The Black-Bearded Barbarian : The Life of George Leslie Mackay of Formosa
John Stuart Mill · en
But Dr. Mackay wished to go farther on this journey than he had ever
gone. Some distance south of Kap-tsu-lan lay another district called the
Ki-lai plain. The people here were also aborigines of the island who had
been conquered by the Chinese like the Pepo-hoan. But the inhabitants of
Ki-lai were called Lam-si-hoan, which means "Barbarians of the south."
Dr. Mackay had never been among them, but they had heard the gospel. A
missionary from Oxford College had journeyed away down there to tell the
people about Jesus and had been working among them for some years. He
was not a graduate, not even a student--but only the cook! For Oxford
College was such a place of inspiration under Kai Bok-su, that even the
servants in the kitchen wanted to go out and preach the gospel. So the
cook had gone away to the Ki-lai plain, and, ever since he had left, Dr.
Mackay had longed to go and see how his work was prospering.
So at one of the most southerly points of the Kap-tsu-lan plain he
secured a boat for the voyage south. The best he could get was a small
craft quite open, only twelve feet long. It was not a very fine vessel
with which to brave the Pacific Ocean, but where was the crazy craft
in which Kai Bok-su would not embark to go and tell the gospel to the
heathen? The boat was manned by six Pe-po-hoan rowers, all Christians,
and at five o'clock in the evening they pushed out into the surf of So
Bay. A crowd of converts came down to the shore to bid them farewell. As
the boat shoved off the friends on the beach started a hymn. The rowers
and the missionaries caught it up and the two groups joined, the
sound of each growing fainter and fainter to the other as the distance
widened.
All lands to God in joyful sounds Aloft your voices raise, Sing forth
the honor of his name, And glorious make his praise!
And the land and the sea, answering each other, joined in praise to him
who was the Maker of both.
And so the rowers pulled away in time to the swing of the Psalm, the
boat rounded a point, and the beloved figure of Kai Bok-su disappeared
from sight.
Away down the coast the oarsmen pulled, and the four missionaries
squeezed themselves into as small a space as possible to be out of the
way of the oars. All the evening they rowed steadily, and as they still
swept along night came down suddenly. They kept close to the shore,
where to their right arose great mountains straight up from the water's
edge. They were covered with forest, and here and there in the blackness
fires twinkled.
"Head-hunters!" said the helmsman, pointing toward them.