A MISCELLANY of Rev. Wm. Campbell’s (1903) “Explanatory Notes” on 17th-century Dutch historical records (i.e. he is commenting on 17th-century names and sometimes comparing them with those of the late 19th century):
[MC: I am not planning to use Campbell as authoritative, but some of his notes are interesting in themselves as well as shedding light on 19th-century foreigners’ interest in place-name etymology. It is a shame that he only gives meanings for the Chinese versions of the names, not the Aboriginal originals from which most derived.
**shows those I consider more interesting (to save readers with limited time working their way through all 24 entries).
[Texts in square brackets are my 21st-century additions.]
Akau: and Akou […] Acouw and Akauw […] was a village in the southern region, and survives to-day in the market-town of Akau, which is about twelve miles ENE. from
Pi-thau [Pingtung?], the capital of the
Hong-soa [Fengshan] county.
**Asok: This name is preserved in a mountain hamlet of the present-day
Chiang-hoa [Changhua] region, but very probably the village referred to here lay much further west; it being a usual thing for villagers who were forced to leave ancestral places of abode on the western seaboard, to cherish the old familiar names, and apply them to their places of retreat in the hill country [MC: also possible that ‘village names’ are really one and the same as the ‘groups’ names’].
Dorko: […] lay between
Mattau and
Tirosen, and exists to-day in the township of
To-lo-koh […]
Favorlang: […] lay north of
Tirosen and the Favorlang river must be the present-day
Haw-boe-khe of the Chinese.
Golden Lion Island: Its early native name was
Tugin or
Lamey, but owing to a Dutch captain having been murdered by the inhabitants there, the island came to be known by the name of his ship, the Goude Leeuws, or Golden Lion, island [MC: I bet it didn’t; not by local people at least]. It is situated about twelve miles off the mouth of the
Tang-kang [Donggang] river […] The natives themselves speak of the island as
Sio Liu-khiu [Mdn. Xiao Liuqiu], or Little Lu-chu, but the chart name of it is Lambay—not Lombay—island.
Kabalan: On the north-east coast of Formosa. The plain there is said to have contained forty-seven villages, and the open anchorage to the east is referred to […] as the Bay of Kabelang.
Komolan is another name which was formerly applied to this region, and afterwards the name
Kap-tsu-lan came into use. It is now called the
Gi-lan (in Japanese Gi-ran) [Mdn. Yilan] district.
Steep island [Guishan Dao] lies some ten miles off […] .
Kattia: […] Katya occurs. A southern village is referred to, and a few miles south of
Anping there is still a small fishing village known by that name, the inhabitants of which are all Chinese.[MC: if 茄籐社, then possibly not Han-Chinese but Pingpu assimilated Aborigines (see Kuo Su-chiu's work on Pucunug Paiwan village)]
**
Lakjemuyse: This is no doubt the present-day
Lak-e-mng [?鹿耳門; Mdn. Lu-er-men], an open bay into which junks sometimes run for shelter during the north-east monsoon. The syllable ‘muy’ is the Chang-chew [Zhangzhou] way of pronouncing ‘mng’ [cf. Amoy/Xiamen ?]. Lak-e-mng lies a few miles north of
Anping, which is the
Tayouan of the Dutch occupation.
Longkiau: There can be no difficulty about the identification of this place. It belongs to the
Heng-chun region in the extreme south, and is the point at which the Japanese landed for punishing the Baw-tan savages in 1874 [following the Mudan Incident of 1871]. […] Loncjou, Lonckjau, Lonkiauw, Lonckjouw, and Lonckquiouw.
Mattau: […] The place still survives in the market-town of Moa-tau [麻豆; Mdn. Madou] north of Tainan and about three miles above the
Tsan-bun [Mdn. Zeng Wen] river. […] Matau, Mataw, Mattouw, Mathau, Matthau, Mattauw, and Mandauw.
**Pakan: […] Pak-ande and Pockan. It is said to have been applied to the whole of Formosa, which is extremely doubtful, seeing that the collection of tribes throughout the island differed so much in origin and speech as to render communication or joint action upon anything simply impossible. According to early Chinese accounts, the name
Pak-kang (kiang in the so-called mandarin dialect, was first given to what is now known as Kelung, this name afterwards coming to mean the whole of Formosa. And this seems a very feasible development, for Pak-kang means Northern Port [北港; Mdn.
Beigang] (the only good one in the island), and it is easy to understand how junk-men would come to speak of crossing to Pak-kang when they really intended to call in at other little landing-places. Thus the aboriginal modification of the name, Pak-an, would come into use and gain a certain amount of currency.
Pangsoia: […] this village was situated between
Takareiang and
Longkiau, and the little town called
Pang-soh exists there to-day.[半線?]
Pehoe: […] seems to be a mere modification of the present Chinese name Phe-aw [Mdn. Penghu; Romanized Pescadores], which means Dashing Lake, referring to the strong tides and frequently stormy condition of the water between Great Island and Fisher Island.
Provintia: After building Castle
Zeelandia on the little island or sandbank of
Tayouan, the Dutch strengthened their position by the erection of another fort at a place called
Sakam, which was on the Formosan mainland about two miles due east from Tayouan.
Sakam: This is the native name of the village which has developed into the present-day city of
Tainan. The Chinese called it
Chhiah-kham, and after the place enlarged and trade increased, it was surrounded with high brick walls and became the capital of the whole island under the name
Tai-wan-fu; but the Japanese have removed the capital to
Tai-peh, and Tai-wan-fu is now the district city or town of Tainan. The following early forms of the name are also found: —Chhaccam, Sacam, Saccam, and Zaccam.
**Sinkan: One of the most important stations of the Dutch in Formosa. As in other cases, the records present a confusing variety of forms in spelling the name, such as, Sincan, Sinckan, Cinckan, Xincan, and Zinckan. The village lay about seven miles north of Sakam, and after Koxinga’s time its name took the more Sinicised form of
Sin-kang, the two native written symbols for these syllables meaning New-harbour or inlet; but as there is no harbour or inlet in the neighbourhood, the symbols must have been chosen because the sounds they represent convey a definite meaning and come as near as possible to the sounds of the old aboriginal name. […]
Soulang: Soulang still exists as the Chinese market-town of
Siau-lang […]
**Tamsuy: For the most part, the name is associated with
Kelang, and sometimes also with
Kabalan, thus plainly showing that the still much frequented Tamsuy on the north-west end of Formosa is meant. However, [other] references […] point to another Tamsuy in the southern part of the island. And even to-day, the Chinese often refer to this distinction by speaking of the first-mentioned place as
Teng (i.e. upper or north) Tamsuy, and the one in the south
Hong-soa [Mdn. Feng-shan] county, as
E (i.e. lower or south) Tamsuy, while modern maps represent that there is a Tamsuy river both in North and South Formosa.
Tankoia: Lay to the north of
Ape’s Hill and a few hours’ sail south from
Tayouan. A wide shallow bay existed there during the time of the Dutch occupation, in which small vessels often lay at anchor; but the constant silting up of the land there has much altered the appearance of the coast-line. The place was regarded as being of so much importance that a proposal was made to have it fortified.
Tavakan: […] also written Taffacan, Tavocan, Tavacang, and Davocan. The references show that it must have been situated in the neighbourhood of
Sinkan, and its very probably representative to-day is the market-town of
Twa-bak-kang, about two miles south-east of Sin-kang.
**Tayouan: The spellings Taoan and Taiwan also occur. Of course it is important to bear in mind that this was the name given to a little islet or long sandbank which lay off the south-west coast of Formosa two hundred and eighty years ago; and that, owing to silting up, the land there became joined onto the mainland of Formosa, and now bears the name of
Anping. It was in Tayouan that the Dutch fixed their headquarters when compelled to leave the
Pescadores in 1624; and there they erected Castle Zeelandia, their main stronghold and residence of the Governor. On the sandy plain to the north of this Fort, many natives, Chinese, and Dutchmen settled down to carry on trade and supply the wants of the colony, and as their numbers increased, and buildings began to multiply, the settlement came to be known as the city or town of
Zeelandia.
Tevorang: The variants of this name are Tefurang, Tefurangh, Tevoran, Tevourang, and Devoran. […] There can be no doubt that Tevorang was about a day’s journey north-east from
Sinkan, and that
Favorlang [WM is trying to show that Swinhoe is wrong in stating T and F are variants of the same place] lay much further to the north of that village.
**Tirosen: […] also occurs as Tirassen, Tirozen, Tilocen, Tilossen, Tilcen, and Thilocen. The place was north of
Mattau and south of
Favorlang, and it survives to-day in none other than the well-known city of
Kagi [Mdn. Jiayi] in Mid-Formosa. The former Chinese name of that city was
Tsu-lo-san (or Variegated-net Hill), which is an exact representation of the way in which any local son of Han would pronounce the aboriginal name Tirosen. The further change took place after a great rebellion in Formosa; for during that rebellion, the Chinese inhabitants of Tsu-lo-san sided with the Imperialist troops, and the news of this so pleased the Emperor that, by Imperial Rescript, he change the name of the city from Tsu-lo-san into Kagi or Established-righteousness.
**Toahimpau: This name has much more of a Chinese than an aboriginal look about it. It is not easy now to identify the place it refers to, which seems to have been about the middle of the
Kagi [Mdn. Jiayi] region on its western side. With a very slight modification of the last syllable, Toahimpau might mean in Chinese Great Bear Plain; and as black bears are still found in Formosa, and they would very likely be met with in the thickly wooded western side of the island two hundred and fifty yeas ago, it is possible that Chinese hunters may have originated the name in these circumstances. But again, there are still two villages further north called
Toa-hm-paw, or Great Grass Field, because much long coarse grass which is used for house-thatching grows in the neighbourhood; while in the Kagi region itself the market-town of
Hm-kang-boe is now a stage on the main road from Tainan city towards the north, and there too the hm grass in question used formerly to grow in abundance. These suggestions about this Chinese-looking name afford a clue to the process often gone through in fixing the place-names in Formosa.
Text copyright Jiyue Publications 2013, 2021
