Formosa
a large island in the Pacific, lying between the two China seas. It is about 200 miles directly north of the Philippines. It is separated from the Chinese mainland by a shallow strait ninety-one miles in width. The native name is "wooded mountain." It is 235 miles in length, with a breadth varying from 70 to 90 miles. The area is about 15,000 square miles. This island is traversed from the north to the south by a mountain chain, the highest known peak of which is over 14,000 feet in altitude. The mountains lie near the eastern shore. In places the eastern sea wall is a precipitous cliff rising form 3,000 to 7,000 feet sheer from the water's edge. Westward from the mountains the surface slopes away gradually in a fertile, sheltered plain to mud flats along the western shore.
This protected region has a climate not unlike that of Florida. The amount of rainfall is very great--over 100 inches annually. As might be expected the vegetation is luxuriant. Many of our hothouse plants, including some of our most beautiful orchids and lilies, grow wild in this region. There are dense jungles in which palms, azaleas, rhododendrons, tree ferns, teak, pines, bamboos, bananas, and soap trees, the seeds of which may be used for soap, grow in profusion. Indigo, coffee, tobacco and tapioca are cultivated. It is said that there are nearly fifty species of insects not found elsewhere. Deer, monkeys, bears, panthers, wildcats, and other wild animals are still found in the jungles. Waterfowl are numerous.
The methods of tilling the soil resemble those in vogue in China. Sugar, tea, indigo, jute, hemp, oil, and rattan are important articles of export. The largest known camphor forests in the world are found here. The annual output of camphor is not far from 7,000,000 pounds. The population is estimated at 3,000,000. It consists chiefly of Chinese and Japanese. An aboriginal race inhabits the mountain range. It is thought to be of Malay origin. At all events, the men are fierce fighters and carry on an unceasing warfare with the inhabitants of the lowlands, much as the Apaches and Comanches of the West harassed the white settlers.
The island belonged to the Chinese from time immemorial; but was seized by the Japanese in the War of 1895. The Japanese government has made the purchase of camphor a government monopoly. The world at large buys camphor at the price fixed by the government. Formosa was at one time a noted place of refuge for Malay pirates, but under Japanese management, good order has been established, and the inhabitants are making substantial progress in agriculture, lumbering, and mining.