Formosan

The great Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier, also spent some time at Öita, and Otomo, its lord, was the first Daimio to embrace Christianity. Still farther south, and in line with these, stretches the chain of the Liuchiu islands, the westernmost of the group lying within 50 miles of the Formosan coast.

A patrolman shot and killed a Formosan black bear in self defense last night, after it turned on the man who saw it attacking a dog in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪).[…] Jhuosi Township Mayor Huang Pin-lun (黃品綸) announced news of the bear’s capture this morning and expressed apologies to the villagers for the fear and disruption caused by the recent bear sightings.[…] The Hualien branch has been working with the Formosan Wild Sound Conservation Science Center since 2020 to monitor Formosan black bears in Jhuosi Township, branch Director Huang Chun-tse (黃群策) said.

From his base at Amoy the Emperor Kanghi dispatched a fleet of 600 junks against Formosa. In two naval battles, on July 1 and 7, 1683, they defeated the Formosans, and occupied Penghu, one of the Pescadores Islands, forming the key of Taiwan.