The following is the public expression of our opinion It appears to us that the whole of Formosa has been included in the map of China for more than two hundred years; and that the several Emperors of our country in their successive reli have been moderate in inflicting punishment and sparing of taxati 's0 that the four classes of people have enjoys happiness and have grown and As to the wild aborigines behind the hills, with their dwellings perched on high or burrowed in the earth, they are far from having human feelings. Yet in the years which have gone by, the savage aborigines have turned into tame aborigines, and the tame ones have turned. into citizens; so that the orderly citizens of to-day are all the wild aborigines of former times.
If the savages murder anyone, the Imperial Government has its own means of punishing them, and there is no need for strangers to come over and meddle with the matter. But the Japanese, with evil in their hearts and spying after the fertile land, first begged that reaty might be made with them. Their secret plans having been laid, they changed their dress to that of the Western nations, to overbear us with their false appearance, Then, certain shipwrecked Lewchewans having been massacred by the Bawtan savages, they made this an excuse to send an army, and in defiance of the treaty proceeded to burn and alay at random, overwhelming other villages as well. Now, thay have planted a military colony at Langkiao, they have set up camps, they have opened roads; and intention is to continue to hold the place, As to the verbal agreement which we formerly heard that they made in. the sung-Li Yamen, they proposed to send copie to impress upon the savages in the uth that for the future they "must, not massacre shipwrecked mariners; and no mention was made of fighting and slaying. 'And yet the Japanese say that China consented that' they should take on themselves to slaughter and punish, And when they made their Consul at Shanghai obtain travelling passports for Cheng-Chu-Ching and eleven other Japanese, who by these means travelled through every part of Formosa, they thereby prevented our feeling any suspicions. Afterwards again they wrote to request China to seize Chiang-teng-hsin-ping and certain other Japanese rebels, by which mens they were able to prevent our being prepared when they sent forth their mai army. They have been false and deceitful in so many instances, that indeed they are not acknowledged as equals by the other nations with whom we have commercial intercourse, At first, even alter they bad come to Formosa, they, by means of honeyed words and large payments, won over and deceived the neighbouring people. But in the Sth month a Japanese soldier shot dead without cause a man belonging to Chu-ch'éng, and nawed Huang Wen-chu, And some Japanese having taken liberties with a woman, whose maiden name was Yang, th f Wen-chen, of the Hsing-shun shop in Hsin-chieh, upon her uncle Chang Saisheng remonstrating with them and stopping them, one of them had the audacity to slash him with a sword. The people of the place in indignation throw stones and called out to seize them, upon which they all rai 'A complaint was laid before the Japanese General, but he paid no attention to it, And now the Japanese with their bodies naked burst into the dwelling houses of the people and barrass them more than words can tell. The inhabitants of Ch'ai-ch'éng have therefore agreed together to forbid any one to work for the Japanese army or to deal with it. To seek out all the instances of Japanese ferocity and presumption would be more work than counting the hairs of one's head. All we scholars and people of Formosa at fruits and tread the soil of the land. All of us who have life and breath cannot but know our rulers and love our relations. How then can we allow foreign marauders to commit these wild excesses? Each of us ought to fight with tory and make the quarrel his own, As. soon as ever the army has commenced the attack, let us who form the different companies of the trainbands, seize upon our weapons and drive the foo' before us, with answering shouts from the four sides; and lot us prevent them from carrying off th fragment, and from. daring to cast upon Formos preserve ourselves and our together to defend the land of our Emperor. But if there be any who have secret con-ne with the Japanese, who assist them, take their money, enter their service, or treacherously. i information to them, such men will be seized in earnest, and be handed over to the officials to be dealt with. As to any who have been already engaged and have no help for it; if they will immediately return they will not be punished. Those who dare to act contrary to what has been agreed upon, the Gods and men will exterminate.
We offer up this common expression of our opinion.
Taiwan, September, 1874.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.