient institutions ; and in every village three or four of the most upright and intelligent old men are chosen as judges and rulers, who have the power of determining all disputes, and disobedience to whose decisions would be punished by perpetual banishment from the community. In these vil lages subject to China, and which are the most populous, there is a great degree of civilization ; and the houses are built and furnished after the manner of the Chinese. They are clothed with the skins of the stags which they kill in hunting ; and wear on their heads caps of a cylindrical shape, made of palm leaves, ornamented with a succession of crowns one above the other, and surmounted with plumes of feathers from the cock or pheasant. The dress of ibe women exactly resembles that of the men, except that their clothes are longer, and their heads more furnished with finery. But the southern or eastern islanders are stilt in a most savage state ; and their habitations are mere earthen huts, without any piece of furniture, having only a kind of hearth in the centre, upon which they dress their victuals. They are remarkably dirty in their manner of eating ; and generally devour the flesh before it is half dressed. Whatever they prepare is placed on a plain board or mat ; and having neither plates nor spoons, they make use of their fingers for conveying it to their mouths. They have no better bedding during night than fresh gathered leaves ; and no other covering through the day than a piece of cloth, which hangs from their middle to their knees. They subsist chiefly upon rice and the produce of the chase. Their favourite weapons are lances, which they throw with the greatest dexterity and precision to the dis tance of 60 or 80 feet. They use also bows and arrows, with which they can kill a pheasant on the wing with as much certainty as a European sportsman could with a fowling-piece. They run with such surprising swiftness, that they can almost outstrip the fleetest greyhound, a de gree of agility which the Chinese ascribe to a custom which they have of confining their knees and reins with a close bandage, till the age of 14, but which is, more probably, owing entirely to their constant practice in hunting, and to the estimation in which the qualification is held. Those who are most swift and skilful in the chase, are distinguish cd by the honourable privilege of having figures of flow ers, trees or animals, punctured on their skin; and the more ordinary decorations consist in wearing bracelets, or crowns made of shells and crystal, and in staining the teeth with a deep black colour. The matrimonial connections of these
islanders are remarkably simple and unconstrained, espe cially when compared with those of their Chinese neigh bours, and are left entirely to the choice and arrangements of the young people. When a youth has fixed his affec tions, he appears for several days with a musical instru ment in his hand, hovering around the place where the young woman resides. If she is pleased with his personal qualifications, she comes forth and joins him, when they settle together their future union. They then give notice of their intention to their parents, who prepare the mar riage feast, which is always held in the bride's habitation, with whom the husband remains during life. He transfers his filial duties to his father-in-law, and devotes himself to the support of the new family, of which he has become a member. Hence the natives of Formosa offer vows chiefly for female children, who procure their sons-in-law to be the support of their old age. These people are represent ed as destitute of religious notions and worship, and as guided by the pretended predictions of a set of priestesses or female jugglers; but other accounts seem to imply, that they are not without some ideas of the soul's immortality, nor so deficient in civilization and ingenuity ; and many of them are said to retain a considerable portion of Christian knowledge which had been communicated by the Dutch settlers. There is, in fact, very little known respecting the eastern, or, as it is sometimes called, the southern part of the island and its inhabitants ; and the accounts both of the Chinese and Dutch writers are filled with stories so obviously fabulous, as to discredit their whole testimony. Some of these accounts bear, for instance, that one of the natives was seen, who had a tail above a foot in length, covered with red hair, and resembling that of an ox, and who declared that all the inhabitants of the southern dis tricts were born with similar appendages ; that the men do not marry till they are fifty years of age, and that their wives are not suffered to bring forth children till they have passed their thirty-seventh year, and should any of them prove pregnant before that period, the priestess is summon ed to produce abortion by treading on their womb. One of the most extraordinary of these histories, and which was afterwards acknowledged by its author to be a mere romance, was published about the year 1710 by the noted Psalmanazar.
In consequence, it is supposed, of the sulphur mines in the mountains, which run across the middle of this island, it is subject to frequent earthquakes ; and, in the year 1782, one of these shocks was attended with so tremendous a hurricane and swell of the sea, as to threaten the total de struction of the Chinese settlements. See Grozier's De scription of China, vol. i. ; Collection of the Voyages of the Dutch East India Company, vol. v.; Du Halde's History of China, vol.ii.; and Univ. Mod. Hist. vol. viii. and x. (q)