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![S4 - [ENCORE] - The Dutch Kill or Capture Every Lamay Islander](https://getpodpage.com/image_transform_gate_v3/BbTn_x1IH0F4Yt1WixF7LbDVpLr28bCtVLspHzfp5c8=/?image_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fredwood-labs%2Fshowpage%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2Fee793627-7064-42f2-80fd-88e952e13177.jpg&w=1200&h=630&fill=blur "S4 - [ENCORE] - The Dutch Kill or Capture Every Lamay Islander")
Today, the small island roughly 13 kilometers off the coast of Pingtung County is called Xiaoliuqiu 琉球嶼. Some 400 years ago, however, many called it Lamay Island. Shipwrecks in the seas around Formosa were common, and survivors who made it ashore often found the native peoples tolerated no incursions. After a few such incidents involving the killing of people from Dutch ships by Lamay Islanders, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) HQ in Batavia (Jakarta) gave the Dutch colonists in Taiwan an order: Completely depopulate Lamay Island. The Dutch in Taiwan - not without reservations - followed this order, and committed the worst atrocity against the indigenous people during the Dutch colonial period in Formosa.
Note: This episode was originally published on 22 March, 2022
Cover images are, right: The (second) Gouden Leeuw or Golden Lion ship was built in 1666. It could be called the Gouden Leeuw as a previous Dutch ship with the same name had been wrecked on the coral reefs of Liuqiu Island, then known to the Dutch as Lamay, in 1622. The crewmembers were killed by the native inhabitants of the island, which ultimately led to a planned massacre and depopulation in 1636, sanctioned by the Dutch East Indies' colonial government. This 2nd De Gouden Leeuw (The Golden Lion) played a major role in the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672 - 1674), with the ship serving as the flagship of Lieutenant Admiral Cornelis Tromp. The painting of the 2nd Golden Lion is by Willem van de Velde the Elder and called, "The Dutch Ship Gouden Leeuw salutes English Ship Prince. (1689)" All info above via Wikimedia Commons.
The image on the left of the cover is of a large wreck of freighter in 30M deep was off the shores of Xiaoliuqiu. The ship sat upright until a 2017 typhoon knocked it over onto its side. It has become one of the many scuba diving attractions on Xiaoliuquiu. Via Diving Taiwan.
In the center of the cover image is a photo of the famous Vase Rock, just off Liuqiu Island. The rock was formed by the rising of the coastal coral reef. Its lower part has been eroded by the sea thus forming a vase-shaped structure.
Below: NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite captured this image of Lamay Island offshore southwestern Taiwan/Wikimedia Commons
Below: The famous "Vase Rock" -- The Liuqiu township's tourism department ascribes the island's former name "Golden Lion Island" to the supposed idea that Vase Rock looks like a lion's head... however, the old name is actually connected to the slaughtered crew of the Dutch ship, Gouden Leeuw (Golden Lion). Punitive reprisals for those killings resulted in the depopulation of the island in the 1630s and 1640s (Pic via Jessepylin/Wikimedia Commons)
Below: World War II Era US Army Corps of Engineers map - Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries - The University of Texas at Austin.
Below: A 1905 German map calling the island "Labaey" (Via Karl Theodor Stöpel - Eine Reise in das Innere der Insel Formosa und die erste Besteigung des Niitakayama)
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Note: This episode was originally published on 22 March, 2022
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
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