After Thomson went to Taiwan, he mainly stayed in Tainan, which was one of the places where Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell did his medical missionary work. Dr. Maxwell came to Taiwan for his medical missionary work five or six years earlier than Thomson so that he was more familiar with Taiwan than Thomson was. When Dr. Maxwell first began his medical missionary work in Tainan, he faced difficulty since the Han Chinese refused him. Luckily, he met William Alexander Pickering soon after that. At that time, Mr. Pickering had influence since he actively participated many events and established connections with different groups. He had served in customs, played an important role in camphor trading, helped consuls from the U.K and the U.S. to tackle the issues regarding Taiwan, and visited the aboriginal peoples in Taiwan frequently. Contributed to Mr. Pickering’s language ability and his good connections with people in Taiwan, Dr. Maxwell could visit several aboriginal groups when he felt frustrated at not being able to do his medical missionary work. In fact, those aborigines treated them more kindly than the Han Chinese did. Because of Mr. Pickering’s assistance, Dr. Maxwell developed a new route to do his medical missionary work and also reduced the distance from the aboriginal peoples in Taiwan. This is why Dr. Maxwell took John Thomson to visit his aboriginal friends in 1871.