DODD, John.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

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 f

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