"In 1867, the Rover, an American merchant ship, sank off the coast of southern Taiwan. About a dozen sailors made it to shore, where they were killed by warriors of the Koalut tribe, which had generations ago been almost wiped out in an attack by Westerners. The United States launched two disastrous military operations against the local aboriginal tribes in retaliation. Eventually, the US Consul to Amoy Charles Le Gendre (a naturalized American of...