[This entry probably won't make the book, as I don't think there is a place called Qiugou now. But it makes it to the blog version as apparently there was in the 19th century. Charles W. Le Gendre, US Consul at Xiamen from 1867 to 1872, travelled to Kookow, as he called it, as it was a good place to meet "savage" mountain-dwelling Aborigines as opposed to the assimilated plains Aborigines. His book "Notes of Travel in Formosa" has several photos of Kookow Aborigines.]
["Notes of Travel in Formosa"; p 60]
"Kookow [邱苟] is not a town, it is a large residence built of brick and stone where a Hakka named Kookow, flying before the mandarins’ soldiers, settled some years ago. He placed himself in communication with the aborigines, and married the daughter of their chief, receiving with her an immense tract of land, on which he located a number of tenants (some say over 300) who cultivated the ground for him, distilled camphor, and collected coal oil which is found a short distance to the southwest.
"He derived a large income from his traffic, and was like a small king in his solitude, loved, yet feared by all. The mandarins, whose authority he ignored, several times set a price on his head, but by remaining carefully in his settlement, he long escaped their vengeance, as no Chinese dared come and attack him in his dominions.
[...]
"At last, in 1871, the mandarins, seeing that they could not accomplish their designs by force or bribes, effected their purpose by means of a stratagem. Pretending that they were very anxious to make peace, and that, so far from entertaining any ill-will towards him, they were, on the contrary, desirous of affording him their protection in order that the enormous trade of which he had the control might be rendered even more profitable and mutually advantageous, they invited him to meet them at Tuick-cham [竹塹; now Hsinchu 新竹市].
"Unfortunately, Kookow, deceived by their plausible assurances, repaired to the place of rendezvous with only a few followers, when the Chinese, with their customary bad faith and contempt for all natural feelings of honor, seized him and beheaded him on the spot."
[So perhaps this post will make the book, as an example of the natural selection of place names. Whereas Mr. Su and Mr. Zeng Wen lived into ripe old age and had "many sons and many grandsons", so today there is still a Su's Bay and Zeng Wen's River; Mr. Qu's head was chopped off and his name was lost to geography if not history.
I've only just started reading around this topic, but it seems Mr. Koo Kow (Qiu Gou) was a native of Miaoli County and is described as an Aboriginal interpreter (a profession that history does not treat kindly), and in 1861 he dug Taiwan’s first oil well (though local people had collected surface oil from that site since at least 1817), 3 meters deep which produced 40kg of oil per day, and which was used as lamp oil.
There is a plaque commemorating this at 出磺坑礦場 (苗栗縣公館鄉36號; Gongguan Township in Miaoli County), which appears to be at an identical location to le Gendre's 19th century map of Kookow.
The plot thickens when we learn that the Qing court set up a state oil company in 1877, perhaps their fight with him was economic not criminal.
Text copyright Jiyue Publications 2013
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