text:
He Tingbin (何廷斌) was a cabessa, a Sino-Dutch translator, a village leaseholder, a tax farmer, and a merchant.1 In many ways he was like other wealthy and well-connected Chinese immigrants who had bought a stake in the colony, but in other ways he was less typical.2 For one thing, he had especially close relations to the Zheng court and with traders in Chenggong's new capital, Xiamen.3 He also appears to have been remarkably unscrupulous. Other Chinese entrepreneurs accused him of behaving unethically in order to "satisfy his greedy appetite and fill his bottomless stomach."4
2Nevertheless, the Dutch chose him as their envoy to the Zheng court, and morale was high as he sailed toward Xiamen. Formosa's Chinese merchants, confident that the mission would yield fruit, began taking orders again for pepper and other goods. Dutch officials wrote to Batavia and requested goods so that Zeelandia's warehouses would be fully stocked when trade resumed.5 They also decided to delay the company's yearly auction for village leases, believing that once trade had been restored the leases would fetch their usual high prices.6 Tingbin made it to Xiamen and began negotiating with the Zheng court. Fortunately, Chinese records of Tingbin's visit to Chenggong's court exist, and they are revealing. Yang Ying, one of Chenggong's revenue officers and his court recordkeeper, wrote: "In the sixth lunar month [of 1657] the chief of the red-haired barbarians, Coyett, sent He Tingbin to the Ming Memorial Capital to arrange to present tribute and open trade relations and also to display foreign treasures."7 Yang Ying goes on to explain:
Because in previous years the red-haired barbarians had captured ships and generally caused trouble, the prince decided to prohibit all harbors and bays—whether east or west, whether states or provinces or prefectures—from trading in Taiwan. The complete ban lasted two years, during which shipping was obstructed, goods rose in value, and the barbarians suffered terribly. For this reason they sent He Tingbin. Because they will yearly pay a tax [輸餉] of 5,000 taels, 100,000 arrow shafts, and a ton of sulfur, we permitted the opening of trade.8
Other Chinese sources corroborate Yang Ying's account, and they too contain expressions similar to Yang Ying's phrases "present tribute" (納貢) and "display foreign treasures" (陳外國寶物).9 Thus, Tingbin portrayed his visit to Zheng within the rubric of the tribute system. More important, he told the Zheng court that the Dutch would pay a tax for the privilege of trading with Chenggong.
3Some have suggested that He Tingbin had the tacit approval of Dutch officials, but that is doubtful, for Dutch documents show what Tingbin actually told Dutch officials about his trip, and he did not mention tribute.10 When he returned to Taiwan in June 1657, he told Dutch officials that Chenggong had received him politely and had read the governor's letter with "some contentment."11 He told them that Chenggong's anger was directed not against the current administration in Formosa but against Formosa's previous governor, Cornelis Caesar. "Each time [I] mentioned Caesar," Tingbin reported, "[Chenggong] became upset and violent [hevig]." Tingbin said he told Chenggong that Tayouan was now ruled by a new governor named Frederik Coyett, who was "a just, good, and intelligent person,
First, he said, Chenggong was upset that the Chinese merchants who called in Tayouan suffered from Caesar's tolls on outgoing goods. Since the 1620s, the Dutch had searched vessels leaving Taiwan in order to calculate export tolls. But under Caesar's rule, Tingbin said, the inspection process grew longer and longer, causing losses for Chenggong and his people; Chenggong demanded an end to the delays. Second, Tingbin said that Chenggong complained that company employees were forcing sailors from Chinese merchant junks to work on Dutch boats, to bail, scrub decks, and the like. Tingbin said that Chenggong demanded that this practice too be stopped. Third, Tingbin said, Chenggong complained that Chinese merchants did not receive sufficiently swift payment for their wares, which, he alleged, were often taken into the company's warehouses without proper receipts. He demanded that payments be fast and receipts be provided for all goods. Fourth, Tingbin said, Chenggong complained that Chinese merchants who brought bulk goods [grove waren] to Tayouan, such as lumber and roof tiles, were forced to sell them to the company at low prices. According to Tingbin, Chenggong said that although Caesar used the excuse that the materials were needed for company buildings, he instead used them for his own house.13 Chenggong demanded an end to such harassment. Fifth, and most important, Tingbin said, Chenggong demanded that the governor send letters to Batavia telling company captains not to attack any of Chenggong's junks that traded to Southeast Asia.
5Tingbin insisted the Chenggong had wanted him to deliver these demands orally, and it is also revealing that his explanation of Chenggong's motives was entirely different from those that Chenggong himself had expressed when he imposed the embargo. Tingbin's explanation also differs from that given in Yang Ying's records, according to which the embargo was imposed because the barbarians had been capturing ships.14 Moreover, Dutch records indicate that Tingbin said nothing about the tribute mentioned in Yang Ying's account—the 5,000 taels, the 100,000 arrow shafts, and the ton of sulfur that Zheng's court expected to be paid yearly. Tingbin knew the company's ways. He needed a story to persuade the Dutch that Chenggong wanted to reopen trade but that did not reveal the large concessions—the tribute—he had made on the part of the company. He was playing a daring game. How would he come up with the tribute without giving his deception away?
6Members of the Council of Formosa had only Tingbin's account to go on and found Chenggong's purported demands acceptable. They sent Tingbin back to Xiamen with more gifts and a polite but cautious letter, in which they ceded no ground on the issue of who held sovereignty over the Chinese inhabitants of Formosa.15 The reopening of trade, wrote the governor, "greatly pleases us, since it will result in the
According to Tingbin's report later to the Dutch, Chenggong was pleased with the letter and, immediately put up placards declaring that his subjects were free once again to trade in Tayouan.19 Then, however, news arrived that company ships had captured one of Chenggong's junks and brought it to Tayouan. Furious, Chenggong ordered the placards to be torn down. Tingbin told the Dutch he had had to work hard to convince Chenggong that the junk had been captured without the governor's knowledge and to persuade him to put the placards up again. Tingbin also presented a letter purportedly from Chenggong. One passage read: "I have now undertaken to see whether I can regain my land [from the Manchus], and, since there are things under your rule [regieringe] that I need, I therefore ask you please to kindly have such things bought in Tayouan and sent to me, to wit: hemp, whitewood [withoudt] in order to make arrows, and also bow feathers for arrows, jaws from cows to use for bows, and also fish intestines [robben van visch], all of which, except the hemp, I need to make bows and arrows."20 The language is suspicious, as are the contents. If Chenggong expected to receive these military supplies as a tax, why did he write about them plaintively? And the phrase "under your rule [regieringe]" does not appear to fit Chenggong's perspective, which increasingly viewed Taiwan as part of his sphere of sovereignty. It is impossible to know whether this letter was forged by He Tingbin, but he was the only intermediary the Dutch had, and there are other examples of Chinese merchants forging correspondence with Dutch officials. Indeed, Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, carried out an elaborate and highly successful forgery in the early years of Dutch rule on Taiwan.21 In any case, trade picked up at once. Indeed, just two weeks after Tingbin had left Tayouan, a junk arrived from Xiamen with gold, silver, tobacco, paper, and many other trade goods.
8Company officials were upset, however, when they had a chance to read Chenggong's actual placard. Its tone indicated that he did not recognize the company's sovereignty over the Chinese inhabitants of Taiwan:
My father. . . was happy to grant trade to the Hollanders in Tayouan and allow them for so long to enjoy its good profits, and I from time to time have allowed my merchants, junks, and people freely to go to and from there in order to pursue their trade. And all the people who have gone there and now live there, are they not all my subjects [mijn volk]? And do I not thus lose not a little of my tolls? But thereby have I helped Tayouan, and the Dutch who are there must realize, as they drink the water, where it comes from, so that they can, with a good heart, repay me by treating my merchants and people well.22
Chenggong went on to explain why he would reopen trade. First, a new governor had replaced Caesar, and reports from his merchants and from Tingbin indicated that the new governor was good and just. Second, he had received assurances, not just from Tayouan but also directly from Batavia, that his junks would no longer be mistreated by company ships. Finally, he wrote, "realizing that my subjects [mijn volk] live in Taiwan, I cannot any longer keep their trade closed. I must rather help them from their despair and I therefore reopen trade, so that they can trade as they did before."23 The governor and the Council of Formosa decided that the edict "disparaged the Dutch nation" and asked Tingbin sharply whether Chenggong had intended it to be shown to the people of Formosa or just to Dutch officials.24 Tingbin replied that he had brought the edict to be shown to the Dutch and, if they should approve, that it then would be shown to the people of Formosa. He assured them that the edict that had been put up in Xiamen, was different. Dutch officials were suspicious. At first Tingbin had said that this was the same edict as had been promulgated in Xiamen. Was he changing his story to placate them? How much could he be trusted?
9From the very beginning the company had had trouble with Chinese intermediaries. Ripon blamed the company's first skirmish with the aborigines on a mischievous translator; Salvador Diaz and Li Dan had both cheated the company; and now He Tingbin appeared to be acting suspiciously. Indeed, the company had not really trusted Tingbin to begin with. In 1656 they had delayed talks with Chenggong partly because they had been unable to find "trustworthy" Chinese, and they knew that a couple of years earlier Tingbin had been accused of questionable practices [onhebbelijckheden] by members of the Chinese community in Taiwan.25 The Dutch had used Tingbin not because they thought him particularly faithful but because he had strong connections in Xiamen and was known in Chenggong's court.26
10They had no way to verify his reports, and he sometimes told stories about his negotiating skills or his courage on the company's behalf that seem exaggerated. On one occasion, he told of how he had saved the company 130,000 taels of silver. Chenggong, he said, told him that since the company had been wont to pay his father several thousand taels each year for the privilege of trading with him, and since it had stopped paying this sum once Zhilong had been taken prisoner by the Manchus, it should pay arrears, which Chenggong and his advisors calculated to be 130,000 taels. Tingbin replied that his lord must be misinformed, for the company had never paid Zheng Zhilong a yearly sum. He suggested that this rumor had probably originated from the company's having once or twice sent presents to Zhilong and his mandarins in the course of trade negotiations. Chenggong's counselors retorted that Tingbin would at that time have been too young to know, at which Tingbin claimed he said "that the daily record book of the Dutch in Tayouan was no youngster, and he had seen all of this written down there
Company officials were, at best, ambivalent about Tingbin. He had probably changed his story about the edict Chenggong had put up in Xiamen. They also had questions about his expense account, which they judged to be higher than necessary, and they delayed paying it in order to examine it more closely.28 Most important, they were beginning to hear disturbing rumors from the Chinese settlers on Taiwan, who accused Tingbin of collecting tolls from Chinese junks leaving Tayouan.29 When they questioned him about the matter, he proclaimed his innocence. Company officials accepted his story, "since such work could not occur here without causing great tumult among the residents." But they warned him never to do such a thing, nor "even to allow such an evil idea to enter his thoughts."30 He promised to comply. Not long afterward, the company caught him cheating in a tax-farming auction. Somehow he had contrived to buy the right to collect the rice tax for a certain area for less than half the going rate.31 The auctions were open. How did he persuade the other bidders to allow him to retain such a low bid? Why did nobody attempt to outbid him?
12Company officials did not investigate the point further, probably because they still depended on Tingbin for his connections to Xiamen.32 He was, after all, still the main conduit through which they communicated with Chenggong. Whenever he traveled between Tayouan and China he carried letters, and he continued polite diplomacy on behalf of the company.33 Company officials knew he was also working for Chenggong, who, Tingbin told them, had entrusted him with money to buy war supplies—whitewood, feathers, cow jaws, and fish intestines—but they condoned this work "so long as [the weapons] be made there [in China] and not here."34
13In 1659, however, they learned from a Chinese merchant named Samsiack that Tingbin had indeed been demanding payment from Chinese traders. Exacted in the name of the Zheng family, it was in effect an extra toll on junks departing Taiwan. Samsiack said that junk captains found it too burdensome to pay tolls both to the company and to Tingbin and had therefore reduced their traffic across the strait. After hearing this news, the governor summoned a few Chinese cabessas who had been acting suspiciously. Under "sharp questioning" they admitted that Tingbin had leased the right to collect duties from one of Chenggong's mandarins in 1657.35 The lease allowed him to collect tolls on all Formosan products exported to China, including animal hides, venison, fish, sugar, hemp, and firewood. If the exporter was unable to pay the tolls, Tingbin lent the money, with interest. He had managed to keep his activities secret from the Dutch for so long because he had had help from other Zheng supporters on Taiwan, who helped him run his operation.36 The cabessas showed documentation: In addition to letters from the Zheng family concerning the tolls, there were receipts that Tingbin himself had signed on receiving payment. It is likely that the tolls Tingbin collected went to pay for the tribute and the military supplies that Chenggong expected from the Dutch.
14The Council of Formosa summoned Tingbin. Under questioning he gave a partial confession. Six weeks later, after the Board of Aldermen (schepenbanck) conducted a formal trial, Tingbin was removed from his office as a cabessa, discharged from his position as a company translator, and assessed a fine of 300 reals.37 He fled to Xiamen with his wife, children, and relatives, leaving behind heavy debts, both to the company and to individual Chinese and Dutch lenders.38 His escape caused a stir in Tayouan. His creditors said they would be ruined. Company officials were more worried that "the fugitive good-for-nothing [schelm] Tingbin could become for Chenggong an instrument dangerous to the company, since he has a very good knowledge of our situation on Formosa and will not hesitate to use it in order to gain Chenggong's good graces."39
15That is precisely what Tingbin did. According to Yang Ying, in 1661 Zheng Chenggong called his top officials to a secret meeting, during which he told them of his plans to invade Taiwan and use it as a base, saying:
The map that He Tingbin submitted two years ago depicts Taiwan as a vast fertile land with revenues of several hundred thousand taels per year. If we concentrate our skilled people there we could easily build ships and make weapons. Of late it has been occupied by the red-haired barbarians, but they have less than a thousand people in their fortress. We could capture it without lifting a hand. I want to conquer Taiwan and use it as a base. After settling you generals' families there, we could campaign to the east and chastise those to the west without worrying about the home front.40
A less reliable account places He Tingbin himself at this meeting, at which he purportedly said that the aborigines (土番) of Taiwan had suffered bullying from the Dutch and would be delighted to help overthrow them, so that expelling the Dutch from Taiwan would be "like a tiger chasing a herd of sheep."41 In any case, Chenggong's advisors were reluctant to leave China. One who had been to Taiwan said, "The fengshui is unfavorable and the land is full of pestilence."42 Others felt that withdrawal was tantamount to giving up the cause of Ming loyalism.43 Nearly all considered Taiwan to be a malarial wilderness, unfit to serve as a base for Ming loyalism. But Zheng had made his decision. He had a family connection to Taiwan, and the Chinese colonists were, he reasoned, his subjects. He ordered his generals to prepare to attack the Dutch.
^topDutch officials knew nothing of Tingbin's meetings with Zheng Chenggong or of the map. They had their hands full on Taiwan. Although trade had increased briefly after Tingbin's initial missions in 1657, it slowed again toward the end of 1658. Over the next two years, few junks called in Tayouan, and the Formosan economy wilted. Village leaseholders lacked trade goods, and, more importantly, prices for their deer products plummeted in China. Having expected that trade would recover, they had again paid too much for their leases, and most were deeply in debt. Bad weather had hurt the sugar crops even as sugar prices fell in China. Rice crops had fared better, but no junks came from China to buy the harvests.44 Farmers and leaseholders pleaded for help from the governor. Dutch officials decided to lower tolls and decrease interest rates to stimulate the economy. Yet, as officials reported to Amsterdam, "there are many who are in such a state that all these benefits will help little."45 So long as trade stood still in Fujian, Tayouan could not hope to recover. Some officials believed that "with that established colony the best has already come, and it is more likely to decline than to rise."46
17To add to the troubles, in 1660 company officials began to notice that many Chinese inhabitants were selling their possessions and sending the proceeds to China. They worried "that the Chinese are sending their goods home in order to follow when the opportunity should arise, leaving us with the idle stump, as it were."47 The Council of Formosa asked some of the richer Chinese merchants for an explanation, but the latter replied that they had always sent money to their relatives across the strait. It was an unconvincing response. Moreover, many Chinese residents were sending wives and children back to China.48
18In early March of 1660 a distraught cabessa came before the governor to ask for safe haven. Chenggong, he said, was going to invade Formosa. He had learned the news the previous day, and his mother, his wife, and his brother's wife had cried all night. He had no precise information about Chenggong's plans, and so Dutch officials asked other cabessas, who said the invasion was to occur on the night of the next full moon, when Dutch officials would be busy with the company's landdag. At that time, the monsoon winds would begin blowing from the south so that the governor and his men would be unable to send messages to Batavia. Chenggong had already conscripted forty Chinese fishermen from the Pescadores who knew the seas and bays in and around Tayouan. They would help ferry half of Chenggong's army to the north of Tayouan, near Wanckan, and the other half to the south, near Tancoya. The armies would then march first on Saccam and then on Zeelandia itself. Tingbin, they said, had helped formulate the plans and had told Chenggong that Chinese residents in Formosa, especially those who lived in Tingbin's former lands and buildings, would greet Chenggong with open arms.49
19Governor Frederik Coyett and the Council of Formosa took action immediately. They put the fortress in a state of defense, sent letters throughout Taiwan telling company employees to prepare for an attack, and ordered soldiers who were not directly guarding the fortresses to repair walls or help finish a new bulwark on Fort Zeelandia. They also detained twelve Chinese residents who had allegedly sent wives back to China. When the houses of the detainees were searched, company employees found some of the wives still at home and told them that their husbands would be held until all Chinese grain and venison was sent to Zeelandia and the cabessas' horses placed in the company's corral in Saccam. "With God's help," wrote Dutch officials, "which is our greatest hope and refuge, we are hopeful that we will
As the ship made its way to Batavia, information about Chenggong's plans continued to arrive in Zeelandia. The most important evidence came when the captain of a small Chinese junk revealed under interrogation that he had come to Formosa to take Chinese settlers to Fujian before Chenggong arrived. Company officials searched the vessel and found eighteen letters. They were addressed to Chinese residents of Formosa, and nearly all of them advised friends and relatives to leave the island with their property before Chenggong's attack. One letter was written to a brother:
I inform you with this letter that I have arrived again in the Pescadores and am farming my land as I did before. I believe that my wife and children who live in Tayouan are not safe there. If they have any grain [gerst], whether it be much or little, or if they can get any, have them bring it here when they come. . . . Send my wife and children here without delay. Trust that I mean it, and do not disregard this letter, as if you do not value my writing, for each night I become frightened, thinking that some tumult or turmoil is taking place there. I therefore request, as I have before, that you take good care of my wife and children.52
It appeared that nearly all the Chinese colonists in Formosa believed the rumors about Chenggong's plans.
21The governor and the Council of Formosa therefore enacted a series of measures to control Chinese settlers. They required colonists to vacate large areas of Formosa, seeing that "the wide dispersion of Chinese causes difficulties for us, since we have too few people to keep proper surveillance over all of them, and so provides an opportunity and a temptation [for them] to undertake dangerous assaults on this colony."53 Settlers were ordered to move to Saccam. Some complied readily, hoping to find protection under the new fortress, but others had to be cajoled or threatened. Company officials were especially worried about the Chinese who lived in Tancoya and Wanckan, the areas Chenggong intended to attack first. When farmers who lived in Wankan refused to comply, company soldiers brought them to Saccam by force.54 Other settlers, who had fortified positions in the mountains and on the island of Lamey, were also brought to Saccam.
22Nor were Chinese permitted to do as they pleased while at sea. Company officials forbade Chinese to fish at Wankan and northward and ordered all Chinese boats and vessels to be impounded and kept in company custody. When company ships encountered junks in the Tayouan Strait, their captains felt no compunction about waylaying them and bringing them and their crews back to Tayouan for interrogation. Junks that called on Formosa of their own accord were not allowed to depart, and their crews and passengers were held to prevent them from talking to the Chinese in Tayouan. Officials also made plans to construct new fortresses in the countryside, and they wrote another letter to Batavia to request more soldiers to man them. They were, they wrote, "praying with fiery prayers" that God would help with this crisis, thanking Him for the warnings they had received, just as He had helped in 1652 with the Chinese revolt. So long as Batavia took these warning seriously and sent proper reinforcements, the company would weather the storm.55
23The Council of the Indies responded with unusual speed, sending a fleet of twelve ships under Jan van der Laan.56 Unfortunately, van der Laan carried ambivalent orders. He was to protect Tayouan from Chenggong, but, "if, as has frequently occurred, the rumors about Chenggong disappear like smoke in the wind," he was to take his fleet south to wrest Macao from the Portuguese.57 Van der Laan arrived in Tayouan in late July and began to grow restless in early October, when no invasion had yet taken place. He wanted to move against Macao, and the question was debated in divisive sessions of the Council of Formosa. Van der Laan, whom some Formosan officials began to call Jan the Unreasonable (Jan tegen de reeden aan), argued that rumors of Chenggong's attack were but idle chatter. Even if an attack were launched, he purportedly stated, Formosa's defenses would be ample to repulse it, for "half of these defenses and men would be enough to repel a party of Chinese dogs
One member of the Council of Formosa suggested that a messenger be sent to Xiamen to determine Chenggong's intentions. The Council agreed. Chenggong politely received the envoy, but when the latter made what he felt were subtle inquiries about Chenggong's preparations for war, Chenggong interrupted him and said "that he was not in the habit of publishing his designs, but frequently circulated a rumor that he was moving west when he was really intending to move east." He then wrote a letter to the governor of Formosa. "Your Honor," he wrote, "still remains in doubt about my good feelings toward the Dutch state, and believes that I have been planning to undertake some hostile action against your land. This is, however, just a rumor, propagated, it would seem, by evil-minded people." Chenggong went on to state that he was too busy with the Manchus to concern himself with "a small grass-producing land" like Formosa. In any case, he said, he frequently spread such rumors to deceive his enemies.59 "How," he asked, "can one know my hidden thoughts and tell what are my actual intentions, which have been revealed to nobody?"60 The governor, Chenggong slyly stated, was too quick to believe everything he was told.
25The letter, as might be expected, did little to reassure the governor and the Council members. Although shortly thereafter Chenggong took steps to reopen trade between Formosa and China, they remained suspicious and voted to delay the Macao expedition until the following year. They also decided that the soldiers that van der Laan had brought should stay in Formosa. Van der Laan, furious, returned to Batavia, taking with him two ships and some experienced officers. When he made his report to the Council of the Indies, he fulminated against Coyett and presented letters from Formosan employees who complained about the harsh policies Coyett had imposed on Chinese settlers.
26Coyett had enemies in Batavia's Council of the Indies, who listened to Van der Laan's complaints with eager ears. They wrote a letter to Amsterdam, excoriating Coyett for wasting valuable resources by deciding to retain men and ships in Formosa rather than attack Macao.61 Moreover, they decided that rumors of Chenggong's attack were groundless, "having been spread among the common folk for years on end without the least outcome."62 The rumors had "been from beginning to end nothing but a bunch of false and frivolous fantasies propagated by a few bad Chinese."63 As for the Chinese settlers who were fleeing Formosa, Batavia blamed Coyett and other Formosan officials:
Our people are themselves causa movens of the commotions that have taken place on Formosa, from which the inhabitants and especially the farmers. . . have received such hindrance and suffering, as if Chenggong's army had already been there. The poor peasants have seen their grain sheds razed, and. . . their rice burned. . . . The governor had all the elders and other powerful Chinese. . . imprisoned. . . . [T]hey have been in detention for eight months now, and their assets, which mostly consisted in agriculture, have fallen into ruin.64
The Council of the Indies sent a sharp letter to Coyett and the Council of Formosa. First they chastised them for harassing Chinese settlers: "The Chinese colony, which has been planted there at so much cost and trouble, is the only means through which that island has been brought to fruitfulness and from which the company thus yearly derives such rich incomes
As Coyett's replacement they chose a man named Hermanus Clenk van Odesse, whose instructions called for him to reestablish the Chinese colony on Formosa: "Above all see to it that the Chinese colony there, which, thanks to the actions of our people, has suffered like winter wheat in the field, can be helped on its feet again, because without that hard-working nation the island Formosa cannot be fruitful or bring any income."66 Clenk was ordered to adopt special measures to make Chinese colonists feel welcome again. First, he was to issue full pardons for the Chinese cabessas whom Coyett and his men had imprisoned. They would be allowed to take up their old positions, including judicial duties in the Council of Justice. Second, the sheriff (landdrost) Valentijn, "who, with
The governor-general and the Council of the Indies were quite explicit that the Chinese settlers should be mollified. The new governor was instructed to tell the Chinese plainly that Coyett had been fired from his post "in order to show openly that we are upset by the cruel procedures that have recently been undertaken against them and that they occurred without our knowledge." Coyett's replacement would "not only protect [the Chinese] from further oppression but also make it possible for them to settle again on Taiwan without molestation."69 According to the Council of the Indies, "we shall gain more from Chenggong by love than by the exercise of violence." Clenk took the letters and sailed to Formosa in June 1661. But he was too late.
^topIn April 1661, strange portents occurred. On one day a mermaid was seen off the Zeelandia peninsula. One night disembodied voices rose from the execution ground between the fortress and the city, some speaking Chinese and others Dutch. Another night an eerie wailing issued from a bastion of Zeelandia; soldiers rushed there but found nothing.70 On April 15, a company scribe noted that in Saccam "a dog has given birth to two leopards [luypaerden], which died shortly thereafter, this being something strange and never before seen here."71 An ominous silence hung over Zeelandia City. Most inhabitants had locked their houses and left.
30On April 30, 1661, Dutch sentinels spotted Chenggong's fleet—several hundred large junks—heading under full sail toward Tayouan.72 Chenggong had waited for the monsoon winds to turn southerly, thereby cutting off the chance for Formosa to send word to Batavia. The Dutch had few ships left—of those that had come with van der Laan only three remained. Moreover, Dutch guns, whether firing from Fort Zeelandia or Fort Provintia, could not defend all entrances to the Bay of Tayouan. The Dutch could do little but watch as Chenggong's fleet sailed into the bay and began landing troops north of Fort Provintia. Thousands of Chinese settlers came to the beaches to help them land. There is evidence that many had pledged their loyalty to Chenggong well before, for company officials later learned from a former translator that "we Chinese inhabitants of this land had already promised
Dutch officials knew they could not prevent Chenggong from landing, but perhaps they could slow his progress.74 They sent three small expeditions. First, three Dutch ships were dispatched to oust a group of junks defending one of the small islands in the entrance to the Bay of Tayouan. The junks put up a spirited resistance, and in the battle the main Dutch ship exploded, and the other Dutch ships had to retreat back to Zeelandia. Next, a group of two hundred forty Dutch musketeers advanced on land against a group of Chinese soldiers who held a sandbar in the entrance to the bay. The captain who led the assault was an old Formosa hand, and he roused his men with stories of the Chinese revolt of 1652, when Dutch forces had easily defeated far larger peasant armies. "The Chinese," he said, "could not bear the smell of powder and the roar of muskets and would flee during the first charge, as soon as a few of them had been shot down."75 The Dutch soldiers marched confidently toward a much larger enemy force. They shot three salvos, bringing down a number of soldiers. But Chenggong's troops did not break formation. They unleashed a "terrific hailstorm of arrows, such that the sky grew dark."76 They also sent a detachment to sneak around behind the Dutch force. When the Dutch soldiers noticed that the Chinese were not fleeing as had been expected and that, moreover, they were now surrounded, they panicked and fled, only to be cut down by Chenggong's experienced troops.77 Half survived by wading back to Zeelandia in water up to their necks, but it was a major defeat for the Dutch.78 A third sortie, which attempted to reinforce Fort Provintia, also failed, again because of the size and discipline of Chenggong's armies.
32These defeats shocked the Dutch. These were not the poorly armed peasants they had encountered in 1652. Chenggong's men were trained, battle-hardened veterans of the Manchu wars. Covering their torsos and thighs was strong armor that, it was said, could stop musket balls. They carried long pikes and, although few had guns, most were skilled with bow and arrow. Their navy was similarly well equipped. Chenggong's junks were not as effective as Dutch ships, but they far outnumbered the Dutch fleet and were manned by experienced sailors.
33But Chenggong's forces suffered from a dramatic weakness: They were short of provisions. Chenggong had had trouble acquiring grain, and the Formosan crops were not ready for harvest. He tried to requisition grain stores from Formosan villages but there was not enough. He was desperately short of food. The Dutch never realized how dire his need was and failed to remove or destroy grain stores. Chenggong therefore focused his attention not on the main fortress, which would be difficult to capture, but on the smaller fortress of Provintia and on the town of Saccam, where he hoped to find food for his soldiers. When his troops marched into Saccam, Chenggong's troops found enough grain to feed Chenggong's army for half a month.79 Without it his troops might have gone hungry, which would have given the Dutch a fighting chance. Instead, after taking Saccam, they ate their fill and then surrounded the thin-walled and ill-equipped Fort Provintia at their leisure.80 Lacking gunpowder and fresh water, the besieged were soon forced to surrender the fort.
34Then Chenggong turned his attention to the countryside near the Bay of Tayouan, where the Dutch were few and easily captured. The aborigines offered little resistance. The first to recognize Chenggong's rule were the heavily christianized Soulangers whom the governor had appointed as elders in the landdag ceremonies. On May 3, only four days after Chenggong's troops arrived, they handed over to Chenggong the rattan staves the governor had given them at the previous landdag.81 Their neighbors, the Sinkanders, were perhaps the most pro-Dutch aborigines, and some at first tried to resist, but Chenggong's armies were vastly superior. Some days after the Soulang elders had gone over to Chenggong, the Sinkanders decided that they too had little choice but to come to terms with him. To those who did so most willingly, Chenggong gave silk gowns and coral. Those whose loyalty he suspected he took into custody.82
35To celebrate, Chenggong held his own landdag. The elders of the villages closest to Tayouan—Sinkan, Soulang, Baccluan, and Mattau—came before him to offer their alliegiance. He served a rich banquet and then named village elders, presenting them with formal gowns, caps, boots, and sashes to mark their office.83 "As a result," wrote one of Chenggong's generals, "the heads of the native villages to the north and south sniffed the wind and came, one on the heels of another, to proffer allegiance."84 The diplomacy race sparked by Chenggong's arrival resembled that enjoyed by the Dutch twenty-five years earlier. By the middle of May, the elders of dozens of villages had pledged their allegiance to Chenggong and received the silk gowns, caps, and golden sashes that symbolized their fealty. According to a Dutch schoolteacher, who had fled from the Formosan Plains to Zeelandia on May 17,
These fellows now speak with much disdain of the true Christian faith which we endeavored to implant in their hearts, and are delighted that they are now freed from attending the schools. Everywhere they have destroyed the books and utensils, and have introduced the abominable usages and customs of heathenism. On hearing the report that Chenggong had arrived, they murdered one of our Dutch people; and after having struck off the head they danced around it with great joy and merriment, just as they formerly did with their vanquished enemies.8536
A group of around forty-eight Dutch officials—schoolteachers, missionaries, and soldiers who had been stationed in the southern plains—fled across the mountains to the aboriginal town of Pimaba (today's Taidong), on Taiwan's southeastern coast, where they joined a small Dutch force. Lacking ammunition, medicine, and trading goods, they could do little but hold out. They had no help to offer to the besieged in Zeelandia.86
37With Fort Provintia lost and the remaining Dutch forces on Taiwan scattered and weak, those in Fort Zeelandia prepared for a long siege. It must have been crowded, since the inhabitants of the town of Zeelandia had taken refuge in the fortress. But they had cause for hope. It was a powerful, modern fortress, against which Chenggong's cannon could make little headway.87 Moreover, although they were cut off from the rest of Formosa, they could be relieved by sea. So long as Chenggong found no weakness in their walls, they might hold on for years.
38Chenggong himself was aware of this, because he used to relieve his own fortresses by sea while Manchu armies watched helplessly from land. He believed that by timing his attack to coincide with the beginning of the southern monsoon, Zeelandia would be unable to send word to Batavia against the prevailing winds. Because no reinforcements would arrive, he would have plenty of time to capture Fort Zeelandia. As it turned out, however, besieged officials did manage to send a vessel. Tacking slowly against the winds, it brought its news to Batavia just two days after Coyett's replacement, Clenk, had departed with the letters complaining that Coyett had exaggerated Chenggong's threat and with the documents that removed Coyett from power. When told of Zheng's invasion, the Council of the Indies quickly sent a small dispatch ship to overtake Clenk and nullify his orders. The ship failed to reach him in time. Thus when Clenk reached Taiwan, he found hundreds of war junks trying to prevent him from landing at Zeelandia. He promptly left, sailing for Japan.88 In the meantime, Batavia had prepared a defense fleet, which arrived in Tayouan shortly after Clenk had left, although adverse weather prevented the landing of its seven hundred soldiers until September. When Zheng Chenggong saw the fleet arrive, he flew into a rage.
39The target of his anger was He Tingbin, who had been advising Chenggong throughout the invasion as well as acting as translator and intermediary. Whenever the Dutch or Chenggong wanted to send a message to the other, Tingbin had acted as go-between.89 At times Tingbin helped company employees who had been captured by Zheng forces, as on one occasion when he mitigated the torture of some Dutch prisoners,90 and on another when he gave a Dutch prisoner food and drink.91 He was also the person to whom Dutch defectors fled—in July 1661, for example, a company soldier named Anthonie Pergens ran to him, and Tingbin secured him employment with Chenggong.92
40But Tingbin had said that the capture of Taiwan would be easy, and when it turned out to be hard, Chenggong got angry. Tingbin had portrayed Taiwan as a place where rice was plentiful, but it turned out to be otherwise, as reported by a Dutchman who had had a chance to talk to some of Zheng's soldiers: "In China they had had a much better life than here. Venison is never seen; pork is [very expensive]; and they are forced to live with nothing other than aboriginal rice, which, because there is so little, they boil into a sort of ricewater or porridge [liblap of cangie]. . . for which dearth Tingbin receives the most blame."93 But it was when Chenggong saw the Dutch succor fleet arrive that he really got mad.94 According to Dutch records, he had Tingbin stripped of his honors and sent him to live in a small thatched hut, with orders never to show his face again. Others were forbidden to visit him on pain of death.95
41The seven hundred reinforcements from Batavia were too few for a major expedition against Chenggong, but company officials decided they might be used at least to help raise the siege on Fort Zeelandia. The fortress's cannon were unable to hit Zheng's besieging soldiers because the latter were hiding behind the remains of stone houses in Zeelandia City. The Dutch therefore launched a coordinated naval and land expedition. According to plans, two ships were to sail around behind Zeelandia and bombard the enemy soliders from the side while four hundred Dutch infantrymen would attack head on from Fort Zeelandia. Meanwhile, another small fleet of Dutch ships would attack a group of Chenggong's junks that were anchored in the Bay of Tayouan. The plan was launched on September 16, 1661. Wind and tide seemed favorable. But as soon as the ships set out, the wind died. Then it began blowing from the opposite direction, making it impossible for the Dutch sailing ships to carry out their missions. When a detachment of Dutch galleys foolishly rowed out to engage the enemy, they were routed, losing five vessels and more than a hundred and thirty men.96 Without naval support, the land assault failed.97
42The besieged still kept their hope. With the remaining ships of the succor fleet they could still harass Chenggong and perhaps disrupt his supply lines from China. More importantly, they could offer naval help to the Manchus, who appeared willing to ally with them against Chenggong. At this point, however, disagreements between Formosan officials and the captain of the succor fleet made concerted action difficult. The captain, Jacob Caew, failed to show up when expected by the Manchus and instead went back to Batavia. The Manchu alliance failed, and Zeelandia was left once again without naval support. Then things got worse.
43In December 1661, Hans Jurgen Radis, one of the company's sergeants, defected to Chenggong's side. Radis had served in European wars and knew Fort Zeelandia inside and out. He directed Chenggong's attention to a redoubt located on a hill above Fort Zeelandia. If Chenggong could take it, he would be able to shoot directly into the company's defenses and Zeelandia would be his. Chenggong followed the advice. In January 1662, his men began preparing batteries to fire on the redoubt. Dutch officials realized that Chenggong now knew about the only major weakness in their defenses. They considered making a sortie to dislodge Chenggong's men and prevent them from finishing the batteries but decided not to because they lacked manpower. Instead, when Chenggong's cannon began firing, the Dutch prayed: "We trust that our kindhearted God, who is almighty, will protect us from the terrible violence of our enemies, and we are begging him to do so fervently and with our entire hearts."98 The redoubt fell a day later.
44Now that the redoubt had fallen, the governor and the Council of Formosa sent word to Chenggong: They were ready to surrender. Chenggong knew he had the upper hand and was able to set strict terms. Company officials were allowed to keep a small amount of money, but the fort, along with all artillery, munitions, merchandise was to be his. Moreover, the Dutch were to provide him with a copy of the names of all Chinese debtors and leaseholders on Taiwan who had claims outstanding against them. Once the surrender had been signed, company forces marched out of the fortress armed and in good order. Then Chenggong raised his flag over it. Not long thereafter, the Dutch garrisons in Jilong and Danshui also surrendered. The Chinese colony that the Dutch had fostered now had a new master. For the first time, Formosa was ruled by a Chinese state.
45And what happened to He Tingbin? In the final negotiations, as the Dutch were surrendering their fortress to Zheng Chenggong, he appeared once more as a translator: "Tingbin the scoundrel land-thief and master-traitor
Note 1: For a fanciful account of the origins of He Bin and his relations with "King Coyett" (揆一王) of Taiwan, see Jiang Risheng 江日昇 (fl. 1692), Taiwan wai ji 臺灣外記, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 60 (1960), 36–48. back
Note 2: It is interesting that in some East Asian sources He Tingbin is referred to as a Japanese chief (日本甲螺). It is of course possible that Tingbin had some contact with the Chinese community in Japan, but there appears to be no corroboration in Dutch records. See Kawaguchi Choju 川口長孺, Taiwan ge ju zhi 臺灣割據志, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 1 (1957), 53; and Zheng shi ji shi 臺灣鄭氏紀事, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 5 (1958), 48. In both of these sources, the phrase 日本甲螺何斌 appears. See also Zheng Chenggong zhuan 鄭成功傳, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 67 (1960), 100. back
Note 3: Indeed, he appears to have been related to the Chinese official known in Dutch sources as Sauja (in Chinese sources he is known as 祚爺 or 鄭泰), an adopted son of Zheng Zhilong and one of the most powerful men in Amoy. See De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan, 1629–1662, ed. Leonard Blussé et al., 4 vols. (The Hague: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1986–2001), vol. 4, C: 637 (cited hereafter as Zeelandia Dagregisters). back
Note 4: Vertoogh van de voornaemste Chineesen in Tayouan over de onhebbelijckheden gepleecht door den tolck Pincqua, 15 November 1654, VOC 1207: 550–52, quote at 550. back
Note 5: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Formosa, 10 March 1657, VOC 1222: 1–16, esp. 14. back
Note 6: Zeelandia Dagregister, vol. 4, B: 137 and B: 148. back
Note 7: Yang Ying 楊英, Cong zheng shi lu 從征實錄, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 32 (1958), 113. back
Note 8: Yang Ying, Cong zheng shi lu, 113. back
Note 9: Xia Lin's "Min hai ji yao" 閩海紀要, for example, contains the following passage: "Coyett sent the translator He Bin to pay tribute of foreign treasures (貢外國珍寶) to Chenggong and ask for trade. [The foreigners] are willing yearly to pay a tax (輸款納餉) of five thousand silver taels, fifty thousand arrow-shafts, and a thousand dan of sulfur." See Xia Lin 夏琳, Min hai ji yao 閩海紀要, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 11 (1958), 19. A closely related source by the same author contains an almost identical passage, except that it, like the Yang Ying, provides a yearly tax of 100,000 instead of 50,000 arrowshafts. See Xia Lin 夏琳, Hai ji ji yao 海紀輯要, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 22 (1958), 20. Similar passages occur in Ruan Minxi 阮旻錫, Hai shang jian wen lu 海上見聞錄, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 24 (1958), 24; and Peng Sunyi 彭孫貽, Jing hai zhi 靖海志, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 35 (1959), 39. back
Note 10: See, for example, Yang Yanjie 楊彥杰, Heju shidai Taiwan shi 荷據時臺灣史 (Taipei: Lianjing 聯經 Press, 2000), 273. The debate on this issue is not over. Although it is doubtful that Dutch officials would have condoned the idea of tribute, it is possible. Indeed, it was one of the charges leveled against Coyett in the trial in Batavia that followed the loss of Taiwan. back
Note 11: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 159. back
Note 12: Ibid. back
Note 13: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 160–65. back
Note 14: Yang Ying, Cong zheng shi lu, 113. back
Note 15: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 167. A resolution specifies the size of the gifts: 2,012 reals for Koxinga and a total of another thousand or so reals for others. In addition, Pinqua was provided 2,945 reals for expenses (Resolution of the Council of Formosa, 19 March 1657, VOC 1222: 48–51b). Since a tael was worth almost 50 percent more than a real, this was not enough money to pay the tribute the Zheng court appears to have expected. See also the Bericht schrift van Frederik Coyett voor den tolcq Pinqua, Tayouan, 22 March 1657, VOC 1222: 533. They also decided to hold the long-delayed general auction for village leaseholders and other leases (Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 167). The auction brought a respectable sum (Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 177–80). back
Note 16: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Koxinga, letter, Tayouan, 2 July 1657, VOC 1222: 504–5. back
Note 17: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 19 November 1657, VOC 1222: 17–43, esp. 18. back
Note 18: Pinqua to Governor Frederik Coyett, translation of letter, undated (July 1657), VOC 1222: 527–28. back
Note 19: Pinqua to Governor Frederik Coyett, translation of letter, fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month (25 July), 1657, VOC 1222: 529–30. back
Note 20: Great Mandarin Koxinga to Frederik Coyett, president of Formosa, translation of letter, 5 August 1657, VOC 1222, 518–19, quote at 518. back
Note 21: Zhilong's manipulation of the Dutch is outlined in Leonard Blussé, "The VOC as Sorceror's Apprentice: Stereotypes and Social Engineering on the China Coast," in Leyden Studies in Sinology, ed. W. L. Idema (Leiden, 1981), 87–105. back
Note 22: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 224–26. The expression "the Dutch
Note 23: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 224–26. back
Note 24: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 227. back
Note 25: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 27 December 1656, VOC 1218: 467–71, esp. 469. On Tingbin's questionable practices, see Vertoogh van de vooraemste Chineesen in Tayouan over de onhebbelijckheden gepleecht door den tolck Pincqua, VOC 1207: 550–52. back
Note 26: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 10 March 1657, VOC 1222: 1–16, esp. 12–13. back
Note 27: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 164–65. back
Note 28: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 253–54. back
Note 29: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 254. back
Note 30: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 255. back
Note 31: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, B: 288–89. back
Note 32: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, C: 594. back
Note 33: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, C: 637. back
Note 34: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Formosa, 19 November 1657, VOC 1222: 17–43, quote at 19. back
Note 35: The phrase "sharp questioning" was perhaps a euphemism for torture. back
Note 36: For more on Zheng supporters within Dutch Formosa, see Yang Yanjie, Heju shidai Taiwan shi, 279–80. back
Note 37: G. C. Molewijk, ed., 't Verwaerloosde Formosa, of waerachtig verhael, hoedanigh door verwaerloosinge der Nederlanders in Oost-Indien, het Eylant Formosa, van den Chinesen Mandorijn, ende Zeeroover Coxinja, overrompelt, vermeestert, ende ontweldight is geworden (1675; Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1991), 192–94 (henceforth referred to as Verwaerloosde Formosa). back
Note 38: Some Chinese sources indicate that he fled because of indebtedness, but they do not mention the full extent of his actions. An early such account, for example, states that "the red-haired barbarian cabessa [甲螺] He Bin fled to Xiamen because of debts [負債走廈]." See Huang Zongxi (lived 1610 to 1695), Ci xing shi mo 賜姓始末, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 25 (1958), 29. Another source, the fanciful and unreliable Taiwan wai ji, has He Bin fleeing to Koxinga because he had embezzled (侵用) more than 100,000 taels "from King Coyett" and was afraid the "king" would try to seek revenge; see Jiang Risheng 江日昇 (fl. 1692), Taiwan wai ji, 190–91 (see also 165). back
Note 39: Generale Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, et al, XVIII, 16 December, 1659, p. 278. back
Note 40: Yang Ying 楊英, Cong zheng shi lu 從征實錄, Taiwan wenxian congkan, no. 32 (1958), 185; I based my translation on that of Lynn Struve in her excellent Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers' Jaws (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 207. back
Note 41: Xia Lin, "Min hai ji yao," 27. back
Note 42: Yang Ying, Cong zheng shi lu, 185; Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm, 207. back
Note 43: As Jack Wills points out, by choosing Formosa, Koxinga was in effect choosing his biological father (Zhilong) over his adoptive father (the prince of Tang) and could therefore be seen as abandoning his Ming loyalties. See Jack E. Wills Jr., Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 228–29. back
Note 44: See Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 18 December 1659, VOC 1230: 210–12. back
Note 45: Generale Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, et al, XVIII, 16 December 1659, p. 277. back
Note 46: The meaning of this sentence is somewhat vague. The words "established colony" most likely refer to the Chinese colony on Formosa, to which Nicholas Verburch, who was in charge of Formosan affairs, attached great importance. This interpretation makes the following phrase more understandable: "which would be very damaging to the situation of the land there" (hetwelcke den staet daer te lande seer schadelijck wesen soude). Generale Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, et al, XVIII, 16 December 1659, p. 277. back
Note 47: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 194. back
Note 48: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Govenor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan 10 March, 1660, VOC 1233: 700–14, esp. 709–11. back
Note 49: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 194–95. back
Note 50: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Govenor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 10 March 1660, VOC 1233: 700–14, quote at 711. back
Note 51: Ibid. back
Note 52: From Verwaerloosde Formosa, 200–1. back
Note 53: Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 11 April 1660, VOC 1233: A146–A152 (behind p. 810), quote at A149. back
Note 54: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 198. back
Note 55: Coyett and the council members wrote that if the Council of the Indies took the proper measures, in a few years the troubles would have faded and one would be able to say "Had we not had that misfortune we would have been unfortunate indeed" (Wij waren ongelukkich waren wij niet ongelukkigh geweest). Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, to Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker, letter, Tayouan, 11 April 1660, VOC 1233: A146–A152 (behind p. 810), quote at 150. back
Note 56: A classic account of the events that follow van der Laan's dispatch is found in one of C. R. Boxer's earliest articles: "The Siege of Fort Zeelandia and the Capture of Formosa from the Dutch, 1661–1662," Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society London, 27 (1927): 16–47. back
Note 57: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 82; William M. Campbell's translation, in Campbell, Formosa under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Sources (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1903), 400. See also Inez de Beauclair, ed., Neglected Formosa: A Translation from the Dutch of Frederic Coyett's 't Verwaerloosde Formosa (1675; San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1975), 30. back
Note 58: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 85. back
Note 59: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 89. back
Note 60: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 90. back
Note 61: General Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, and Steur, XXI, 26 January 1661, p. 361. back
Note 62: General Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, and Steur, XXI, 26 January 1661, p. 358. back
Note 63: General Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, and Steur, XXI, 26 January 1661, p. 361. back
Note 64: General Missiven, vol. 3 (1655–74), Maetsuyker, Hartsinck, Van Oudtshoorn, Verburch, and Steur, XXI, 26 January 1661, pp. 361–62. back
Note 65: Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker to Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, letter, Batavia, 21 June 1661, VOC 1234: 265–90, quote at 277v. back
Note 66: Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker to Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, letter, Batavia, 21 June 1661, VOC 1234: 265–90, quote at 279v. back
Note 67: Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker to Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, letter, Batavia, 21 June 1661, VOC 1234: 265–90, quote at 281. back
Note 68: Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker to Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, letter, Batavia, 21 June 1661, VOC 1234: 265–90, quote at 283. back
Note 69: Governor-General Jan Maetsuycker to Frederik Coyett, governor of Formosa, letter, Batavia, 21 June 1661, VOC 1234: 265–90, quote at 280. back
Note 70: Cited in C. R. Boxer, "The Siege of Fort Zeelandia and the Capture of Formosa from the Dutch, 1661–1662," Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society London, 27 (1927): 16–47, esp. 26. back
Note 71: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 508. back
Note 72: Yang Ying's account and Coyett's account differ in the day of the arrival of Zheng's fleet. See Lynn Struve, The Southern Ming, 1644–1662 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 254, note 83. back
Note 73: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 555. back
Note 74: For those readers who desire a more detailed account of the siege of Zeelandia, I recommend Jiang Shusheng 江樹生, Zheng Chenggong he Helanren zai Taiwan de zui hou yi zhan ji 鄭成功和荷蘭人在臺灣的最後一戰及換文締和 (Taipei: Han Sheng Zazhi She 漢聲雜誌社, 1992). back
Note 75: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 104. back
Note 76: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 105. back
Note 77: Yang Ying also provides an account of this battle (Lynn Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm, 218). back
Note 78: Verwaeroosde Formosa, 104–5. back
Note 79: Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm, 213. back
Note 80: They suffered food shortages thereafter, as Yang Ying makes clear, and despite Koxinga's policies immediately to begin settling soldiers as farmers, his large army was still dependent upon grain from China. When grain ships did not arrive, soldiers in Formosa were sometimes reduced to "eating tree bark to satisfy their hunger" (Yang Ying 楊英, Cong zheng shi lu, 191; Struve, Voices from the Ming-Ch'ing Cataclysm, 231). back
Note 81: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 537. back
Note 82: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 553. back
Note 83: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 562. back
Note 84: Struve's translation (Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm, 226). back
Note 85: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 574–75, Campbell's translation, although I have changed a few words for clarity (Campbell, Formosa under the Dutch, 318). back
Note 86: See Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, E: 710–12. back
Note 87: See Geoffrey Parker, "The Artillery Fortress as an Engine of European Overseas Expansion, 1480–1750," in City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective, ed. James Tracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). back
Note 88: For the further adventures of Clenk, see Boxer, "The Siege of Zeelandia," 37. back
Note 89: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 537–38, 560, 564. back
Note 90: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 519. back
Note 91: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 529. back
Note 92: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 690. back
Note 93: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 737–38. back
Note 94: See the fascinating diary of Philip Meij, Het naervolgende sijnde 't geene per memorie onthouden van 't gepasseerde in 't geweldigh overvallen des Chinesen mandorijns Cocxinja op Formosa en geduijrende ons gevanckenis, beginnende 30 April 1661 en eijndigende 4 Februarij 1662, VOC 1238: 848–914. This valuable document has been published and translated into Chinese: Jiang Shusheng 江樹生, ed., Meishi Riji: Helan tudi celiangshi kan Zheng Chenggong 梅氏日記荷蘭土地測量師看鄭成功 (Taipei: Han Sheng Zazhi She Gufen Youxian Gongsi 漢聲雜誌社股份有限公司, 2003). back
Note 95: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 755 and 779. See also Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, D: 792, 798, 811, and E: 676, 701. Chinese sources do not mention this occurrence. back
Note 96: This attack appears to be mentioned by Yang Ying as well, who records the capture of five Dutch vessels (two jiabanchuan 甲板船 and three xiaoting 小艇) in the eighth lunar month. (He does not provide the precise day, but the eighth lunar month was around the time of the Dutch attack.) Yang Ying 楊英, Cong zheng shi lu, 191. back
Note 97: Verwaerloosde Formosa, 142–45. back
Note 98: Governor and Council of Formosa to Batavia, letter, 25 January 1662, in Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, E: 728–32, quote at 732. back
Note 99: Zeelandia Dagregisters, vol. 4, E: 744. back


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In the mid-1990s I interviewed for a reporter's job at the then-fledgeling BBC News website. I didn't get it.
Considering the BBC's current output and apparent lack of news sense, I am now very glad that I did not succeed. I would be ashamed to have that as a line on my CV.
Unfortunately, the BBC accounts for 70 per cent of news consumption on British television – and 40 per cent of online news read by the public. It has a stranglehold on most people's perception of the news – and it is clearly biased.
Take today's story about PC Keith Wallis, who has admitted misconduct in the 'Plebgate' affair by falsely claiming to have overheard the conversation between Andrew Mitchell and another police officer. He admitted the falsehood at a court hearing in the Old Bailey.
The case is important because he had been lying in order to support the allegation that Mr Mitchell had shouting a torrent of profanities at the other police officer, Toby Rowland, after being stopped from cycling through Downing Street's main gates. PC Rowland had alleged that one of the words used had been the derogatory word "pleb", and the resulting scandal had forced Mitchell to resign as Tory Chief Whip.
It casts doubt on the integrity of Metropolitan police officers – a further four are facing charges of gross misconduct.
However, the officer at the centre of the case – PC Rowlands – is not among them. He remains adamant that his version of events is correct and is suing Mitchell for libel over comments he made about the incident which the officer claims were defamatory.
This is the story the BBC decided to make the lead on all its news bulletins, all day. It contains no evidence contradicting PC Rowland's allegations against Mitchell; the worst that can be said is that the admission of guilt casts a shadow over the entire Metropolitan police service – and in fairness, that is a serious matter.
But the fact is that people will use this to discredit PC Rowland and rehabilitate the reputation of an MP who was a leading member of the Coalition government until the incident took place – and that is wrong. It is an inaccurate interpretation of the information, but the BBC is supporting it by giving the story the prominence it has received.
In contrast, let's look at the way it handled revelations about the Coalition government's plans to change the National Health Service, back when the Health and Social Care Act was on its way through Parliament.
You will be aware that Andrew Lansley worked on the then-Bill for many years prior to the 2010 election, but was forbidden from mentioning this to anybody ahead of polling day (see Never Again? The story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012). Meanwhile all election material promised no more top-down reorganisations of the NHS. Former cabinet minister Michael Portillo, speaking about it on the BBC's This Week, said: "[The Tories] didn't believe they could win an election if they told you what they were going to do." Considering the immensity of the changes – NHS boss David Nicholson said they were "visible from space" – this lie should have sparked a major BBC investigation. What did we get?
After Lansley released his unpopular White Paper on health, David Cameron tried to distance himself from the backlash by claiming "surprise" at how far they went. This was an early example of the comedy Prime Minister's ability to lie (so many have issued from his lips since then that we should have a contest to choose the Nation's favourite), as he helped write the Green Papers that preceded this document (see Never Again). If it was possible for the authors of Never Again to dig out this information, it should certainly have been possible for the BBC. What did we get?
Not a word.
In contrast to Cameron, Lansley, and any other Tory's claims that there would be no privatisation of the NHS, KPMG head of health Mark Britnell (look him up – he's an interesting character in his own right) said the service would be shown "no mercy" and would become a "state insurance provider, not a state deliverer". This important revelation that the Tories had been lying received coverage in less popular outlets like The Guardian, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail but the BBC only mentioned it in passing – four days after the story broke – to explain a comment by Nick Clegg.
One of the key elements used to get members of the medical profession on-side with the Lansley Act was the claim that GPs would commission services. This was a lie. It was well-known when the plans were being drafted that general practitioners simply would not have time for such work and it was expected that they would outsource the work to private management companies – many of whom would also have a hand in service delivery. There is a clear conflict of interest in this. East London GP Jonathan Tomlinson told Channel 4 that the scale of private involvement would be so large as to include "absolutely everything that commissioning involves". This was a clear betrayal of the promise to GPs. The BBC never mentioned it.
Another phrase trotted out by the Tories was that the changes would increase "patient choice" – by which we were all intended to believe patients would have more opportunity to choose the treatment they received and who provided it. This is a lie. The new Clinical Commissioning Groups created by the Act – and run, not by doctors, but by private healthcare companies on their own behalf – have a duty to put services out to tender unless they are sure that only one provider is able to offer a service. In reality, this means all services must be opened up to the private sector as no CCG could withstand a legal challenge from a snubbed private provider. But this makes a mockery of Andrew Lansley's promise that CCGs could choose when and with whom to commission.
In turn, this means private firms will be able to 'cherry-pick' the easiest and cheapest services to provide, and regulations also mean they can choose to provide those services only for those patients they believe will cost the least money. Anyone with complicated, difficult, or long-term conditions will be thrown to the wolves. In other words, far from patients having increased choice, the Health and Social Care Act means private companies will be able to choose the patients they treat.
We are still waiting for the BBC to report this.
Add it all up and you will see that the largest news-gathering organisation in the UK – and possibly the world – sees more news value in a slanging match between an MP and a policeman than it does in the wholesale betrayal of every single citizen of the country.
Why do we allow this to continue?
The fight for the NHS would have been lost and forgotten long ago without blogs like Vox Political.
The site needs YOUR support to continue fighting on this – and other issues.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-03-28
<barrucadu> I've been going through the xmlfs code, and plan to have it
monitor the backing store (xml file) for changes and update the presented
directory hierarchy when something is changed; is there a better way to
check a file for changes beyond checking its modification time every few
<tschwinge> barrucadu: In the Hurd spirit, you'd use file_notice_changes
<barrucadu> thanks
<youpi> we should manage to work out an inotify interface around it, btw
<pochu> like gamin?
<pinotree> imho making gamin work should gain all the fam-using
<pochu> (which, looking at the sources, seems to support hurd already, not
sure why it's not built)
<pinotree> pochu: the hurd_notify of gamin does not build OOTB
<pochu> > /build/buildd/gamin-0.1.10/./libgamin/gam_data.c:476: error:
'PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE' undeclared (first use in this function)
<pinotree> there are few patches in bugzilla to make it compile
<pochu> if they work, and you point me to them, I can upload a new gamin
with them included
<pinotree> #315644, #588337. #605246
<pinotree> and iirc there's something else i have locally but not send yet
<pochu> please check and submit :)
<pinotree> ah no, those three contains all the build issues
<pinotree> .. plus relative proposed fixes
<pochu> ok, I'll try to get to it soonish
<pinotree> and you should know about two of them already ;D
<pochu> please remind me if I don't :)
Apparently fanotify is cosidered inotify's successor, so we might directly go supporting that one instead, or both. --tschwinge, 2011-05-10


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The MetroPCS Tech & Talk ads are a long-running series (two years in December) featuring desi characters named Ranjit and Chad expounding upon the evils of contracts and benefits of MetroPCS's phone plans and features. The characters are not a little zany, dressing up in colonial-style wigs to declare wireless independence, playing an intense guitar-riff set off by fireworks and using "Holy shishkabob!" as a catch-phrase, to give a few examples.
As I noticed in retweets about the ads posted by the characters @ranjitmetropcs and @chadmetropcs, some people found the ads hilarious, declared themselves fans of the duo, and wanted to dress up like them for Halloween. Others writing for business and tech sites found the ads cringe-worthy, racist and/or in poor taste.
Personally, I found a recent ad in which the desi duo persuade the T-Mobile lady to leave T-Mobile and join up with them funny for it's mascot-stealing premise, and I like the wacky style of the two actors who play Ranjit and Chad. But what do you think of the ads? And what do comments like these ones retweeted by @RanjitMetroPCS –e.g., "The Indian guys in the metropcs commercials make me laugh but itd be funnier if they were in a quicky mart" and "#lmao when the Indian maid with her accent asks me to fix her phone and she has metro pcs"–suggest in terms of what other viewers find funny?
I reached out to the actors who portray Ranjit and Chad—Anjul Nigam and Sid Veda—to find out more about the ads and what they think. Some of their responses are posted below. In addition to the questions seen below, I asked them about the audition process and whether the ads have helped them get work. Read their complete responses to learn about those topics.
What kind of work do you do outside of the MetroPCS ads?
Anjul Nigam: I'm fortunate and blessed to have been making a living as an actor based out of Los Angeles for over seventeen years now. Much of my work is in television, including a recurring on "Grey's Anatomy" (as Psych "Dr. Raj") and on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! (as the lead in the quartet of "Indian Call Center Guys").
Beyond my work as an actor, I am a founding partner at Brittany House Pictures, where we have several projects in various stages of development.
Sid Veda: Outside of the MetroPCS ads, as well as the rest of Hollywood, I work in support for a Financial Software company in NYC. I help I-Bankers structure municipal bond deals with a program called DBC Finance. In 2010, every vacation day I took was a break from tech support to pretend to be a tech/phone supporter for MetroPCS and "Outsourced." My life has a theme, apparently.
What's your favorite one so far?
Anjul Nigam: So far, my favorite spot for the "Tech & Talk" ads is "Solo." I loved shooting this one because we got a chance to really let loose in it, and it's not too often I get to be an air-guitar rock star!
Sid Veda: That's tough… some of the more popular ones ("Solo," "Spicy News," and a couple others) were rather painful to shoot for me. It's not like I have memory-pains or recurring bruises or anything, but I think I prefer the one with the Mongoose. I got a good rolling "rrrrrr" whilst petting that thing.
In a Buzzine Bollywood interview one of the ad's writers, Kiran Koshy, says Ranjit and Chad are based on real people. What direction did you get for portraying Ranjit/Chad and how did you develop the character's accent and zany qualities? Is Chad a nickname or short for anything?
Anjul Nigam: By real people, I believe Kiran means the characters are based on the saturation of H-1 visa holders from India in Silicon Valley. They are super intelligent, technology enthusiasts and often have heavy accents based on having been raised in India. Sometimes their sense of style is a little dated or even middle-aged, which they in fact are. I was born in India myself, and although I was raised in the US, my household was quite traditionally Indian. In fact, I grew up speaking in Hindi with my parents at home, so the Indian accent has always been easily accessible for me. Probably the most important direction we receive regarding the characters is to really enjoy ourselves… these guys love what they do (host a talk show where they get to talk about technology!) and they're at the top of their game.
Sid Veda: Interestingly, Chad's accent, if not his entire person, is based on a South Indian and Kiran has worked hard with me to nail the hint of dialect/accent he had in mind. He and Jason, the other writer, are extremely helpful in communicating goals and message. As for the zaniness, much of that comes from the deep recesses of the director, Jim Hosking's mind. For some of the more challenging spots to shoot, I would be trying to follow direction or suggestions as they're being shouted out thinking "why the why do we have to shoot a bunch of noise that will never make air?!?" When I see the finished product for the first time, I am always like "OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH… that's why he wanted me to lick the amplifier!" I am happy to take so much of the credit that Jim actually deserves for Chad's dancing skills.
And yes, just like Sid is short for Sridhar, Chad is short for something. That's all you need to know at this time.
I've noticed different reactions to the ads, including people variously finding them 1) light-hearted and hilarious, 2) unfunny racist stereotypes, and/or 3) politically-charged ironic sendups of ethnic caricatures. What's your take on the ads? Given these responses, do you have any regrets about working in them?
Anjul Nigam: I have absolutely no regrets about working on the campaign. On the one hand, humor is subjective, so if someone finds the ads unfunny, then I know it's not the kind of humor that person responds to. For example, I'm not a fan of toilet humor, and am usually turned off by content that contains it; but I'm not judgmental of it.
Meanwhile, I find the negative response is often misplaced. Perhaps, sometimes people have a knee-jerk reaction to things they believe are caricatures, but it's important to remember that every stereotype is based on a certain reality. Personally, I have known many Indians who are very much like Ranjit and Chad, their accents, style, energy, etc. And yet still, beyond that, for me an accent is merely an extension of a character's wardrobe. I don't ever hear anyone finding Hugh Jackson's Australian accent denigrating. It's all a matter of perception.
With regard to racism, it's worth taking a look the cultural immersion of other ethnicities, each which have their own set of challenges and advantages. For example, twenty years after the Civil Rights era, African American filmmaker Robert Townsend made a movie called HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, which satirized the racial stereotypes of African Americans in film and television. A significant portion of the black population in America had achieved a certain position in American society, and it was being depicted in content like "The Cosby Show." Townsend's film was a no holds barred depiction that Townsend was able to make through humor.
In the same light, Indians are now one of the most successful minorities in the US, a group that continues to have an increasingly greater presence in the forefront of technology, business and media. If we are not in a place to have fun with ourselves, I don't know who is.
Sid Veda: No regrets whatsoever! We made two silly characters to pitch a terrific telecomm deal; we are not making a statement about 1 billion Indians. The fact that Ranjit and Chad were born to pitch the most cost-effective deal in celluworld (by far) is a blessing.
And seriously… having worked in tech support since 2000 (as well as in telemarketing for Stanley Steemer in college), how offended should I be by the stereotype?
Read the complete interview to learn more about their experiences with the auditions and how the ads affected their ability to get work.


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The portion of our brains that is responsible for registering fear and even panic has a built-in chemical sensor that is triggered by a primordial terror – suffocation. A report in the November 25th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows in studies of mice that the rise in acid levels in the brain upon breathing carbon dioxide triggers acid-sensing channels that evoke fear behavior.
In addition to the insight into the normal fear response, the discovery may help to explain and perhaps even correct what goes wrong in those who suffer from panic attacks, the researchers say. (It's been known for almost a century that carbon dioxide inhalation can trigger panic attacks, and that patients with panic disorder are particularly susceptible.)
"The amygdala has been thought of as part of the fear circuitry of the brain," said John Wemmie of the University of Iowa, Iowa City. "Now we see it isn't just part of a circuit, it is also a sensor."
"It's interesting that evolution positioned an acid sensor right in this central circuit," added Michael Welsh, also of the University of Iowa. "Detecting an elevated carbon dioxide is critical for survival. When you are suffocating, this circuit triggers mechanisms for escape or relief of the problem."
The circuit in question resides in the amygdala, a structure that stimulates the sympathetic nervous system for fight-or-flight and links to other brain regions involved in the response to threat. The amygdala is known from earlier studies to play a role in both innate and learned fears.
In previous studies, Wemmie's and Welsh's team discovered that the acid-sensing ion channel-1a (ASIC1a) is particularly abundant in the amygdala and other fear circuit structures, where it is required for normal responses in tests of fear behavior. As the name suggests, ASICs are sensitive to pH and become activated when pH levels fall.
The contribution of both the amygdala and ASIC1a to fear behavior led them to suspect that a reduced pH might induce fear behavior by activating the channels, thereby allowing the amygdala to function as a chemosensor deep within the fear circuit. And that's exactly what they've now been able to show.
They found that inhaled carbon dioxide reduced brain pH and evoked fear behavior in mice. Mice breathing 5% carbon dioxide tended to avoid open spaces more than usual and, in standard tests of fear learning conducted in the presence of 10% carbon dioxide, the mice displayed exaggerated freezing behaviors.
Animals lacking those acid-sensing ion channels showed less fear, a condition that was reversed when the channels were reinstated specifically in their amygdala. Treatments that prevented the pH change reduced fear behavior, while acidic microinjections into the amygdala did just the opposite.
The new findings show that the amygdala not only senses the threat posed by carbon dioxide, but it also initiates a response. There is surely good reason for such an integrated alarm system.
"Because oxygen-breathing organisms are under a constant threat of asphyxiation, it could be argued that the threat of suffocation has had a primary influence on shaping the brain's defensive systems," wrote Stephen Marin of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in an accompanying commentary. "The present discovery that chemosensors in the amygdala are involved in generating fear responses to a variety of aversive stimuli suggests that a system that evolved to generate behavior to defend against suffocation was subsequently adapted to deal with both innate and learned threats in the external environment. In some regards, this is not surprising. In the grasp of a predator, suffocation is the ultimate fear—it signals imminent death."
In addition to revealing the amygdala as an important chemosensor, the new results also give a molecular explanation for how rising carbon dioxide concentrations elicit intense fear and provide a foundation for dissecting the bases of anxiety and panic disorders, the researchers say. A single breath of carbon dioxide can trigger panic attacks in patients with panic disorder, they explained, and dysregulated brain pH has also been implicated in the condition. In addition, patients suffering from respiratory failure are also known to become extremely anxious.
"It has been proposed that panic and anxiety disorders involve a suffocation alarm gone haywire," Welsh said. "Now, this work may shed some light on this well-known phenomenon and suggests strategies for further exploration."
The findings raise the possibility that some people may be more prone to anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, due to genetic variants they carry in components of this ASIC pathway. They also suggest that new therapeutic strategies for panic and anxiety might target changes in brain pH or the acid-sensing channels.
The researchers include Adam E. Ziemann, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Jason E. Allen, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Nader S. Dahdaleh, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Iuliia I. Drebot, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Matthew W. Coryell, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Amanda M. Wunsch, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Cynthia M. Lynch, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Frank M. Faraci, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Matthew A. Howard III, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Michael J. Welsh, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and John A. Wemmie, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, IA.


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Delaware Wildlife Area, August 15, 2011 |
I have made a habit of bringing my full camera rig to work every day, and during my lunch break, I take short photographic forays around the adjacent fields and forests. Today I hit the jackpot. I had spotted a dark dragon flying around above me as I was photographing ambush bugs, but it was high, far away, and it wasn't stopping to perch. As I walked back to the office, a dragon zipped from behind me and landed in the edge of the old field, just 15 feet or so from my camera. I set up, moved in slowly, and bam, I got some shots that I can be proud of.
Although the Ohio Odonata Website isn't completely up-to-date, this sighting could turn out to be a new species for Delaware County. Normally this species is found relentlessy cruising up and down rivers, but they apparently do break away from time to time to explore adjacent uplands like this individual was doing today. The main take away from today's photograph? Never leave home without my good camera!


text:
Show dining offers in
203 - 205 Bath Street, G2 4HZ
City Centre, Glasgow
Cuisine: Bar Food
Sorry, Slouch doesn't currently have online booking on 5pm :(
West End, Glasgow
Merchant City, Glasgow
Food: 5
Ambience: 5
Service: 5
Value: 5
A live music bar and kitchen, Slouch is a popular stop on the Bath Street party circuit. While there are live bands or DJs rocking the joint most nights of the week, Slouch is no one hit wonder when it comes to providing good food. Seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, keen prices and hearty portions all make sweet music for diners at Slouch.
As well as serving bar bites like crispy pizza, wings and nachos until the early hours, Slouch runs a lunch menu, market menu and a la carte. At lunch, the choice revolves around pasta dishes and ciabatta topped with, for example, salami and grilled cheese.
The a la carte has an astonishing range of inventive burgers; pastas, salads and crispy pizza along with main courses like the crispy oriental tempura, prawn & smoked salmon linguine and chicken & chorizo macaroni. The kitchen takes great pride in the daily market menus which feature dishes like pork loin with mashed potato, braised red cabbage and a mustard jus or a mango and passion fruit parfait.
A basement bar on Bath Street, Slouch is a brisk ten minute walk from Queen Street and Central railway stations. There bus stops on Bath Street and nearby Sauchiehall Street as well as numerous taxi ranks. There is limited on street parking in the area along with a nearby pay car park.
369 Reviews
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Prayer Fundamentals - Part 4
G-d's All-Encompassing Power
I believe with complete faith that the Creator, Blessed is His name, rules over all of His creations, and has the power to provide all of our needs, and to save us from any situation, without any limitation. ("Principles of the Faith")
Although belief in G-d's existence is essential to prayer, its essence extends far beyond this. For one to place his trust totally in G-d, praying to Him with utmost conviction, he must contemplate the fact that G-d has the ability to grant his every request, whatever it may be. Thus, by turning to G-d and crying from deep within our hearts, we testify that we believe in G-d's absolute control over every aspect of His world.
One must reflect on the fact that for G-d even the biggest miracle, like splitting the Sea of Reeds, is a simple matter. Since everything is as naught before G-d, then, in truth, big and small are the same to Him. It follows then that nothing is too small to ask from G-d since to Him it's all the same. Whether it's a life or death situation or an annoying ingrown toenail; a breakthrough million dollar deal or getting a good parking spot at the mall, G-d is there to turn to for help, guidance and salvation.
This idea is expressed in the story of the great Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa. One Shabbat eve Rabbi Chanina found his daughter crying because she had mistakenly used vinegar instead of oil to light the Shabbat candles, and since it was after sunset it was too late to fix it. He responded to her calmly, saying, "The One Who commanded oil to burn will command vinegar to burn." And indeed that is what happened.
Although G-d does not always choose to transcend the laws of nature for everyone, one must understand that from G-d's perspective it is no more difficult for Him to change nature than it is to create it.
One might wrongly conclude that G-d would never perform a miracle for him, reasoning that G-d caused vinegar to burn only in the merit of the great Rabbi Chanina, who was the most righteous man in his generation. The truth, however, is that G-d constantly performs miracles for all of us, as we proclaim three times daily in the Amidah prayer, "We thank You… for Your miracles that are with us every day, and for your wonders and favors in every season ― evening, morning, and afternoon." When a person turns to G-d with the firm belief that G-d has the power to do anything, he can also merit seeing miracles in his life.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Show All Answers
Stormwater runoff occurs when precipitation from rain flows over the ground. Impervious surfaces like driveways, sidewalks, and streets prevent stormwater from naturally soaking into the ground.
Stormwater can pick up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants and flow into a storm sewer system that discharges to local waterbodies. Anything that enters a storm sewer system is discharged untreated into the waterbodies. The City is mandated to annually report to the Florida Department of Environment Protection on stormwater protection, treatment, and water quality.
Excess fertilizers and pesticides applied to lawns and gardens wash off, are carried through the storm sewer system, and pollute the waterbodies. Yard clippings (grass, brush, etc.) and leaves can wash into storm drains and can choke, suffocate, or disable aquatic life. Be sure to cover piles of dirt or mulch being used in landscaping projects. Do not over fertilize or use pesticides during a forecasted rain event. Leaving pet waste on the ground increases public health risks by allowing harmful bacteria and nutrients to wash into the storm drain and eventually into local waterbodies
Washing your car on an impervious surface (i.e. concrete and asphalt) can send detergents and other contaminants through the storm sewer system. Use a commercial car wash as their water is drained to a waste water treatment facility, or wash your car on your yard so the water infiltrates into the ground.
The chemicals in chlorinated and saltwater pools can kill fish and pollute the water. Drain treated pool water onto a grassy or planted area where the water can be absorbed by the soil. Dechlorinate the water. Any pool care company can test and neutralize the pool water.
Dirt, oil, and debris that collect in parking lots and paved areas can be washed into the storm sewer system and enter local waterbodies. Sweep up litter and debris from sidewalks, driveways and parking lots, especially around storm drains. Cover grease storage and dumpsters and keep them clean to avoid leaks. Do not wash off floors or decks, kitchen equipment, or dump mop buckets or other chemicals onto paved surfaces as this contaminated water is washed into the storm sewer system and enters local waterbodies
An illicit discharge is the discharge of pollutants or non-storm water materials into a storm sewer system via overland flow, direct dumping, or illicit connections. There are exceptions, such as water used for firefighting. City of St. Pete Beach Code of Ordinances, Section 106, provides for definition of illicit discharges and fee structure for fines up to $500.
Contact City of St. Pete Beach Code Enforcement at 727-363-9211. You may also call Pinellas County's Watershed Management automated stormwater watchline at 727-464-5060.
Information can be found at the following websites:


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A hive of activity atop Gund
GSD students recently harvested the first honey from the beehive located on the roof of Gund Hall. The bees have been on the roof since spring 2011 thanks to Connie Migliazzo (MLA I '13) and Hallie Chen (MArch I '12) who started the hive and Melissa Alexander (MAUD '13) and Ben Ruswick (MArch I '15) who help to maintain it. The honey will be raffled off on October 26 to benefit a local community garden.


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Fall Foliage Forecast: Vibrant Views in Store for Mid-Atlantic Leaf-Peepers
This article was provided by AccuWeather.com.
As summer comes to a close, signs of fall are prematurely visible in leaves across the mid-Atlantic, the area most likely to receive a vibrant display of foliage this year.
Cold air and a dry August have prompted an early emergence of colors for parts of the area, including Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. Meanwhile, surrounding regions may be hindered by flooding rain and unseasonable temperatures.
"Most important is really what happens at the end of September and beginning of October into the middle of October. That's really the crucial period," according to Dr. Marc Abrams, professor of Forest Ecology and Physiology at Penn State University.
Abrams began observing how weather conditions affect fall foliage more than 25 years ago.
The AccuWeather.com 2013 Fall Forecast predicts near-normal temperatures and precipitation for the mid-Atlantic region, allowing bright, colorful leaves.
Meanwhile, those farther north may be somewhat disappointed. The Northeast is forecast to remain warmer than normal this fall.
Through September and October, temperatures will average 2 to 3 degrees above normal in upstate New York and New England, Lead Long-Range Forecaster for AccuWeather.com Paul Pastelok said.
Cold isn't anticipated to return until some time in November.
"That's going to be problematic. It's going to delay the peak coloration, and normally when we have warm falls, the peak coloration is not the best," Abrams said. "Those cold temperatures are really, really important late September, early October."
The result will be poor canopy color intensity for northern New England, according to Associate Research Professor for Physical Ecology at the University of Maine Michael Day.
"The warmer, wetter early autumns that have become typical in the northeastern U.S. in recent years have resulted in diminished foliar displays," Day said.
RELATED: Top Destinations for Fall Travel AccuWeather.com 2013 Fall Forecast Midwest, Southeast to Bear the Brunt of Fall Allergy Season
Cold temperatures will not be in short supply for the Midwest, where an early frost/freeze is forecast in October.
A hard freeze while leaves are still green will transition the leaf straight to brown, rather than allowing multiple colors to come out. It may also delay the peak of the season, Abrams said.
A frost, on the other hand, could be beneficial for the region.
"A frost helps to bring out the color. What happens is that the chlorophyll - which causes the green color of leaves - starts to break down. This basically exposes the other pigments like red and orange," Abrams said.
Leaves in the Southeast will struggle to change color this year, as the region continues to be hammered by flooding rain into the fall.
A deluge will help the leaves stay green. A mild drought in late September and early October would have been more conducive, helping to move the the leaves into senescence, Abrams said.
Extreme drought can thwart fall colors, however, impacting the leaf size, vigor and physiology.
Much of the western half of the nation continues to be gripped by moderate to exceptional drought, particularly along the Rocky Mountains, the primary color-producing area of the West.
© AccuWeather.com. All rights reserved. More from AccuWeather.com.
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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama honored the Miami Heat for winning the 2012 NBA championship after falling short just a year before.
"Everybody doing their part, is what finally put the Heat over the top," Obama said, as he welcomed the team to the White House Monday to celebrate their victory.
The Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games in the NBA Finals last June.
The president also recognized the franchise's work off the court. He thanked them for supporting military service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Obama said one of the things he's proudest off is that many of the team members -- including LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade -- "take their roles as fathers seriously."
"For all the young men out there who are looking up to them over time, for them to see somebody who cares about their kids and is there for them, day in, day out, that's a good message to send," Obama said.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said the team hopefully will serve as an inspiration to the nation of what can be done "when you come together and sacrifice your egos for a greater goal" and "hard-hat work ethic."
James, who presented Obama with an autographed basketball, said the team including members that hail from Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and South Dakota were honored to be in the executive mansion.
"We're in the White House right now, which is like, like 'Mama I made it,'" James said, as the audience laughed and cheered.
The crowd of well-wishers included U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson and actress Gabrielle Union, who is dating Wade. The Heat last visited the White House after winning the 2006 title.