Journal of a Blockaded Resident in North Formosa, During the Franco-Chinese War, 1884-5.

First edition, association copy, with the ownership initials of George Leslie Mackay, the most consequential Western missionary to Taiwan in the 19th century. The author, a merchant sometimes called the "father of Taiwanese tea", was a witness at Mackay's wedding and, during the Franco-Chinese War, the two men were stranded together in Tamsui. Mackay is mentioned three times in the text. Born in Scotland, John Dodd (1838-1907) first visited Taiwan in 1860 and settled there in 1864. After working for Dent and Company, he founded his own concern, selling in Macao and the United States and promoting the introduction of Taiwanese blends into Western markets. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he served as the US consular agent in Tamsui and Keelung and undertook expeditions to explore the region and gather tea plant specimens. During the Franco-Chinese War, a competition for influence in Vietnam, Dodd, Mackay, and other foreign residents could not leave Tamsui for six months. This detailed account of the hostilities was first serialized in the Hongkong Daily Press, which had commissioned Dodd to serve as its de facto war correspondent. Mackay (1844-1901), whose recognizable ownership initials are on the title page and front free endpaper, was the first Canadian missionary to serve in Taiwan. Arriving in the early 1870s, he was immediately introduced to the famously generous Dodd, spending his first night sleeping in the merchant's bathroom. Mackay quickly acquired a strong command of Chinese and understood the importance of respecting local practices and sensitivities in missionary work. Over a 30-year period, he built a network of schools, churches, and hospitals in and around Tamsui, for which he is widely commemorated in Taiwan today. In 1895, he published a memoir, Far from Formosa, in which he discusses his experiences of the war. As with many Hong Kong imprints, copies are uncommon. Nine are held institutionally (British Library, London Library, SOAS, Leiden, Yale, Cornell, University of Calgary, University of Victoria, and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales). Not in Cordier. Octavo. Original dark green pebble-grain cloth, spine and front cover stamped in blind, spine lettered in gilt, yellow coated endpapers, top edge untrimmed, binder's ticket of the Daily Press, Hong Kong, on front pastedown. Front endpaper also with inked pressmark and illegible ownership signature; trace of label on rear pastedown. Binding rather worn and marked, fragile split at head of spine, front inner hinge starting, occasional spotting internally: very good.…