My father did speak much of the day he was not speedily to forget, videlicet May Day of 1517, when there was great apprentice rioting against insolent foreigners.
Our men had set out suddenly and without preparation, and thus the large ration of the enemy, crackers and bacon, was a real invigorant for them.
To truly complete the journey and discover the roots of Taiwan’s southern Min majority one would have to travel to the P’eng-hu islands (Pescadores) and then still farther west to the shores of southern Fukien and the cities and towns along the province’s east-facing coast, which is where new history of Taiwan begins.
O pitying strangers, since ye will not hear
My old blind father, for some tales ye have heard
Of his unpurposed sin, Oh, still give ear
To a lost maiden, and accept the word
I speak for his sake […]
