1817-1867年間，英國東印度公司和英國海軍的軍官和水手，在臺灣沿海及澎湖海域進行了數次測量工作。由這些調查所產生的知識（例如海圖、港口詳圖、航行指南等）都被傳送至英國海軍部的海洋局，進行編目並作成交叉引用表、摘要、索引等。隨後，海洋局製圖人員再據以繪製一系列的官方地圖。隨著時間的推移，這些圖表資料即成為試圖航行臺灣水域的外國船長、商人、探險家和領事人員等所使用的標準權威了。我以此測量活動作為個案研究，試圖檢驗英國外勤職員在製作清帝國人民和領土的綜合知識上所扮演的角色；亦欲探討建構臺灣海洋空間基本知識的英國測量師、藝術家和製圖家的調查對象與方法。同時探測由當地漁民、領港員、水手、通事及官員等所提供的知識，對英國外勤人員在製造圖表資料內容上有何影響。最後試圖分析地方層面的信息傳達給在英國「運算中心」的模式和網絡，而在該處又如何被容於大英帝國更大的綜合認識體內。本文所使用的資料包括：英國海洋局檔案館所藏之海圖、港口詳圖、測量圖、登陸平面圖及補充文字資料，海洋局所出版有關臺灣、澎湖海域的海圖，在《印度指南》（1836）及《中國航海指南》（1855、1861、1864）所公布的航海訊息，以及由英國測量船的船長與水手所著的各種出版物。

Between 1817 and 1867, officers and sailors of the British East India Company and the British Admiralty conducted numerous surveys of the ports and coastal waters of Taiwan and the Pescadores. Knowledge in the form of plans, charts, sketches, sailing directions, etc. produced via these surveys was transmitted to the Hydrographic Office in England, where staff of the British Admiralty catalogued, cross-referenced, and summarized that information. Subsequently, Admiralty cartographers retrieved the stored data to create a series of official maps that transformed the maritime space surrounding Taiwan and the off-shore islands into the flat surface of numbered Admiralty maps. With time, these cartographic representations became the standard authority used by foreign ship captains, merchants, explorers, and consular agents attempting to navigate “Formosan waters.” Using this surveying of Taiwan as a case study, I seek to test claims regarding the roles played by British field agents in the development of “comprehensive knowledge of the peoples and territories” of the Qing empire. In particular, I examine the investigative practices and the epistemological objects of British surveyors, artists, and cartographers who produced the basic knowledge of Manuscript received: February 11, 2014; revision completed: May 5, 2014; manuscript approved: May 6, 2014. * The author is Elizabeth C. Ducey Professor of Asian Studies and Humanities in the History Department at Reed College, Portland, U.S.A. Taiwan’s maritime spaces. Secondly, I probe the impact of local knowledge, gained from fishermen, pilots, sailors, interpreters, officials, etc., in determining the content of the cartographic representations penned by British field agents. Finally, I analyze both the modalities and the networks by which this field-level information was communicated to “centers of calculation” in England, where it was processed as part of the larger epistemological complex of the British Empire. Sources for this article include cartographic charts, plans, surveys, landfall views, and textual supplements currently held in the British Hydrographic Office archives; Admiralty maps published by the Hydrographic Office; sailing directions in the India directory (1836) and The China pilot (1855, 1861, 1864); and various publications penned by captains and crew members of British surveying vessels.