Formosan Bible History (3)

**List: Formosan Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Formosan... FORMOSAN. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. FORMOSA is an island lying off the east coast of China, under the tropic of Cancer, and directly north of the Philippines.   It is not above 100 miles from the Chinese coast, from which it is separated by the Strait of Formosa, or channel of Fokien, as it is sometimes (from the adjoining province of that name) called.   Its length, which is greatest from north to south, includes more than three degrees of latitude, and is not less than 250 English miles; but it is much narrowed towards each extremity, and its breadth at the widest part does not exceed eighty miles.   According to the most recent information, the population is about 2,500,000.    The Dutch appear to have been the first foreign power who obtained dominion over this island; but they were expelled, and many of them cruelly massacred, in 1661, by a Chinese pirate; and since 1683, Formosa has been subject to China.   The natives are of the same race as the Haraforas, or Alforas, of the Moluccas and other islands.   Some among them have been partially civilised, and have settled in villages near the Chinese colonies, on the coast opposite to China.   Those who have preserved their independence live in a state of perpetual revolt against the Chinese possessors of the island.   They dwell eastward of the chain of mountains which divides the island in its whole course from north to south. This district has never been explored, and our knowledge of the people is very imperfect.   They have no books, no written language, and apparently no ancient or fixed system of religion.   They have no king or supreme ruler, but are governed by a number of petty chieftains. II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.    Formosa is the most northern point in which a dialect is spoken of that ancient and widely diffused language which pervades the islands of the South Sea.   The southernmost boundary of this language is the south of New Zealand, the easternmost is Easter Island, and the western is Madagascar.   There are only fifteen elemental sounds in this language, including all the dialects.   Through some peculiarity in their organs of articulation, the people to whom this language is vernacular have rejected all strongly pronounced consonants, especially the sibilant: and have merged the majority of their words into pure vowel sounds.   This habit, joined to the rule requiring every syllable to terminate with a vowel, and precluding the coalescence of two consonants, occasions the softness of sound for which all the dialects are remarkable.   The grammatical system, like that of the Malayan, is particularly simple.   Particles, as in that language, supply the place of inflection.   The only real inflection of which a Polynesian verb is capable, is the reduplication of the whole or part of a verb to express repeated action.   The "particles of form" give to the verb various shades of meaning, like the Hebrew conjugations; and by means of these suffixes, the same verb becomes, at the will of the speaker, causative, desiderative, reciprocal, or potential.   In the conjugation of Polynesian verbs time is comparatively disregarded, but place is very accurately denoted: in this respect the Polynesian class of languages is strikingly analogous to the American,--the "directive particles," as in the Oregon and Cherokee languages, indicating the direction of the action, whether to or from the speaker, and "locatives" designating the place where the action is performed.   Another link of connection between these two classes of languages consists in their possessing a dual as well as a plural number, and two different forms of the first personal pronoun in each number; the one form including and the other excluding the person addressed.    Two or three vocabularies have been collected of the Formosan dialect, which has an alphabet of its own, and the words have been proved to be of undoubted Polynesian origin.   Some of the words nearly correspond with the Malayan dialect of the general tongue. III.--VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.    The only translation that has been made in this dialect was executed during the early part of the seventeenth century by the Dutch, who about that period introduced Christianity into the island.   The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John were translated by Daniel Gravius, a Dutch minister, and printed at Amsterdam with the Dutch version in 1661, it is believed at the expense of the Dutch East India Company.   But before the printed copies could reach Formosa, the Dutch were driven from the island, and no subsequent opportunities have been afforded to place the translation in the hands of the natives."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only]

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