Taipei: The National Taiwan Library (NTL) announced on Monday the publication of the first complete Chinese translation of a 350-year-old work documenting Taiwan in the 17th century.
According to Focus Taiwan, the 1669 publication, titled “A Short Description of a Nine Year East Indian Journey” (Eine kurtze Beschreibung eines neunj¤hrigen Ost-Indianischen Dienstes), was authored by Albrecht Herport, a Swiss painter and soldier employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). This comprehensive work details Herport’s travels from Amsterdam to the Cape of Good Hope, Jakarta, and Taiwan, with 69 pages dedicated to describing Taiwan’s produce and communities.
NTL Director Tsao Tsau-ying highlighted the significance of the book at the launch event, noting its first-hand accounts of the siege of Fort Zeelandia by Zheng Chenggong against the VOC. The book also includes nine copperplate illustrations that serve as valuable historical and visual records of that era.