"The letters forming the subject of this small work were written during a fourteen months' residence in the city of Canton, where I enjoyed many opportunities of seeing the inner life of the Chinese, and of learning much of their daily life in their own homes. The letters were written for circulation amongst my family and a few friends who kindly expressed an interest in all I saw and did in the far-off country of China. These descriptive letters accompanied others I wrote at the same time to my family, and so they do not contain any reference to domestic matters necessary to suppress. They are therefore published in extenso. We left Liverpool in the S.S. Abyssinian on our outward journey, January 13th, 1877, and arrived at New York in fourteen days. Our voyage was rough and uninteresting, especially so perhaps to me, as I was very ill the whole time. Fourteen days spent in a cabin is very trying, even to the most patient of minds"--Introduction.

Quarterly accession lists; beginning with Apr. 1893, the bulletin is limited to "subject lists, special bibliographies, and reprints or facsimiles of original documents, prints and manuscripts in the Library," the accessions being recorded in a separate classified list, Jan.-Apr. 1893, a weekly bulletin Apr. 1893-Apr. 1894, as well as a classified list of later accessions in the last number published of the bulletin itself (Jan. 1896)

This book contains two parts, each covering some aspects of East-West encounters on Formosa, better known today to many as Taiwan. Part I investigates Portuguese “discovery” and “naming” of the island as Formosa, in the context of conflicting claims and recent scholarly debates in Taiwan which challenged the conventional wisdom on this matter. Part II deals with Dutch efforts to educate and convert native Formosans, examining motives of the coloniser for pursuing this “civilising” project, identities of the colonised such as race (tribal village), age, gender, language, and faith which had influenced school policies, and responses of the tribes ranging from partnerships to conflicts. The two studies reconstruct historical events in the 16th and 17th centuries, drawing on many primary sources. But, as shall be shown, Portuguese “naming” of the island and Dutch “civilising” of its indigenes both retain some relevance for the Aboriginal minority and the Chinese majority in Taiwan to this day, hundreds of years later.

The arrival in 1620 of the Mayflower and Puritan migration occupy the first pages of the history of colonial America. Less known is the exodus from New England, a century and a half later, of their Yankee descendants. Yankees engaged in whaling and the China Trade, and settled in Canada, the American South, and Hawaii. Between 1786 and 1850, some 800,000 Yankees left their exhausted New England farms and villages for New York State, the Northwest Territory and all the way to the West Coast. With missionary zeal the Yankees planted their institutions, culture and values deep into the rich soil of the Western frontier. They built orderly farming communities and towns, complete with church, library, school and university. Yankee values of self-labor, temperance, moral rectitude, respect for the law, democratic town government, and enterprise helped form the American character. New England was the hotbed of reform movements. Yankee-inspired religious movements spread across the nation and beyond. The Anti-Slavery and the Anti-Imperialism movements started in New England. Susan B. Anthony campaigned for women’s suffrage, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, Dorothea Dix established asylums for the mentally ill, and May Lyon was a pioneer in women’s education. Yankees spread the Industrial Revolution across America, using waterpower and then stream power. Opposing slavery and advocating education for all children, the Yankee pioneers clashed with Southerners moving north. In Kansas the dispute between Yankee and Southerner erupted into armed conflict. In time the Yankee enclaves in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and San Francisco fused with others to form the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite (WASPs), to dominate American commerce, industry, academia and politics. By the close of the nineteenth century, industry began to leave New England. Yankees felt threatened by the rising political power of immigrants. In an effort to keep the nation predominantly white and Protestant, prominent Yankees sought to restrict immigration from Asia, and from eastern and southern Europe, and impose quotas on American-Catholics and Jews seeking admission to elite universities and clubs. Despite barriers, the American-born children of the immigrants benefited from their education in public schools and colleges, entered the American mainstream, and steadily eroded the authority of the Protestant elite. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the United States to immigrants from Asia, Africa and South America. The great mix of races, religions, ethnicity and individual styles is forming a pluralistic America with equally shared rights and opportunities.