Hsu Hsueh-chi, a researcher in the Institute of Modern History at the Academia Sinica, reminds us that the whole world looked fresh and exotic to those intensely curious early adventurers, and they called many of the places they saw along the way "Formosa," which after all to them merely meant "beautiful," and therefore did not refer to any particular location.
中研院近代史研究員許雪姬指出，當時的西方水手們帶著好奇新鮮的眼光梭尋世界，對於海上不知名的美麗陸地一概稱為福爾摩沙，也就是葡萄牙文裡的美麗之意。