Philippine progress prior to 1898

Bisayans in Formosa

Reading edition

(Dr. Terrien de Lacouperie, Formosa Notes; Hertford, 1887, p. 39.)

They made a raid on the coasts of Fuhkien at Tsiuen-tchou during the period A. D. 1174–1189 and caused a great deal of havoc. They are described as naked savages with large eyes, greatly covetous of iron in any shape, using bamboo rafts and a sort of javelin attached by a long string and which they throw on their enemy (cf. Ma Tuanlin, Wen hien t’ung K’ao; d’Hervey de St. Denis, Ethnographie de Matouanlin, Vol. 1, p. 425). These people travelling on rafts could not have come from afar, and therefore may be supposed to have come over to the Chinese coast from Formosa. In which probable case, this ought to have resulted from an emigration of them to the great island.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · apparently Sanskrit ... some such sound as ... Vaisadja.—Parker (China, London, 1901.)—C.Note 2 · There are other evidences of importance, which show that the Chinese were acquainted with the dark-skinned occupiers of Formosa as originate Note 3 · The Chinese ethnographical notices of the Sung Dynasty on the Liu Kiu islands, including as it does all the islands from Japan to the Philip