1 m 4iUU \ Hi iii a ilili an t BKI k 1 t 1 V^ > i ^HHM.y- ■ • • • Liiliiiilili |||kii III IBBHIHillr ^ ^^^ ^ PRINCETON, N. J. Purchased by the Hammill Missionary Fund. Division Section » Number 4^MP^^ KOREA, AND HER NEIGHBORS KOREA And Her Neighbors A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country Isabella Bird Bishop, F.R.G.S. Author of '•''Unbeaten Tracks in Jaf>an^^'' etc. With a Preface by Sir Walter C. HiUier, K.C.M.G. Late British Consul-General for Korea With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author, and Maps, Appendixes and Index New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company M DCCC XCVIII Copyright 1897 BY Fleming H. Revell Company Preface. I have been honored by Mrs. Bishop with an invitation to preface her book on Korea with a few introductory remarks. Mrs Bishop is too well known as a traveler and a writer to require any introduction to the reading public, but I am glad to be afforded an opportunity of indorsing the conclusions she has arrived at after a long and intimate study of a people whose isolation during many centuries renders a description of their character, institutions and peculiarities, especially interesting at the present stage of their history. Those who, like myself, have known Korea from its first opening to foreign intercourse will thoroughly appreciate the closeness of Mrs. Bishop's observation, the accuracy of her facts, and the correctness of her inferences. The facilities en- joyed by her have been exceptional. She has been honored by the confidence and friendship of the King and the late Queen in a degree that has never before been accorded to any foreign traveler, and has had access to valuable sources of information placed at her disposal by the foreign community of Seoul, official, missionary, and mercantile; while her pres- ence in the country during and subsequent to the war between China and Japan, of which Korea was, in the first instance, the stage, has furnished her the opportunity of recording with ac- curacy and impartiality many details of an episode in far East- ern history which have hitherto been clouded by misstatement and exaggeration. The hardships and difficulties encountered by Mrs. Bishop during her journeys into the interior of Korea have been lightly touched upon by herself ; but those who know 2 Preface how great they were, admire the courage, patience and endur- ance that enabled her to overcome them. It must be evident to all who know anything of Korea that a condition of tutelage, in some form or another, is now abso- lutely necessary to her existence as a nation. The nominal independence won for her by the force of Japanese arms is a privilege she is not fitted to enjoy while she continues to labor under the burden of an administration that is hopelessly and superlatively corrupt. The role of mentor and guide exercised by China, with that lofty indifference to local interests that characterizes her treatment of all her tributaries, was under- taken by Japan after the expulsion of the Chinese armies from Korea. The efforts of the Japanese to reform some of the most glaring abuses, though somewhat roughly applied, were undoubtedly earnest and genuine; but, as Mrs. Bishop has shown, experience was wanting, and one of the Japanese Agents did incalculable harm to his country's cause by falling a victim to the spirit of intrigue which seems almost inseparable from the diplomacy of Orientals. Force of circumstances com- pelled Russia to take up the task begun by Japan, the King having appealed in his desperation to the Russian Representa- tive for rescue from a terrorism which might well have cowed a stronger and a braver man. The most partial of critics will admit that the powerful influence which the presence of the King in the house of their Representative might have enabled the Russian Government to exert has been exercised through their Minister with almost disappointing moderation. Never- theless, through the instrumentality of Mr. M'Leavy Brown, LL.D,, head of the Korean Customs and Financial Adviser to the Government, an Englishman whose great ability as an organizer and administrator is recognized by all residents in the farther East, the finances of the country have been placed in a condition of equilibrium that has never before existed; while numerous other reforms have been carried out by Mr. Brown and others with the cordial support and co-operation of the Russian Minister, irrespective of the nationality of the agent employed. Preface 3 Much, however, still remains to be done; and the only hope of advance in the direction of progress— initiated, it is only fair to remember, by Japan, and continued under Russian auspices —is to maintain an iron grip, which the Russian Agents, so far, have been more careful than their Japanese predecessors to conceal beneath a velvet glove. The condition of Korean set- tlers in Russian territory described by Mrs. Bishop shows how capable these people are of improving their condition under wise and paternal rule; and, setting all political considerations aside, there can be no doubt that the prosperity of the people and their general comfort and happiness would be immensely advanced under an extension of this patronage by one or other civilized Power. Without some form of patronage or control, call it by what name we will, a lapse into the old groove of op- pression, extortion, and its concomitant miseries, is inevitable. Mrs. Bishop's remarks on missionary work in China and Korea, based, as they are, on personal and sympathetic obser- vation, will be found of great value to those who are anxious to arrive at a correct appreciation of Christian enterprise in these remote regions. Descriptions of missionaries and their doings are too often marred by exaggerations of success on the one hand, which are, perhaps, the natural outcome of enthusi- asm, and harsh and frequently unjust criticisms on the other, commonly indulged in by those who base their conclusions upon observation of the most superficial kind. Speaking from my own experience, I have no hesitation in saying that closer inquiry would dispel many of the illusions about the futility of missionary work that are, unfortunately, too common; and that missionaries would, as a rule, welcome sympathetic in- quiry into their methods of work, which most of them will frankly admit to be capable of improvement. But, while court- ing friendly criticism, they may reasonably object to be judged by those who have never taken the trouble to study their sys- tem, or to interest themselves in the objects they have in view. In Mrs. Bishop they have an advocate whose testimony may be commended to the attention of all who are disposed to re- gard missionary labor as, at the best, useless or unnecessary. 4 Preface In Korea, at all events, to go no farther, it is to missionaries that we are assuredly indebted for almost all we know about the country; it is they who have awakened in the people the desire for material progress and enlightenment that has now happily taken root, and it is to them that we may confidently look for assistance in its farther development. The unacknowl- edged, but none the less complete, religious toleration that now exists throughout the country affords them facilities which are being energetically used with great promise of future suc- cess. I am tempted to call attention to another point m con- nection with this much-abused class of workers that is, I think, often lost sight of, namely, their utility as explorers and pio- neers of commerce. They are always ready — at least such has been my invariable experience — to place the stores of their local knowledge at the disposal of any one, whether merchant, sportsman, or traveler, who applies to them for information, and to lend him cheerful assistance in the pursuit of his ob- jects. I venture to think that much valuable information as to channels for the development of trade could be obtained by Chambers of Commerce if they were to address specific inqui- ries to missionaries in remote regions. Manufacturers are more indebted to missionaries than perhaps they realize for the intro- duction of their goods and wares, and the creation of a demand for them, in places to which such would never otherwise have found their way. It is fortunate that Mrs. Bishop's visit to Korea was so op- portunely timed. At the present rate of progress much that came under her observation will, before long, be "improved" out of existence ; and though no one can regret the disappear- ance of many institutions and customs that have nothing but their antiquity to recommend them, she has done valuable serv- ice in placing on record so graphic a description of experiences that future travelers will probably look for in vain. WALTER C. HILLIER. October^ 1897. Author's Prefatory Note. My four visits to Korea, between January, 1894, and March, 1897, formed part of a plan of study of the leading characteristics of the Mongolian races. My first journey produced the impression that Korea is the most uninteresting country I ever traveled in, but dur- ing and since the war its political perturbations, rapid changes, and possible destinies, have given me an intense interest in it_; while Korean character and industry, as I saw both under Russian rule in Siberia, have enlightened me as to the better possibilities which may await the nation in the future. Korea takes a similarly strong grip on all who reside in it sufficiently long to overcome the feeling of distaste which at first it undoubtedly inspires. It is a difficult country to write upon, from the lack of books of reference by means of which one may investigate what one hopes are facts, the two best books on the country having become obsolete within the last few years in so far as its political condition and social order are concerned. The traveler must laboriously disinter each fact for himself, usually through the medium of an inter- preter ; and as five or six versions of each are given by apparently equally reliable authorities, frequently the "teachers" of the for- eigners, the only course is to hazard a bold guess as to which of them has the best chance of being accurate. Accuracy has been my first aim, and my many foreign friends in Korea know how industriously 1 have labored to attain it. It is by these, who know the extreme dftficulty of the task, that I shall be the most leniently criticised wherever, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into mistakes. Circumstances prevented me from putting my traveling experi- ences, as on former occasions, into letters. I took careful notes, which were corrected from time to time by the more prolonged ob- servations of residents, and as I became better acquainted with the country ; but, with regard to my journey up the South Branch of the Han, as I am the first traveler who has reported on the region, I have to rely on my observation and inquiries alone, and there is the same lack of recorded notes on most of the country on the Upper Tai-dong. My notes furnish the travel chapters, as well as those on Seoul, Manchuria, and Primorsk ; and the sketches in contemporary Korean history are based partly on official docu- Author's Prefatory Note ments, and are partly derived from sources not usually accessible. I owe very much to the kindly interest which my friends in Ko- rea took in my work, and to the encouragement which they gave me when I was disheartened by the diflaculties of the subject and my own lack of skill. I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable help given me by Sir Walter C. Hillier, K.C.M.G., H.B.M.'s Consul- General in Korea, and Mr. J. M'Leavy Brown, LL.D., Chief Com- missioner of Korean Customs; also the aid generously bestowed by Mr. Waeber, the Russian Minister, and the Rev. G. Heber Jones, the Rev. James Gale, and other missionaries. I am also greatly indebted to a learned and careful volume on Korean Government, by Mr. W. H. Wilkinson, H.B.M.'s Acting Vice-Consul at Chemulpo, as well as to the Korean Repository 2lVl& the Seoul Independent, for in- formation which has enabled me to correct some of my notes on Korean customs. Various repetitions occur, for the reason that it appears to me impossible to give sufficient emphasis to certain facts without them; and several descriptions are loaded with details, the result of an attempt to fix on paper customs and ceremonies destined shortly to disappear. The illustrations, with the exceptions of three, are re- productions of my own photographs. The sketch map, in so far as my first journey is concerned, is reduced from one kindly drawn for me by Mr. Waeber. The transliteration of Chinese proper names was kindly undertaken by a well-known Chinese scholar, but unfortunately the actual Chinese characters were not in all cases forthcoming. In justice to the kind friends who have so gen- erously aided me, I am anxious to claim and accept the fullest measure of personal responsibility for the opinions expressed, which, whether right cr wrong, are wholly my own. I am painfully conscious of the demerits of this work, but believ- ing that, on the whole, it reflects fairly faithfully the regions of which it treats, I venture to present it to the public; and to ask for it the same kindly and lenient criticism with which my records of travel in the East and elsewhere have hitherto been received, and that it maybe accepted as an honest attempt to make a contribution to the sum of the knowledge of Korea and its people, and to de- scribe things as I saw them, not only in the interior but in the troubled political atmosphere of the capital. ISABELLA L. BISHOP. November^ iSg'j. Contents Chapter Page Introductory Chapter 1 1 I. First Impressions of Korea 23 II. First Impressions of the Capital 35 III. The Kur-dong 49 IV. Seoul, the Korean Mecca 59 V. The Sailing of the Sampan 66 VI. On the River of Golden Sand 71 VII. Views Afloat 82 VIII. Natural Beauty — The Rapids 98 IX. Korean Marriage Customs 114 X. The Korean Pony — Korean Roads and Inns ... 121 XI. Diamond Mountain Monasteries 133*^ XII. Along the Coast 150 XIII. Impending War — Excitement at Chemulpo .... 177 XIV. Deported to Manchuria 185 XV. A Manchurian Deluge — A Passenger Cart — An Accident 192 XVI. Mukden and its Missions 199 XVII. Chinese Troops on the March 206 XVIII. Nagasaki — Wladivostok 213 XIX. Korean Settlers in Siberia 223 XX. The Trans-Siberian Railroad 239 XXI. The King's Oath — An Audience 245 XXII. A Transition Stage 261 XXIII. The Assassination of the Queen 269 XXIV. Burial Customs 283 XXV. Song-do: A Royal City 292 XXVI, The Phyong-yang Battlefield 301 XXVII. Northward Ho ! 320 XXVIII. Over the An-kil Yung Pass 330 7 8 Contents Chapter Page XXIX. Social Position of Women 338 XXX. Exorcists and Dancing Women 344^^ XXXI. The Hair-cropping Edict 359 XXXII. The Reorganized Korean Government 371 XXXIII. Education and Foreign Trade 387 XXXIV. D^MONisM OR Shamanism 399*^ XXXV. Notes on D^monism Concluded 409*^ XXXVI. Seoul in 1897 427 XXXVII. Last Words on Korea 445 Appendixes 461 Appendix A. — Mission Statistics for Korea 1896. Appendix B. — Direct Foreign Trade of Korea 1896-95. Appendix C. — Return of Principal Articles of Export for the years 1806-95. Appendix D. — Population of Treaty Ports. Appendix E. — Treaty between Japan and Russia, with reply of h. e., the korean minister FOR Foreign Affairs. Index 475 List of Illustrations. Page Mrs. Bishop's Traveling Party Frontispiece Harbor of Chemulpo Facing 30 Gate of Old Fusan _ 34 Japanese Military Cemetery, Chemulpo Facing 38 Turtle Stone 48 Gutter Shop, Seoul Facing 60 The Author's Sampan, Han River Facing 66 Korean Peasants at Dinner 81 A Korean Lady 120 The Diamond Mountains Facing 140 Tombstones of Abbots, Yu-Ch6m Sa Facing 146 Passenger Cart, Mukden 198 Temple of God of Literature, Mukden Faciitg 200 Gate of Victory, Mukden Facing 208 Chinese Soldiers Facing 210 Wladivostok Facing 214 Russian " Army," Krasnoye Celo Facing 232 Korean Settler's House 238 Korean Throne Facijig 248 Summer Pavilion, or " Hall of Congratulations ". . .Facing 254 Royal Library, Kyeng-Pok Palace Facing 256 9 lO List of Illustrations. Page Korean Gentleman in Court Dress 260 Place of the Queen's Cremation 268 Chil-Sung Mon, Seven Star Gate 300 Altar at Tomb of Kit-ze Facing 318 Russian Settler's House , Facing 320 Upper Tai-Dong Facing 324 Russian Officers, Hun-Chun Facing 330 South Gate Facing 412 Seoul and Palace Enclosure Facing 428 The King of Korea , Facing 430 Korean Cadet Corps and Russian Drill Instructors. T^izr/w^ 434 A Street in Seoul Facing 436 Korean Policemen, Old and New. „ 444 GENERAL MAP OF KOREA ANDNEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES^ Korea and Her Neighbors INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER IN the winter of 1894, when I was about to sail for Korea (to which some people erroneously give the name of '* The Korea"), many interested friends hazarded guesses at its po- sition,—the Equator, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea being among them, a hazy notion that it is in the Greek Arch- ipelago cropping up frequently. It was curious that not one of these educated, and, in some cases, intelligent people came within 2,000 miles of its actual latitude and longitude ! In truth, there is something about this peninsula which has repelled investigation, and until lately, when the establishment of a monthly periodical, carefully edited. The Korean Reposi- tory, has stimulated research, the one authority of which all writers, with and without acknowledgment, have availed them- selves, is the Introduction to Pere Ballet's Histoire de V £glise de Koree, a valuable treatise, many parts of which, however, are now obsolete. If in this volume I present facts so elementary as to provoke the scornful comment, '' Every schoolboy knows that," I ven- ture to remind my critics that the larger number of possible readers were educated when Korea was little more than ''a geographical expression," and had not the advantages of the modern schoolboy, whose '* up-to-date " geographical text- books have been written since the treaties of 1883 opened the Hermit Nation to the world ; and I will ask the minority to be XI 12 Korea and Her Neighbors patient with what may be to them '* twice-told tales " for the sake of the majority, specially in this introduction, which is intended to give something of lucidity to the chapters which follow. The first notice of Korea is by Khordadbeh, an Arab geog- rapher of the ninth century, a.d., in his Book of Roads and Provinces, quoted by Baron Richofen in his work on China, p. 575. Legends of the aborginal inhabitants of the peninsula are too mythical to be noticed here, but it is certain that it was inhabited when Kit-ze or Ki-ja, who will be referred to later, introduced the elements of Chinese civilization in the twelfth century B.C. Naturally that conquest and subsequent immigrations from Manchuria have left some traces on the Koreans, but they are strikingly dissimilar from both their nearest neighbors, the Chinese and the Japanese, and there is a remarkable variety of physiognomy among them, all the more noticeable because of the uniformity of costume. The difficulty of identifying people which besets and worries the stranger in Japan and China does not exist in Korea. It is true that the obliquity of the Mongolian eye is always present, as well as a trace of bronze in the skin, but the complexion varies from a swarthy olive to a very light brunette. There are straight and aquiline noses, as well as broad and snub noses with distended nostrils; and though the hair is dark, much of it is so distinctly a russet brown as to require the frequent application of lampblack and oil to bring it to a fashionable black, while in texture it varies from wiriness to silkiness. Some men have full moustaches and large goatees, on the faces of others a few carefully tended hairs, as in China, do duty for both, while many have full, strong beards. The mouth is either the wide, full-lipped, gaping cavity constantly seen among the lower orders, or a small though full feature, or thin-lipped and refined, as is seen continually among patricians. The eyes, though dark, vary from dark brown to hazel ; the cheek bones are high ; the brow, so far as fashion allows it to Introductory Chapter 13 be seen, is frequently lofty and intellectual ; and the ears are small and well set on. The usual expression is cheerful, with a dash of puzzlement. The physiognomy indicates, in its best aspect, quick intelligence, rather than force or strength of will. The Koreans are certainly a handsome race. The physique is good. The average height of the men is five feet four and a half ^ inches, that of the women cannot be ascertained, and is ^/^proportionately less, while their figure- less figures, the faults of which are exaggerated by the ugliest dress on earth, are squat and broad. The hands and feet of both sexes and all classes are very small, white, and exquisitely formed, and the tapering, almond-shaped finger-nails are care- fully attended to. The men are very strong, and as porters carry heavy weights, a load of 100 pounds being regarded as a moderate one. They walk remarkably well, whether it be the studied swing of the patrician or the short, firm stride of the plebeian when on business. The families are large and healthy. If the Government estimate of the number of houses is correct, the population, taking a fair average, is from twelve to thirteen millions, females being in the minority. Mentally the Koreans are liberally endowed, specially with that gift known in Scotland as " gleg at the uptak." The for- eign teachers bear willing testimony to their mental adroitness and quickness of perception, and their talent for the rapid ac- quisition of languages, which they speak more fluently and with a far better accent than either the Chinese or Japanese. They have the Oriental vices of suspicion, cunning, and un- »The following are the measurements of 1,060 men taken at Seoul in January, 1897, by Mr. A. B. Stripling:— Highest. Lowest. Average. Height . Size round chest head . 5 ft. iiX in. 39'A i"- 23X " 4 ft. 9K in. 27 in. 20 " 5 ft. 4K in- 31 in. 21/2 " 14 Korea and Her Neighbors truthfulness, and trust between man and man is unknown. Women are secluded, and occupy a very inferior position. The geography of Korea, or Ch'ao Hsien (''Morning Calm," or ''Fresh Morning"), is simple. It is a definite peninsula to the northeast of China, measuring roughly 600 miles from north to south and 135 from east to west. The coast line is about 1,740 miles. It lies between 34° 17' N. to 43° N. latitude and 124° 38' E. to 130° 2>?>' E. longitude, and has an estimated area of upwards of 80,000 square miles, be- ing somewhat smaller than Great Britain. Bounded on the north and west by the Tu-men and Am-nok, or Yalu, rivers, which divide it from the Russian and Chinese empires, and by the Yellow Sea, its eastern and southern limit is the Sea of Japan, a "silver streak," which has not been its salvation. Its northern frontier is only conterminous with that of Russia for II miles. Both boundary rivers rise in Paik-tu San, the "White- Headed Mountain," from which runs southwards a great mountain range, throwing off numerous lateral spurs, itself a rugged spine which divides the kingdom into two parts, the eastern division being a comparatively narrow strip between the range and the Sea of Japan, difficult of access, but ex- tremely fertile ; while the western section is composed of rug- ged hills and innumerable rich valleys and slopes, well watered and admirably suited for agriculture. Craters of volcanoes, long since passed into repose, lava beds, and other signs of volcanic action, are constantly met with. The lakes are few and very small, and not many of the streams are navigable for more than a few miles from the sea, the exceptions being the noble Am-nok, the Tai-dong, the Nak-tong, the Mok-po, and the Han, which last, rising in Kang-w5n Do, 30 miles from the Sea of Japan, after cutting the country nearly in half, falls into the sea at Chemulpo on the west coast, and, in spite of many and dangerous rapids, is a valuable highway for commerce for over 1 70 miles. Introductory Chapter 15 Owing to the configuration of the peninsula there are few- good harbors, but those which exist are open all the winter. The finest are Fusan and Won-san, on Broughton Bay. Che- mulpo, which, as the port of Seoul, takes the first place, can hardly be called a harbor at all, the ** outer harbor," where large vessels and ships of war lie, being nothing better than a roadstead, and the "inner harbor," close to the town, in the fierce tideway of the estuary of the Han, is only available for five or six vessels of small tonnage at a time. The east coast is steep and rocky, the water is deep, and the tide rises and falls from i to 2 feet only. On the southwest and west coasts the tid-e rises and falls from 26 to 38 feet ! Off the latter coasts there is a remarkable archipelago. Some of the islands are bold masses of arid rock, the resort of sea- fowl ; others are arable and inhabited, while the actual coast fringes off into innumerable islets, some of which are im- mersed by the spring tides. In the channels scoured among these by the tremendous rush of the tide, navigation is oft- times dangerous. Great mud-banks, specially near the mouths of the rivers, render parts of the coastline dubious. Korea is decidedly a mountainous country, and has few plains deserving the name. In the north there are mountain groups with definite centres, the most remarkable being Paik-tu San, which attains an altitude of over 8,000 feet, and is re- garded as sacred. Farther south these settle into a definite range, following the coast-line at a moderate distance, and throwing out so many ranges and spurs to the west as to break up northern and central Korea into a congeries of corrugated and precipitous hills, either denuded or covered with chap- paral, and narrow, steep-sided valleys, each furnished with a stony stream. The great axial range, which includes the *' Diamond Mountain," a region containing exquisite moun- tain and sylvan scenery, falls away as it descends towards the southern coast, disintegrating in places into small and often infertile plains. l6 Korea and Her Neighbors The geological formation is fairly simple. Mesozoic rocks occur in Hwang-hai Do, but granite and metamorphic rocks largely predominate. Northeast of Seoul are great fields of lava, and lava and volcanic rocks are of common occurrence in the north. The climate is undoubtedly one of the finest and healthiest in the world. Foreigners are not afflicted by any climatic maladies, and European children can be safely brought up in every part of the peninsula. July, August, and sometimes the first half of September, are hot and rainy, but the heat is so tempered by sea breezes that exercise is always possible. For nine months of the year the skies are generally bright, and a Korean winter is absolutely superb, with its still atmosphere, its bright, blue, unclouded sky, its extreme dryness without asperity, and its crisp, frosty nights. From the middle of September till the end of June, there are neither extremes of heat nor cold to guard against. The summer mean temperature at Seoul is about 75° Fah- renheit, that of the winter about 33°; the average rainfall 36.03 inches in the year, and the average of the rainy season 21.86 inches.^ July is the wettest month, and December the driest. The result of the abundant rainfall, distributed fairly through the necessitous months of the year, is that irrigation is necessary only for the rice crop. The fauna of Korea is considerable, and includes tigers and leopards in great numbers, bears, antelopes, at least seven species of deer, foxes, beavers, otters, badgers, tiger-cats, pigs, several species of marten, a sable (not of much value, how- ever), and striped squirrels. Among birds there are black eagles, found even near Seoul, harriers, peregrines (largely used for hawking), pheasants, swans, geese, spectacled and common teal, mallards, mandarin ducks, turkey buzzards (very shy), white and pink ibis, sparrow-hawks, kestrels, imperial ' These averages are only calculated on observations taken during a period of three and a half years. Introductory Chapter 17 cranes, egrets, herons, curlews, night-jars, redshanks, bunt- ings, magpies (common and blue), orioles, wood larks, thrushes, redstarts, crows, pigeons, doves, rooks, warblers, wagtails, cuckoos, halcyon and bright blue kingfishers, jays, snipes, nut-hatches, gray shrikes, pheasants, hawks, and kites. But until more careful observations have been made it is im- possible to say which of the smaller birds actually breed in Korea, and which make it only a halting-place in their annual migrations. The denudation of the hills in the neighborhood of Seoul, the coasts, the treaty ports, and the main roads, is impressive, and helps to give a very unfavorable idea of the country. It is to the dead alone that the preservation of anything deserv- ing the name of timber in much of southern Korea is owing. But in the mountains. of the northern and eastern provinces, and specially among those which enclose the sources of the Tu-men, the Am-nok, the Tai-dong, and the Han, there are very considerable forests, on which up to this time the wood- cutter has made little apparent impression, though a good deal of timber is annually rafted down these rivers. Among the indigenous trees are the Abies excelsa, Abies microsperma, Pinus sinensis y Finns pinea, three species of oak, the lime, ash, birch, five species of maple, the Acantho- panax ricini folia, Rhus seniipififiata, ElcBagmis, juniper, mountain ash, hazel, Thuja Orientalis (?), willow, Sophora Japonica (?), hornbeam, plum, peach, Euonymus alatus, etc. The flora is extensive and interesting, but, with the exception of the azalea and rhododendron, it lacks brilliancy of color. There are several varieties of showy clematis, and the 7niile- fleur rose smothers even large trees, but the climber par ex- cellence of Korea is the Ampelopsis Veifchi. The economic plants are few, and, with the exception of i\\t Panax quinque- folia (ginseng), the wild roots of which are worth ^15 per ounce, are of no commercial value. The mineral wealth of Korea is a vexed question. Probably i8 Korea and Her Neighbors between the view of the country as an El Dorado and the scep- ticism as to the existence of underground treasure at all, the mean lies. Gold is little used for personal ornaments or in the arts, yet the Korean declares that the dust of his country is gold ; and the unquestionable authority of a Customs' report states that gold dust to the amount of ^1,360,279 was exported in 1896, and that it is probable that the quantity which left the country undeclared was at least as much again. Silver and galena are found, copper is fairly plentiful, and the country is rich in undeveloped iron and coal mines, the coal being of excellent quality. The gold-bearing quartz has never been touched, but an American Company, having obtained a con- cession, has introduced machinery, and has gone to work in the province of Phyong-an. The manufactures are unimportant. The best productions are paper of several qualities made from the Bronsonettia Fapyrifera, among which is an oiled paper, like vellum in appearance, and so tough that a man can be raised from the ground on a sheet of it, lifted at the four corners, fine grass mats, and split bamboo blinds. The arts are nil. Korea, or Ch'ao Hsien, has been ruled by kings of the pres- ent dynasty since 1392. The monarchy is hereditary, and though some modifications in a constitutional direction were made during the recent period of Japanese ascendency, the sovereign is still practically absolute, his edicts, as in China, constituting law. The suzerainty of China, recognized since very remote days, was personally renounced by the king at the altar of the Spirits of the Land in January, 1895, and the com- plete independence of Korea was acknowledged by China in the treaty of peace signed at Shimonoseki in May of the same year. There is a Council of State composed of a chancellor, five councillors, six ministers, and a chief secretary. The de- cree of September, 1896, which constitutes this body, an- nounces the king's absolutism in plain terms in the preamble. Introductory Chapter 19 There are nine ministers — the Prime Minister, Minister of the Royal Household, of Finance, of Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, War, Justice, Agriculture, and Education, but the royal will (or whim) overrides their individual or collective decisions. The Korean army consists of 4,800 men in Seoul, drilled by Russians, and 1,200 in the provinces; the navy, of two small merchant steamers. Korea is divided into 13 provinces and 360 magisterial districts. The revenue, which is amply sufficient for all legitimate ex- penses, is derived from Customs' duties, under the able and honest management of officers lent by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs : a land tax of ^6 on every fertile kyel (a fertile kyel being estimated at about dyi acres), and ^5 on every mountain kyel ; a household tax of 60 cents per house, houses in the capital enjoying immunity; and a heavy excise duty of $16 per cattie on manufactured ginseng. Up to 1876 Korea successfully preserved her isolation, and repelled with violence any attempt to encroach upon it. In that year Japan forced a treaty upon her, and in 1882 China fol- lowed with ''Trade and Frontier Regulations." The United States negotiated a treaty in 1882, Great Britain and Germany in 1884, Russia and Italy in 1886, and Austria in 1892, in all which, though under Chinese suzerainty, Korea was treated with as an independent state. By these treaties, Seoul and the ports of Chemulpo (Jenchuan), Fusan, and Won-san (Gen- san) were opened to foreign commerce, and this year (1897) Mok-po and Chinnam-po have been added to the list. After the treaties were signed, a swarm of foreign represent- atives settled down upon the capital, where three of them are housed in handsome and conspicuous foreign buildings. The British Minister at Peking is accredited also to the Korean Court, and Britain has a resident Consul-General. Japan, Russia, and America are represented by Ministers, France by a Charge d' Affaires, and Germany by a Consul. China, which 20 Korea and Her Neighbors has been tardy in entering upon diplomatic relations with Korea since the war, placed her subjects under the protection of the British Consul-General. Until recently, the coinage of Korea consisted of debased copper cash, 500 to the dollar, a great check on business trans- actions ; but a new fractional coinage, of which the unit is a 20-cent piece, has been put into circulation, along with 5 -cent nickel, ^-cash copper, and \-cash brass pieces. The fine Jap- anese yen or dollar is now current everywhere. The Dai Ichi Gingo and Fifty-eighth Banks of Japan afford banking facili- ties in Seoul and the open ports. In the treaty ports of Fusan, Won-san, and Chemulpo, there were in January, 1897, 11,318 foreign residents and 266 for- eign business firms. The Japanese residents numbered 10,711, and their firms 230. The great majority of the American and French residents are missionaries, and the most conspicuous objects in Seoul are the Roman Cathedral and the American Methodist Episcopal Church. The number of British subjects in Korea in January, 1897, was 65, and an agency of a British firm in Nagasaki has recently been opened at Chemulpo. The approximate number of Chinese in Korea at the same time was 2,500, divided chiefly between Seoul and Chemulpo. There is a newly-instituted postal system for the interior, with post- age stamps of four denominations, and a telegraph system, Seoul being now in communication with all parts of the world. The roads are infamous, and even the main roads are rarely more than rough bridle tracks. Goods are carried everywhere on the backs of men, bulls, and ponies, but a railroad from Chemulpo to Seoul, constructed by an American concession- aire, is actually to be opened shortly. The language of Korea is mixed. The educated classes in- troduce Chinese as much as possible into their conversation, and all the literature of any account is in that language, but it is of an archaic form, the Chinese of 1,000 years ago, and differs completely in pronunciation from Chinese as now spoken in Introductory Chapter 21 China. En-mtm, the Korean script, is utterly despised by the educated, whose sole education is in the Chinese classics. Korean has the distinction of being the only language of East- ern Asia which possesses an alphabet. Only women, children, and the uneducated used the En-mun till January, 1895, when a new departure was made by the official Gazette, which for several hundred years had been written in Chinese, appearing in a mixture of Chinese characters and En-mun, a resemblance to the Japanese mode of writing, in which the Chinese charac- ters which play the chief part are connected by katia syllables. A further innovation was that the King's oath of Independ- ence and Reform was promulgated in Chinese, pure En-7nun, and the mixed script, and now the latter is regularly employed as the language of ordinances, official documents, and the Gazette ; royal rescripts, as a rule, and despatches to the for- eign representatives still adhering to the old form. This recognition of the Korean language by means of the official use of the mixed, and in some cases of the pure script, the abolition of the Chinese literary examinations as the test of the fitness of candidates for office, the use of the " vulgar " script exclusively in the Lidependent, the new Korean news- paper, the prominence given to Korean by the large body of foreign missionaries, and the slow creation of scientific text- books and a literature in En-mun, are tending not only to strengthen Korean national feeling, but to bring the *' masses," who can mostly read their own script, into contact with West- ern science and forms of thought. There is no national religion. Confucianism is the official cult, and the teachings of Confucius are the rule of Korean morality. Buddhism, once powerful, but " disestablished " three centuries ago, is to be met with chiefly in mountainous districts, and far from the main roads. Spirit worship, a species of shamanism, prevails all over the kingdom, and holds the uneducated masses and the women of all classes in complete bondage. 22 Korea and Her Neighbors Christian missions, chiefly carried on by Americans, are be- ginning to produce both direct and indirect effects. Ten years before the opening ^ of Korea to foreigners, the Korean king, in writing to his suzerain, the Emperor of China, said, " The educated men observe and practice the teachings of Confucius and Wen Wang," and this fact is the key to any- thing like a correct estimate of Korea. Chinese influence in government, law, education, etiquette, social relations, and morals is predominant. In all these respects Korea is but a feeble reflection of her powerful neighbor ; and though since the war the Koreans have ceased to look to China for assist- ance, their sympathies are with her, and they turn to her for noble ideals, cherished traditions, and moral teachings. Their literature, superstitions, system of education, ancestral worship, culture, and modes of thinking are Chinese. Society is organized on Confucian models, and the rights of parents over children, and of elder over younger brothers, are as fully recognized as in China. It is into this archaic condition of things, this unspeakable grooviness, this irredeemable, unreformed Orientalism, this parody of China without the robustness of race which helps to hold China together, that the ferment of the Western leaven has fallen, and this feeblest of independent kingdoms, rudely shaken out of her sleep of centuries, half frightened and wholly dazed, finds herself confronted with an array of power- ful, ambitious, aggressive, and not always overscrupulous powers, bent, it may be, on overreaching her and each other, forcing her into new paths, ringing with rude hands the knell of time-honored custom, clamoring for concessions, and be- wildering her with reforms, suggestions, and panaceas, of which she sees neither the meaning nor the necessity. And so '* The old order changeth, giving place to new," and many indications of the transition will be found in the later of the following pages. 1 See appendix A. CHAPTER I FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF KOREA IT is but fifteen hours' steaming from the harbor of Nagasaki to Fusan in Southern Korea. The Island of Tsushima, where the Higo Maru calls, was, however, my last glimpse of Japan ; and its reddening maples and blossoming plums, its temple-crowned heights, its stately flights of stone stairs lead- ing to Shinto shrines in the woods, the blue-green masses of its pines, and the golden plumage of its bamboos, emphasized the effect produced by the brown, bare hills of Fusan, pleasant enough in summer, but grim and forbidding on a sunless Feb- ruary day. The Island of the Interrupted Shadow, Chol- yong-To, (Deer Island), high and grassy, on which the Jap- anese have established a coaling station and a quarantine hos- pital, shelters Fusan harbor. It is not Korea but Japan which meets one on anchoring. The lighters are Japanese. An official of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Co.), to which the Higo Maru belongs, comes off with orders. The tide-waiter, however, is English — one of the English employes of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, lent to Korea, greatly to her advantage, for the management of her customs' revenue. The foreign settle- ment of Fusan is dominated by a steep bluff with a Buddhist temple on the top, concealed by a number of fine cryptomeria, planted during the Japanese occupation in 1592. It is a fairly good-looking Japanese town, somewhat packed between the hills and the sea, with wide streets of Japanese shops and various Anglo-Japanese buildings, among which the Consulate and a Bank are the most important. It has substantial retain- 23 24 Korea and Her Neighbors ing and sea walls, and draining, lighting, and roadmaking have been carried out at the expense of the municipality. Since the war, waterworks have been constructed by a rate of loo cash levied on each house, and it is hoped that the present abundant supply of pure water will make an end of the fre- quent epidemics of cholera. Above the town, the new Jap- anese military cemetery, filling rapidly, is the prominent object. Considering that the creation of a demand for foreign goods is not thirteen years old, it is amazing to find how the Koreans have taken to them, and that the foreign trade of Fusan has developed so rapidly that, while in 1885 the value of exports and imports combined only amounted to ;£7 7,850, in 1892 it had reached ^^346, 608. Unbleached shirtings, lawns, mus- lins, cambrics, and Turkey reds for children's wear have all captivated Korean fancy; but the conservatism of wadded cot- ton garments in winter does not yield to foreign woollens, of which the importation is literally nil. The most amazing stride is in the importation of American kerosene oil, which has reached 71,000 gallons in a quarter ; and which, by displacing the fish-oil lamp and the dismal rushlight in the paper lantern, is revolutionizing evening life in Korea. Matches, too, have *' caught on" wonderfully, and evidently have *'come to stay." Hides, beans, dried fish, beche de mevy rice, and whale's flesh are among the principal ex- ports. It was not till 1883 that Fusan was officially opened to general foreign trade, and its rise has been most remarkable. In that year its foreign population was 1,500; in 1897 it was 5.564- In the first half of 1885 the Japan Mail Steamship Co. ran only one steamer, calling at Fusan, to Wladivostok every five weeks, and a small boat to Chemulpo, calling at Fusan, once a month. Now not a day passes without steamers, large or small, arriving at the port, and in addition to the fine vessels of the Nippon Ytisen Kaisha, running frequently between First Impressions of Korea 25 Kobe and Wladivostok, Shanghai and Wladivostok, Kobe and Tientsin, and between Kobe Chefoo, and Newchang, all call- ing at Fusan, three other lines, including one from Osaka di- rect, and a Russian mail line running between Shanghai and Wladivostok, make Fusan a port of call. It appears that about one-third of the goods imported is car- ried inland on the backs of men and horses. The taxes levied and the delays at the barriers on both the overland and river routes are intolerable to traders, a hateful custom prevailing under which each station is controlled by some petty official, who, for a certain sum paid to the Government in Seoul, ob- tains permission to levy taxes on all goods. ^ The Nak-Tong River, the mouth of which is 7 miles from Fusan, is navigable for steamers drawing 5 feet of water as far as Miriang, 50 miles up, and for junks drawing 4 feet as far as Sa-mun, 100 miles farther, from which point their cargoes, transhipped into light draught boats, can ascend to Sang-chin, 170 miles from the coast. With this available waterway, and a hazy prospect that the much disputed Seoul-Fusan railway may become an accom- plished fact, Fusan bids fair to become an important centre of commerce, as the Kyong-sang Province, said to be the most populous of the eight (now for administrative purposes thirteen), is also said to be the most prosperous and fruitful, with the possible exception of Chul-la. Barren as the neighboring hills look, they are probably rich in minerals. Gold is found in several places within a radius of 50 miles, copper quite near, and there are coal fields within 100 miles. To all intents and purposes the settlement of Fusan is Jap- anese. In addition to the Japanese population of 5,508, there 1 According to Mr. Hunt, the Commissioner of Customs at Fusan, in the Kyong-sang province alone there are 17 such stations. Fusan is hedged round by a cordon of them within a ten-mile radius, and on the Nak-tong, which is the waterway to the provincial capital, there are four in a distance of 25 miles. 26 Korea and Her Neighbors is a floating population of 8,000 Japanese fishermen. A Japanese Consul-General lives in a fine European house. Bank- ing facilities are furnished by the Dai Ichi Gingo of Tokio, and the post and telegraph services are also Japanese. Japa- nese too is the cleanliness of the settlement, and the introduc- tion of industries unknown to Korea, such as rice husking and cleaning by machinery, whale-fishing, sake-making, and the preparation of shark's fins, deche de mer, and fish manure, the latter an unsavory fertilizer, of which enormous quantities are exported to Japan. But the reader asks impatiently, ''Where are the Koreans? I don't want to read about the Japanese ! " Nor do I want to write about them, but facts are stubborn, and they are the out- standing Fusan fact. As seen from the deck of the steamer, a narrow up and down path keeping at some height above the sea skirts the hillside for 3 miles from Fusan, passing by a small Chinese settlement with official buildings, uninhabited when I last saw them, and terminating in the walled town of Fusan proper, with a fort of very great antiquity outside it, modernized by the Japanese after the engineering notions of three centuries ago. Seated on the rocks along the shore were white objects re- sembling pelicans or penguins, but as white objects with the gait of men moved in endless procession to and fro between old and new Fusan, I assumed that the seated objects were of the same species. The Korean makes upon one the impres- sion of novelty, and while resembling neither the Chinese nor the Japanese, he is much better-looking than either, and his phy- sique is far finer than that of the latter. Though his average height is only 5 feet 4^ inches, his white dress, which is vo- luminous, makes him look taller, and his high-crowned hat, without which he is never seen, taller still. The men were in winter dress — white cotton sleeved robes, huge trousers, and socks; all wadded. On their heads were black silk wadded caps with pendant sides edged with black fur, and on the top First Impressions of Korea 27 of these, rather high-crowned, somewhat broad-brimmed hats of black ''crinoUne" or horsehair gauze, tied under the chin with crinoline ribbon. The general effect was grotesque. There were a few children on the path, bundles of gay cloth- ing, but no women. I was accompanied to old Fusan by a charming English «*Una," who, speaking Korean almost like a native, moved serenely through the market-day crowds, welcomed by all. A miserable place I thought it, and later experience showed that it was neither more nor less miserable than the general run of Korean towns. Its narrow dirty streets consist of low hovels built of mud-smeared wattle without windows, straw roofs, and deep eaves, a black smoke hole in every wall 2 feet from the ground, and outside most are irregular ditches containing solid and liquid refuse. Mangy dogs and blear-eyed children, half or wholly naked, and scaly with dirt, roll in the deep dust or slime, or pant and blink in the sun, apparently unaffected by the stenches which abound. But market day hid much that is repulsive. Along the whole length of the narrow, dusty, crooked street, the wares were laid out on mats on the ground, a man or an old woman, bundled up in dirty white cotton, guarding each. And the sound of bargaining rose high, and much breath was spent on beating down prices, which did not amount originally to the tenth part of a farthing. The goods gave an impression of poor buyers and small trade. Short lengths of coarse white cotton, skeins of cotton, straw shoes, wooden combs, tobacco pipes and pouches, dried fish and sea- weed, cord for girdles, paper rough and smooth, and barley- sugar nearly black, were the contents of the mats. I am sure that the most valuable stock-in-trade there was not worth more than three dollars. Each vendor had a small heap of cash beside him, an uncouth bronze coin with a square hole in the centre, of which at that time 3,200 iwviinally went to the dollar, and which greatly trammelled and crippled Korean trade. 28 Korea and Her Neighbors A market is held in Fusan and in many other places every fifth day. On these the country people rely for all which they do not produce, as well as for the sale or barter of their pro- ductions. Practically there are no shops in the villages and small towns, their needs being supplied on stated days by travelling pedlars who form a very influential guild. Turning away from the bustle of the main street into a nar- row, dirty alley, and then into a native compound, I found the three Australian ladies who were the objects of my visit to this decayed and miserable town. Except that the compound was clean, it was in no way distinguishable from any other, being surrounded by mud hovels. In one of these, exposed to the full force of the southern sun, these ladies were living. The mud walls were concealed with paper, and photographs and other European knickknacks conferred a look of refinement. But not only were the rooms so low that one of the ladies could not stand upright in them, but privacy was impossible, invasions of Korean women and children succeeding each other from morning to night, so that even dressing was a spectacle for the curious. Friends urged these ladies not to take this step of living in a Korean town 3 miles from Euro- peans. It was represented that it was not safe, and that their health would suffer from the heat and fetid odors of the crowded neighborhood, etc. In truth it was not a ** conven- tional thing " to do. On my first visit I found them well and happy. Small chil- dren were clinging to their skirts, and a certain number of women had been induced to become cleanly in their persons and habits. All the neighbors were friendly, and rude re- marks in the streets had altogether ceased. Many of the women resorted to them for medical help, and the simple aid they gave brought them much good-will. This friendly and civilizing influence was the result of a year of living under very detestable circumstances. If they had dwelt in grand houses 2^ miles off upon the hill, it is safe to say that the re- First Impressions of Korea 29 suit would have been ;///. Without any fuss or blowing of trumpets, they quietly helped to solve one of the great prob- lems as to " Missionary Methods," though why it should be a *' problem " I fail to see. In the East at least, every religious teacher who has led the people has lived among them, know- ing if not sharing their daily lives, and has been easily acces- sible at all times. It is not easy to imagine a Buddha or One greater than Buddha only reached by favor of, and possibly by feeing, a gate-keeper or servant. On visiting them a year later I found them still well and happy. The excitement among the Koreans consequent on the Tong-hak rebellion and the war had left them unmolested. A Japanese regiment had encamped close to them, and, by permission, had drawn water from the well in their compound, and had shown them nothing but courtesy. Having in two years gained general confidence and good-will, they built a small bungalow just above the old native house, which has been turned into a very primitive orphanage. The people were friendly and kind from the first. Those who were the earliest friends of the ladies are their staunchest friends now, and they knew them and their aims so well when they moved into their new house that it made no difference at all. Some go there to see the ladies, others to see the furni- ture or hear the organ, and a few to inquire about the '* Jesus doctrine." The "mission work" now consists of daily meet- ings for worship, classes for applicants for baptism, classes at night for those women who may not come out in the daytime, a Sunday school with an attendance of eighty, visiting among the people, and giving instruction in the country and surround- ing villages. About forty adults have professed Christianity, and regularly attend Christian worship. I mention these facts not for the purpose of glorifying these ladies, who are simply doing their duty, but because they fall in with a theory of my own as to methods of mission work. 3© Korea and Her Neighbors There is a very small Roman Catholic mission-house, seldom tenanted, between the two Fusans. In the province of Kyong- sang in which they are, there are Roman missions which claim 2,000 converts, and to promulgate Christianity in thirty towns and villages. There are two foreign priests, who spend most of the year in teaching in the provincial villages, living in Korean huts, in Korean fashion, on Korean food. A coarse ocean with a distinct line of demarcation between the blue water of the Sea of Japan and the discoloration of the Yellow Sea, harsh, grim, rocky, brown islands, mostly unin- habited— two monotonously disagreeable days, more islands, muddier water, an estuary and junks, and on the third after- noon from Fusan the Higo Maru anchored in the roadstead of Chemulpo, the seaport of Seoul. This cannot pretend to be a harbor, indeed most of the roadstead, such as it is, is a slimy mud flat for much of the day, the tide rising and falling 36 feet. The anchorage, a narrow channel in the shallows, can accommodate five vessels of moderate size. Yet though the mud was eji evidence^ and the low hill behind the town was dull brown, and a drizzling rain was falling, I liked the look of Chemulpo better than I expected, and after becoming ac- quainted with it in various seasons and circumstances, I came to regard it with very friendly feelings. As seen from the roadstead, it is a collection of mean houses, mostly of wood, painted white, built along the edge of the sea and straggling up a verdureless hill, the whole extending for more than a mile from a low point on which are a few trees, crowned by the English Vice-Consulate, a comfortless and unworthy build- ing, to a hill on which are a large decorative Japanese tea- house, a garden, and a Shinto shrine. Salient features there are none, unless the house of a German merchant, an English church, the humble buildings of Bishop Corfe's mission on the hill, the large Japanese Consulate, and some new municipal buildings on a slope, may be considered such. As at Fusan, an English tide-waiter boarded the ship, and a foreign harbor- First Impressions of Korea 31 master berthed her, while a Japanese clerk gave the captain his orders. Mr. Wilkinson, the acting British Vice-Consul, came off for me, and entertained me then and on two subsequent occasions with great hospitality, but as the Vice-Consailate had at that time no guest-room, I slept at a Chinese inn, known as ** Steward's," kept by Itai, an honest and helpful man who does all he can to make his guests comfortable, and partially succeeds. This inn is at the corner of the main street of the Chinese quarter, in a very lively position, as it also looks down the main street of the Japanese settlement. The Chinese set- tlement is solid, with a hsuidsome y amen and guild hall, and rows of thriving and substantial shops. Busy and noisy with the continual letting off of crackers and beating of drums and gongs, the Chinese were obviously far ahead of the Japanese in trade. They had nearly a monopoly of the foreign '* cus- tom " ; their large "houses" in Chemulpo had branches in Seoul, and if there were any foreign requirement which they could not meet, they procured the article from Shanghai with- out loss of time. The haulage of freight to Seoul was in their hands, and the market gardening, and much besides. Late into the night they were at work, and they used the roadway for drying hides and storing kerosene tins and packing cases. Scarcely did the noise of night cease when the din of morning began. To these hard-working and money-making people rest seemed a superfluity. The Japanese settlement is far more populous, extensive, and pretentious. Their Consulate is imposing enough for a legation. They have several streets of small shops, which supply the needs chiefly of people of their own nationality, for foreigners patronize Ah Wong and Itai, and the Koreans, who hate the Japanese with a hatred three centuries old, also deal chiefly with the Chinese. But though the Japanese were out- stripped in trade by the Chinese, their position in Korea, even before the war, was an influential one. They gave " postal 32 Korea and Her Neighbors facilities" between the treaty ports and Seoul and carried the foreign mails, and they established branches of the First Na- tional Bank ' in the capital and treaty ports, with which the resident foreigners have for years transacted their business, and in which they have full confidence. I lost no time in opening an account with this Bank in Chemulpo, receiving an English check-book and pass-book, and on all occasions courtesy and all needed help. Partly owing to the fact that English cot- tons for Korea are made in bales too big for the Lilliputian Korean pony, involving reduction to more manageable dimen- sions on being landed, and partly to causes which obtain else- where, the Japanese are so successfully pushing their cottons in Korea, that while they constituted only 3 per cent, of the imports in 1887, they had risen to something like 40 per cent, in 1894.^ There is a rapidly growing demand for yarn to be woven on native looms. The Japanese are well to the front with steam and sailing tonnage. Of 198 steamers entered in- wards in 1893, 132 were Japanese; and out of 325 sailing vessels, 232 were Japanese. It is on record that an English merchantman was once seen in Chemulpo roads, but actually the British mercantile flag, unless on a chartered steamer, is not known in Korean waters. Nor was there in 1894 an English merchant in the Korean treaty ports, or an English house of business, large or small, in Korea. Just then rice was in the ascendant. Japan by means of pressure had induced the Korean Government to consent to suspend the decree forbidding its export, and on a certain date the sluices were to be opened. Stacks of rice bags covered the beach, rice in bulk being measured into bags was piled on mats in the roadways, ponies and coolies rice-laden filed in strings down the streets, while in the roadstead a num- ber of Japanese steamers and junks awaited the taking off the embargo at midnight on 6th March. A regular rice babel • Now the Dai Ichi Gingo. ' For latest trade statistics see appendix B. First Impressions of Korea 33 prevailed in the town and on the beach, and much disaffection prevailed among the Koreans at the rise in the price of their staple article of diet. Japanese agents scoured the whole country for rice, and every cattie of it which could be spared from consumption was bought in preparation for the war of wdiich no one in Korea dreamed at that time. The rice bustle gave Chemulpo an appearance of a thriving trade which it is not wont to have except in the Chinese settlement. Its foreign population in 1897 was 4,357. The reader may wonder where the Koreans are at Che- mulpo, and in truth 1 had almost forgotten them, for they are of little account. The increasing native town lies outside the Japanese settlement on the Seoul road, clustering round the base of the hill on which the English church stands, and scrambling up it, mud hovels planting themselves on every ledge, attained by filthy alleys, swarming with quiet dirty children, who look on the high-road to emulate the do-less Jiess of their fathers. Korean, too, is the official yamen at the top of the hill, and Korean its methods of punishment, its brutal flagellations by yameii runners, its beating of criminals to death, their howls of anguish penetrating the rooms of the ad- jacent English mission, and Korean too are the bribery and corruption which make it and nearly every yame?i sinks of in- iquity. The gate with its double curved roofs and drum chamber over the gateway remind the stranger that though the capital and energy of Chemulpo are foreign, the government is native. Not Korean is the abode of mercy on the other side of the road from the yamen, the hospital connected with Bishop Corfe's mission, where in a small Korean building the sick are received, tended, and generally cured by Dr. Landis, who himself lives as a Korean in rooms 8 feet by 6, studying, writing, eating, without chair or table, and accessible at all times to all comers. The 6,700 inhabitants of the Korean town, or rather the male half of them, are always on the move. The narrow roads are always full of them, sauntering along in 34 Korea and Her Neighbors their dress bats, not apparently doing anything. It is old Fusan over again, except that there are permanent shops, with stocks-in-trade worth from one to twenty dollars; and as an hour is easily spent over a transaction involving a few cash, there is an appearance of business kept up. In the settlement the Koreans work as porters and carry preposterous weights on their wooden packsaddles. ■-V"' ^e.\h -^^-'^A GATE OF OLD FUSAN CHAPTER II FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CAPITAL CHEMULPO, being on the island-studded estuary of the Han, which is navigable for the 56 miles up to Ma-pu, the river port of Seoul, it eventually occurred to some persons more enterprising than their neighbors to establish steam com- munication between the two. Manifold are the disasters which have attended this simple undertaking. Nearly every passen- ger who has entrusted himself to the river has a tale to tell of the boat being deposited on a sandbank, and of futile endeav- ors to get off, of fretting and fuming, usually ending in hail- ing a passing sajnpan and getting up to Ma-pu many hours be- hind time, tired, hungry, and disgusted. For the steam launches are only half powered for their work, the tTdes are strong, the river shallows often, and its sandbanks shift almost from tide to tide. Hence this natural highway is not much patronized by people who respect themselves, and all sorts of arrangements are made for getting up to the capital by "road." There is, properly speaking, no road, but the word serves. Mr. Gardner, the British acting Consul-General in Seoul, kindly arranged to escort me the 25 miles, and I went up in seven hours in a chair with six bearers, jolly fellows, who joked and laughed and raced the Consul's pony. Traffic has worn for itself a track, often indefinite, but usually straggling over and sterilizing a width enough for three or four highways, and often making a new departure to avoid deep mud holes. The mud is nearly bottomless. Bullock-carts owned by Chi- nese attempt the transit of goods, and two or three embedded in the mud till the spring showed with what success. Near 35 36 Korea and Her Neighbors Ma-pu all traffic has to cross a small plain of deep sand. Pack bulls, noble animals, and men are the carriers of goods. The redoubtable Korean pony was not to be seen. Foot passen- gers in dress hats and wadded white garments were fairly numerous. The track lies through rolling country, well cultivated. There are only two or three villages on the road, but there are many, surrounded by fruit trees, in the folds of the adjacent low hills; stunted pines {Finns sinensis) abound, and often indicate places of burial. The hillsides are much taken up with graves. There are wooden sign or distant posts, with grotesque human faces upon them, chiefly that of Chang Sun, a traitor, whose misdemeanors were committed 1,000 years ago. The general aspect of the country is bare and monot- onous. Except for the orchards and the spindly pines, there is no wood. There is no beauty of form, nor any of those signs of exclusiveness, such as gates or walls, which give some- thing of dignity to a landscape. These were my first impres- sions. But I came to see on later journeys that even on that road th^re can be a beauty and fascination in the scenery when glorified and idealized by the unrivalled atmosphere of a Korean winter, which it is a delight even to recall, and that the situation of Seoul for a sort of weird picturesqueness com- pares favorably with that of almost any other capital, but its orientalism, a marked feature of which was its specially self- asserting dirt, is being fast improved off the face of the earth. From the low pass known as the Gap, there is a view of the hills in the neighborhood of Seoul, and before reaching the Han these, glorified and exaggerated by an effect of atmos- phere, took on something of grandeur. Crossing the Han in a scow to which my chair accommodated itself more readily than Mr. Gardner's pony, and encountering ferry boats full of pack bulls bearing the night soil of the city to the country, we landed on the rough, steep, filthy, miry river bank, and First Impressions of the Capital 37 were at once in the foul, narrow, slimy, rough street of Ma-pu, a twisted alley full of mean shops for the sale of native com- modities, of bulls carrying mountains of brushwood which nearly filled up the roadway ; and with a crowd, masculine solely, which swayed and loafed, and did nothing in particu- lar. Some quiet agricultural country, and some fine trees, a resemblance to the land of the Bakhtiari Lurs, in the fact of one man working a spade or shovel, while three others helped him to turn up the soil by an arrangement of ropes, then two chairs with bearers in blue uniforms, carrying Mrs. and Miss Gardner, accompanied by Bishop Corfe, Mr. M'Leavy Brown, the Chief Commissioner of Korean Customs, and Mr. Fox, the Assistant Consul, then the hovels and alleys became thick, and we were in extra-mural Seoul. A lofty wall, pierced by a deep double-roofed gateway, was passed, and ten minutes more of miserable alleys brought us to a breezy hill, crowned by the staring red brick buildings of the English Legation and Consular offices. The Russian Legation has taken another and a higher, and its loftly tower and fine facade are the most conspicuous objects in the city, while a third is covered with buildings, some Korean and tasteful, but others in a painful style of architec- ture, a combination of the factory with the meeting-house, be- longing to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission, the American Presbyterians occupying a humbler position below. A hill on the other side of the town is dedicated to Japan, and so in every part of the city the foreigner, shut out till 1883, is making his presence felt, and is undermining that which is Korean in the Korean capital by the slow process of contact. One of the most remarkable indications of tlie changes which is stealing over the Hermit City is tliat a nearly finished Roman Catholic Cathedral, of very large size, witli a clergy- house and orphanages, occupies one of the most prominent positions in Seoul. The King's father, the Tai-Won-Kun, still actively engaged in politics, is the man who, thirty years 38 Korea and Her Neighbors ago, persecuted the Roman Christians so cruelly and persist- ently as to raise up for Korea a " noble army of martyrs." I know Seoul by day and night, its palaces and its slums, its unspeakable meanness and faded splendors, its purposeless crowds, its mediaeval processions, which for barbaric splendor cannot be matched on earth, the filth of its crowded alleys, and its pitiful attempt to retain its manners, customs, and identity as the capital of an ancient monarchy in face of the host of disintegrating influences which are at work, but it is not at first that one '' takes it in." I had known it for a year before I appreciated it, or fully realized that it is entitled to be regarded as one of the great capitals of the world, with its supposed population of a quarter of a million, and that few capitals are more beautifully situated.^ One hundred and twenty feet above the sea, in Lat. 37° 34' N. and Long. 127° 6' E., mountain girdled, for the definite peaks and abrupt elevation of its hills give them the grandeur of mountains, though their highest summit, San-kak-San, has only an altitude of 2,627 feet, few cities can boast, as Seoul can, that tigers and leopards are shot within their walls ! Arid and forbid- ding these mountains look at times, their ridges broken up into black crags and pinnacles, ofttimes rising from among dis- torted pines, but there are evenings of purple glory, when every forbidding peak gleams like an amethyst with a pink translucency, and the shadows are cobalt and the sky is green and gold. Fair are the surroundings too in early spring, when a delicate green mist veils the hills, and their sides are flushed with the heliotrope azalea, and flame of plum, and blush of cherry, and tremulousness of peach blossom appear in un- expected quarters. Looking down on this great city, which has the aspect of a lotus pond in November, or an expanse of overripe mush- I By a careful census taken in February, 1897, ^^^ intra-mural popula- tion of Seoul was 144,636 souls, and the extra-mural 75,189, total 219,- 815, males predominating to the extent of 11,079. o D W u H W w u < First Impressions of the Capital 39 rooms, the eye naturally follows the course of the wall, which is discerned in most outlandish places, climbing Nam-San in one direction, and going clear over the crest of Puk-han in another, enclosing a piece of forest here, and a vacant plain there, descending into ravines, disappearing and reappearing when least expected. This wall, which contrives to look nearly as solid as the hillsides which it climbs, is from 25 to 40 feet in height, and 14 miles in circumference (according to Mr. Fox of H.B.M.'s Consular Service), battlemented along its entire length, and pierced by eight gateways, solid arches or tunnels of stone, surmounted by lofty gate houses with one, two, or three curved tiled roofs. These are closed from sunset to sunrise by massive wooden gates, heavily bossed and strength- ened with iron, bearing, following Chinese fashion, high- sounding names, such as the " Gate of Bright Amiability," the " Gate of High Ceremony," the " Gate of Elevated Hu- manity." The wall consists of a bank of earth faced with masonry, or of solid masonry alone, and is on the whole in tolerable repair. It is on the side nearest the river, and onwards in the direction of the Peking Pass, that extra-mural Seoul has ex- panded. One gate is the Gate of the Dead, only a royal corpse being permitted to be carried out by any other. By another gate criminals passed out to be beheaded, and outside another their heads were exposed for some days after execu- tion, hanging from camp-kettle stands. The north gate, high on Puk-han, is kept closed, only to be opened in case the King is compelled to escape to one of the so-called fortresses on that mountain. Outside the wall is charming country, broken into hills and wooded valleys, with knolls sacrificed to stately royal tombs, with their environment of fine trees, and villages in romantic positions among orchards and garden cultivation. Few Eastern cities have prettier walks and rides in their immediate neighborhood, or greater possibilities of rapid escape into 40 Korea and Her Neighbors sylvan solitudes, and I must add that no city has environs so safe, and that ladies without a European escort can ride, as I have done, in every direction outside the walls without meet- ing with the slightest annoyance. I shrink from describing intra-mural Seoul. ^ I thought it the foulest city on earth till I saw Peking, and its smells the most odious, till I encountered those of Shao-shing ! For a great city and a capital its meanness is indescribable. Eti- quette forbids the erection of two-storied houses, consequently an estimated quarter of a million people are living on "the ground," chiefly in labyrinthine alleys, many of them not wide enough for two loaded bulls to pass, indeed barely wide enough for one man to pass a loaded bull, and further narrowed by a series of vile holes or green, slimy ditches, which receive the solid and liquid refuse of the houses, their foul and fetid margins being the favorite resort of half-naked children, be- grimed with dirt, and of big, mangy, blear-eyed dogs, which wallow in the slime or blink in the sun. There too the itin- erant vendor of "small wares," and candies dyed flaring colors with aniline dyes, establishes himself, puts a few planks across the ditch, and his goods, worth perhaps a dollar, thereon. But even Seoul has its " spring cleaning," and I en- countered on the sand plain of the Han, on the ferry, and on the road from Ma-pu to Seoul, innumerable bulls carrying pan- niers laden with the contents of the city ditches. The houses abutting on these ditches are generally hovels with deep eaves and thatched roofs, presenting nothing to the street but a mud wall, with occasionally a small paper window just under the roof, indicating the men's quarters, and invari- ably, at a height varying from 2 to 3 feet above the ditch, a J Nous avons change tout cela. As will be seen from a chapter near the end of the book, the Chief Commissioner of Customs, energetically seconded by the Governor of Seoul, has worked surprising improvements and sanitary changes which, if carried out perseveringly, will redeem the capital from the charges which travellers have brought against it. First Impressions of the Capital 41 blackened smoke-hole, the vent for the smoke and heated air, which have done their duty in warming the floor of the house. All day long bulls laden with bruslnvood to a great height are entering the city, and at six o'clock this pine brush, preparing to do the cooking and warming for the population, fills every lane in Seoul with aromatic smoke, which hangs over it with remarkable punctuality. Even the superior houses, which have curved and tiled roofs, present nothing better to the street than this debased appearance. The shops partake of the general meanness. Shops with a stock-in-trade which may be worth six dollars abound. It is easy to walk in Seoul without molestation, but any one stand- ing to look at anything attracts a great crowd, so that it is as well that there is nothing to look at. The shops have literally not a noteworthy feature. Their one characteristic is that they have none ! The best shops are near the Great Bell, be- side which formerly stood a stone with an inscription calling on all Koreans to put intruding foreigners to death. So small are they that all goods are within reach of the hand. In one of the three broad streets, there are double rows of removable booths, in which now and then a small box of Korean niello work, iron inlaid with silver, may be picked up. In these and others the principal commodities are white cottons, straw shoes, bamboo hats, coarse pottery, candlesticks, with draught screens, combs, glass beads, pipes, tobacco pouches, spittoons, horn-rimmed goggles, much worn by officials, paper of many kinds, wooden pillow-ends, decorated pillowcases, fans, ink- cases, huge wooden saddles with green leather flaps bossed with silver, laundry sticks, dried persimmons, loathsome candies dyed magenta, scarlet, and green, masses of dried seaweed and fungi, and ill-chosen collections of the most trumpery of foreign trash, such as sixpenny kerosene lamps, hand mirrors, tinsel vases, etc., the genius of bad taste presiding over all. Plain brass dinner sets and other brass articles are made, 42 Korea and Her Neighbors and some mother-of-pearl inlaying in black lacquer from old designs is occasionally to be purchased, and embroideries in silk and gold thread, but the designs are ugly, and the color- ing atrocious. Foreigners have bestowed the name Cabinet Street on a street near the English Legation, given up to the making of bureaus and marriage chests. These, though not massive, look so, and are really handsome, some being of solid chestnut wood, others veneered with maple or peach, and bossed, strapped, and hinged with brass, besides being orna- mented with great brass hasps and brass padlocks 6 inches long. These, besides being thoroughly Korean, are distinctly decorative. There are few buyers, except in the early morn- ing, and shopping does not seem a pastime, partly because none but the poorest class of women can go out on foot by daylight. In the booths are to be seen tobacco pipes, pipestems, and bowls, coarse glazed pottery, rice bowls, Japanese lucifer matches, aniline dyes, tobacco pouches, purses, flint and tinder pouches, rolls of oiled paper, tassels, silk cord, nuts of the edible pine, rice, millet, maize, peas, beans, string shoes, old crinoline hats, bamboo and reed hats in endless variety, and coarse native cotton, very narrow. In this great human hive, the ordinary sightseer finds his vocation gone. The inhabitants constitute the ''sight" of Seoul. The great bronze bell, said to be the third largest in the world, is one of the few ''sights " usually seen by stran- gers. It hangs in a bell tower in the centre of the city, and bears the following inscription : — " Sye Cho the Great, 12*^ year Man cha [year of the cycle] and moon, the 4'^ year of the great Ming Emperor Hsiian-hua [a.d. 1468], the head of the bureau of Royal despatches, Sye Ko chyeng, bearing the title Sa Ka Chyeng, had this pavilion erected and this bell hung." This bell, whose dull heavy boom is heard in all parts of Seoul, has opened and closed the gates for five centuries. First Impressions of the Capital 43 The grand triple gateway of the Royal Palace with its double roof, the old audience hall in the Mulberry Gardens, and the decorative roofs of the gate towers, are all seen in an hour. There remains the Marble Pagoda, seven centuries old, so com- pletely hidden away in the back yard of a house in one of the foulest and narrowest alleys of the city, that many people never see it at all. As I was intent on photographing some of the reliefs upon it, I visited it five times, and each time with fresh admiration ; but so wedged in is it, that one can only get any kind of view of it by climbing on the top of a wall. Every part is carved, and the flat parts richly so, some of the tablets representing Hindu divinities, while others seem to portray the various stages of the soul's progress towards Nir- vana. The designs are undoubtedly Indian, modified by Chinese artists, and this thing of beauty stands on the site of a Buddhist monastery. It is a thirteen-storied pagoda, but three stories were taken off in the Japanese invasion three centuries ago, and placed on the ground uninjured. So they remained, but on my last visit children had defaced the ex- quisite carving, and were offering portions for sale. Not far off is another relic of antiquity, a decorated and inscribed tablet standing on the back of a granite turtle of prodigious size. Outside the west gate, on a plain near the Peking Pass, was a roofed and highly decorated arch of that form known as the pailow, and close by it a sort of palace hall, in which every new sovereign of Korea waited for the coming of a special envoy from Peking, whom he joined at the pailow, ac- companying him to the palace, where he received from him his investiture as sovereign. On the slope of Nam San the white wooden buildings, sim- ple and unpretentious, of the Japanese Legation are situated, and below them a Japanese colony of nearly 5,000 persons, equipped with tea-houses, a theatre, and the various arrange- ments essential to Japanese well-being. There, in acute con- trast to everything Korean, are to be seen streets of shops and 44 Korea and Her Neighbors houses where cleanliness, daintiness, and thrift reign supreme, and unveiled women, and men in girdled dressing-gowns and clogs, move about as freely as in Japan. There also are to be seen minute soldiers or military police, and smart be-sworded officers, who change guard at due intervals ; nor are such pre- cautions needless, for the heredity of hate is strong in Korea, and on two occasions the members of this Legation have had to fight their way down to the sea. The Legation was occu- pied at the time of my first visit by Mr. Otori, an elderly man with pendulous white whiskers, who went much into the little society which Seoul boasts, talked nothings, and gave no promise of the rough vigor which he showed a few months later. There also are the Japanese bank and post office, both admirably managed. The Chinese colony was in 1894 nearly as large, and dif- fered in no respect from such a colony anywhere else. The foreigners depend for many things on the Chinese shops, and as the Koreans like the Chinese, they do some trade with them also. The imposing element connected with China was the yamen of Yuan, the Minister Resident and representative of Korea's Suzerain, by many people regarded as ** the power behind the throne," who is reported to have gone more than once unbidden into the King's presence, and to have re- proached him with his conduct of affairs. Great courtyards and lofty gates on which are painted the usual guardian gods, and a brick dragon screen, seclude the palace in which Yuan lived with his guards and large retinue ; and the number of big, supercilious men, dressed in rich brocades and satins, who hung about both this Palace and the Consulate, impressed the Koreans with the power and stateliness within. The Americans were very severe on Yuan, but so far as I could learn his chief fault was that he let things alone, and neglected to use his unquestionably great power in favor of reform and common honesty — but he was a Chinese mandarin ! He possessed the power of life and death over Chinamen, First Impressions of the Capital 45 and his punishments were often to our thinking barbarous, but the Chinese feared him so much that they treated the Koreans fairly well, which is more than can be said of the Japanese. One of the <' sights" of Seoul is the stream or drain or watercourse, a wide, walled, open conduit, along which a dark-colored festering stream slowly drags its malodorous length, among manure and refuse heaps which cover up most of what was once its shingly bed. There, tired of crowds masculine solely, one may be refreshed by the sight of women of the poorest class, some ladling into pails the compound which passes for water, and others washing clothes in the fetid pools which pass for a stream. All wear one costume, which is peculiar to the capital, a green silk coat — a man's coat with the *' neck" put over the head and clutched below the eyes, and long wide sleeves falling from the ears. It is as well that the Korean woman is concealed, for she is not a houri. Wash- ing is her manifest destiny so long as her lord wears white. She washes in this foul river, in the pond of the Mulberry Palace, in every wet ditch, and outside the walls in the few streams which exist. Clothes are partially unpicked, boiled with ley three times, rolled into hard bundles, and pounded with heavy sticks on stones. After being dried they are beaten with wooden sticks on cylinders, till they attain a polish resembling dull satin. The women are slaves to the laundry, and the only sound which breaks the stillness of a Seoul night is the regular beat of their laundry sticks. From the beautiful hill Nam-San, from the Lone Tree Hill, and from a hill above the old Mulberry Palace, Seoul is best seen, with its mountainous surroundings, here and there dark with pines, but mostly naked, falling down upon the city in black arid corrugations. These mountains enclose a valley about 5 miles long by 3 broad, into which 200,000 people are crammed and wedged. The city is a sea of low brown roofs, mostly of thatch, and all but monotonous, no trees and no 46 Korea and Her Neighbors open spaces. Rising out of this brown sea there are the curved double roofs of the gates, and the gray granite walls of the royal palaces, and within them the sweeping roofs of vari- ous audience halls. Cutting the city across by running from the east to the west gate is one broad street, another striking off from this runs to the south gate, and a third 60 yards wide runs from the great central artery to the palace. This is the only one which is kept clear of encumbrance at all times, the others being occupied by double rows of booths, leaving only a narrow space for traffic on either side. When I first looked down on Seoul early in March, one street along its whole length appeared to be still encumbered with the drift of the previous winter's snow. It was only by the aid of a glass that I discovered that this is the great promenade, and that the snowdrift was just the garments of the Koreans, whitened by ceaseless labor with the laundry sticks. In these three broad streets the moving crowd of men in white robes and black dress hats seldom flags. They seem destitute of any ob- ject. Many of them are of the yang-ban or noble class, to whom a rigid etiquette forbids any but official or tutorial occu- pation, and many of whom exist by hanging on to their more fortunate relatives. Young men of the middle class imitate their nonchalance and swinging gait. There, too, are to be seen officials, superbly dressed, mounted on very fat but handsome ponies, with profuse manes and tails, the riders sitting uneasily on the tops of saddles with showy caparisonings a foot high, holding on to the saddle bow, two retainers leading the steed, and two more holding the rider in his place ; or officials in palanquins, with bearers at a run, amid large retinues. In the more plebeian streets nothing is to be seen but bulls carrying pine brush, strings of ponies loaded with salt or country produce, water-carriers with pails slung on a yoke, splashing their contents, and coolies carrying burdens on wooden pack saddles. But in the narrower alleys, of which there are hundreds, First Impressions of the Capital 47 further narrowed by the low deep eaves, and the vile ditches outside the houses, only two men can pass each other, and the noble red bull with his load of brushwood is rarely seen. Be- tween these miles of mud walls, deep eaves, green slimy ditches, and blackened smoke holes, few besides the male inhabitants and burden bearers are seen to move. They are the paradise of mangy dogs. Every house has a dog and a square hole through which he can just creep. He yelps furiously at a stranger, and runs away at the shaking of an umbrella. He was the sole scavenger of Seoul, and a very inefficient one. He is neither the friend nor companion of man. He is ignorant of Korean and every other spoken language. His bark at night announces peril from thieves. He is almost wild. When young he is killed and eaten in spring. I have mentioned the women of the lower classes, who wash clothes and draw water in the daytime. Many of these were domestic slaves, and all are of the lowest class. Korean women are very rigidly secluded, perhaps more absolutely so than the women of any other nation. In the capital a very curious arrangement prevailed. About eight o'clock the great bell tolled a signal for men to retire into their houses, and for women to come out and amuse themselves, and visit their friends. The rule which clears the streets of men occasionally lapses, and then some incident occurs which causes it to be rigorously reenforced. So it was at the time of my arrival, and the pitch dark streets presented the singular spectacle of being tenanted solely by bodies of women with servants carry- ing lanterns. From its operation were exempted blind men, officials, foreigners' servants, and persons carrying prescrip- tions to the druggists'. These were often forged for the purpose of escape from durance vile, and a few people got long staffs and personated blind men. At twelve the bell again boomed, women retired, and men were at liberty to go abroad. A lady of high position told me that she had never seen the streets of Seoul by daylight. 48 Korea and Her Neighbors The nocturnal silence is very impressive. There is no human hum, throb, or gurgle. The darkness too is absolute, as there are few if any lighted windows to the streets. Upon a silence which may be felt, the deep, penetrating boom of the great bell breaks with a sound which is almost ominous. TURTLE STONE CHAPTER III THE KUR-DONG BEFORE leaving England letters from Korea had warned me of the difficulty of travelling in the interior, of getting a trustworthy servant, and above all, a trustworthy interpreter. Weeks passed by, and though Bishop Corfe and others exerted themselves on my behalf, these essential requisites were not forthcoming, for to find a reliable English-speaking Korean is well-nigh impossible. There are English-speaking Koreans who have learned English, some in the Government School, and others in the Methodist Episcopal School, and many of these I interviewed. The English of all was infirm, and they were all limp and timid, a set of poor creatures. Some of them seemed very anxious to go with me, and were partially engaged, and the next day came, looking uneasy, and balanc- ing themselves on the edge of their chairs, told me that their mothers said they must not go because there were tigers, or that three months was too long a journey, or that they could not go so far from their families, etc. At last a young man came who really spoke passable English, but on entering the room with a familiar nod, he threw himself down in an easy- chair, swinging his leg over the arm ! He asked many ques- tions about the journey, said it was very long to be away from Seoul, and that he should require one horse for his baggage and another for himself. I remarked that, in order to get through the difficulties of the journey, it would be necessary to limit the baggage as much as possible. He said he could not go with fewer than nine suits of clothes ! I remarked that a foreigner would only take two, and that I should reduce my- 49 50 Korea and Her Neighbors self to two. *' Yes," he replied, '* but foreigners are so dirty in their habits.*' This from a Korean ! So once more I had to settle down, and accept the kindly hospitality of my friends, trusting that something would '^ turn up." By this delay I came in for the Kur-dong^^ one of the most remarkable spectacles I ever saw, and it had the added interest of being seen in its splendor for probably the last time, as circumstances which have since occurred, and the necessity for economy, must put an end to much of the scenic display. The occasion was a visit of the King in state to sacrifice in one of the ancestral temples of his dynasty, members of which have occupied the Korean throne for five centuries. Living secluded in his palace, guarded by i,ooo men, his subjects forbidden to pronounce his name, which indeed is seldom known, in total ignorance of any other aspect of his kingdom and capital than that furnished by the two streets through which he passes to offer sacrifice, the days on which he per- forms this pious act offer to his subjects their sole opportuni- ties of gazing on his august countenance. As the Queen's procession passed by on the day of the Duke of York's mar- riage, I heard a workingman say, *'It's we as pays, and we likes to get the valey for our money." The Korean pays in another and heavier sense, and as in tens of thousands he crowds in reverential silence the route of the Kur-dong, he is probably glad that the one brilliant spectacle of the year should be as splendid as possible. The monotony of Seoul is something remarkable. Brown mountains "picked out" in black, brown mud walls, brown roofs, brown roadways, whether mud or dust, while humanity is in black and white. Always the same bundled-up women clutching their green coats under their eyes, always the samie surge of yang-bajts and their familiars swinging along South > If an apology be necessary for the following minute description of this unique ceremonial, I offer it on the ground that it was probably the last of its kind, and that full details of it have not been given before. The Kur-dong ^i Street, the same strings of squealing ponies ''spoiling for a fight," the same processions of majestic red bulls under tower- ing loads of brushwood, the same coolies in dirty white, for- ever carrying burdens, the same joyless dirty children getting through life on the gutters' edge, and the same brownish dogs, feebly wrangling over offal. On such monotony and color- lessness, the Kur-dong bursts like the sun. Alas for this mean but fascinating capital, that the most recent steps towards civilization should involve the abolition of its one spectacle ! By six in the morning of the looked-for day we were on our way from the English Legation to a position near the Great Bell, all the male population of the alleys taking the same direction, along with children in colors, and some of the poorer class of women with gay handkerchiefs folded Roman fashion on their hair. For the first time I saw the grand pro- portions of the road called by foreigners South Street. The double rows of booths had been removed the night before, and along the side of the street, at intervals of 20 yards, torches 10 feet high were let into the ground to light the King on his return from sacrificing. It is only by its imposing width that this great street lends itself to such a display, for the houses are low and mean, and on one side at least are only superior hovels. In place of the booths the subjects were massed twelve deep, the regularity of the front row being pre- served by a number of yamen runners, who brought down their wooden paddles with an unmerciful whack on any one breaking the line. The singular monotony of baggy white coats and black crinoline hats was relieved by boy bride- grooms in yellow hats and rose pink coats, by the green silk coats of women, and the green, pink, heliotrope and Turkey red dresses of children. The crowd had a quietly pleased but very limp look. There was no jollity or excitement, no flags or popular demonstrations, and scarcely a hum from a con- course which must have numbered at least 150,000, half the city, together with numbers from the country who had walked ^2 Korea and Her Neighbors three and four days to see the spectacle. Squalid and mean is ordinary Korean life, and the King is a myth for most of the year. No wonder that the people turn out to see as splen- did a spectacle as the world has to show, its splendor centring round their usually secluded sovereign. It is to the glory of a dynasty which has occupied the Korean throne for five cen- turies as well as in honor of the present occupant. The hour of leaving the palace had been announced as 6 a. M., but though it was 7.30 before the boom of a heavy gun announced that the procession was in motion, the interest never flagged the whole time. Hundreds of coolies sprinkled red earth for the width of a foot along the middle of the streets, for hypothetically the King must not pass over soil which has been trodden by the feet of his subjects. Squad- rons of cavalry, with coolies leading their shabby ponies, took up positions along the route, and in a great mass in front of us. The troopers sat on the ground smoking, till a very dis- trait bugle-call sent them to their saddles. The ponies bit, kicked, and squealed, and the grotesque and often ineffectual attempts of the men to mount them provoked the laughter of the crowd, as one trooper after another, with one foot in the stirrup and the other on the ground, hopped round at the pleasure of his steed. After all, with the help of their coolies, were mounted, whacks secretly administered by men in the crowd nearly unhorsed many of them, but they clung with both hands to their saddle bows and eventually formed into a ragged line. Among the very curious sights were poles carried at meas- ured distances supporting rectangular frames resembling small umbrella stands, filled with feathered arrows, and messengers dashing along as if they had been shot and were escaping from another shaft, for from the backs of their collars protruded arrows which had apparently entered obliquely. Either on the back or breast or both of the superb dresses of officials were satin squares embroidered in unique designs, representing The Kur-dong 53 birds and beasts, storks indicating civil, and tigers military, rank, while the number of birds or animals on the lozenge de- noted the wearer's exact position. Though there were long stretches of silence, scarcely broken by the hum of a multitude, there were noisy interludes, novel in their nature, produced by men, sometimes fifteen in a row, who carried poles with a number of steel rings loosely strung upon them, which they tossed into the air and allowed to fall against each other with a metallic clink, loud and strident. Likewise the trains of servants in attendance on mandarins emitted peculiar cries, sounding G in unison, then raising their note and singing C three times, afterwards, with a fall- ing cadence, singing G again. But of the noises which passed for music, the most curi- ous as to method was that made by the drummers, who marched irregularly in open order in lines extending across the broad roadway. These carried bowl-shaped kettledrums slung horizontally, and bass drum sticks mainly hidden by their voluminous sleeves. In time with the marching, the right hand stick rose above the drummer's head, then the left stick in like manner, but both fell again nearly to the drum without emitting a sound! The next act of the performance consisted in lifting both sticks above the head together and again bringing them down silently. Finally the sticks were crossed, and during two marching steps rose feebly, and as feebly fell on the ends of the drum, producing a muffled sound, and this programme was repeated during the duration of the march. Soldiers in rusty black belted frocks, wide trousers, band- aged into padded socks, and straw shoes, stacked arms in a side street. Closed black and colored chairs went past at a trot. Palace attendants in hundreds in brown glazed cotton sleeved cloaks, blue under robes* tied below the knee with bunches of red ribbon, and stiff black hats, with heavy fan- shaped plumes of peacock's feathers, rode ragged ponies on 54 Korea and Her Neighbors gay saddles of great height, without bridles, the animals being led by coolies. High officials passed in numbers in chairs or on pony back, each with from twenty to thirty gay attendants running beside him, and a row of bannermen extending across the broad street behind him, each man with a silk banner bearing the cognomen of his lord. These officials were su- perbly dressed, and made a splendid show. They wore black, high-crowned hats, with long crimson tassels behind, and heavy, black ostrich plumes falling over the brim in front, mazarine blue silk robes, split up to the waist behind, with orange silk under robes and most voluminous crimson trousers, loosely tied above the ankles with knots of sky blue ribbon, while streamers of ribbon fell from throats and girdles, and the hats were secured by throat lashes of large amber beads. Each carried over his shoulder a yellow silk banneret with his style in Chinese characters in crimson upon it, and in the same hand his baton of office, with a profusion of streamers of rich ribbons depending from it. The sleeves were orange in the upper part and crimson in the lower, and very full. The overfed and self-willed ponies, chiefly roan and gray, are very handsome, and showily caparisoned, the heads cov- ered with blue, red, and yellow balls, and surmounted with great crimson silk pompons, the bridles a couple of crimson silk scarves, the saddles a sort of leather-covered padded pack saddle 12 inches above the animal's back, with wide, deep flaps of bright green silver-bossed leather hanging down on either side, the cruppers folded white silk, and the breastplate shields of gold embroidery. The gorgeous rider, lifted by his servants upon this elevation, stands erect in his stirrups with his feet not halfway down his pony's sides, his left hand clutching rather than holding an arch placed for this purpose at the bow of the saddle. These officials made no attempt to hold their own bridles, their ponies were led by servants, re- tainers supported them by the feet on either side, and as their mounts showed their resentment of the pace and circumstances The Kur-dong 55 by twistings and struggUngs with their grooms, the faces of the riders expressed " a fearful joy," if "joy" " was. Waves of color and Korean grandeur rolled by, official pro- cessions, palace attendants, bannerraen, with large silk banners trailing on the stiff breeze, each flagstaff crested with a tuft of pheasant's feathers, the King's chief cook, with an enormous retinue, more palace servants, smoking long pipes, drummers fifers, couriers at a gallop, with arrows stuck into the necks of their coats, holding on to their saddles and rope bridles, mixed up with dishevelled ponies with ragged pack saddles, carrying cushions, lacquer boxes, eatables, cooking utensils and smok- ing apparatus, led caparisoned ponies, bowmen, soldiers strag^ glfng loosely, armed with matchlock guns, till several thousand persons had passed. Yet this was not the procession, though it might well have served for one. At 7 ^o, while this " march past" was still going on, a gun was fired, and the great bell, which was very close to t.s boomed heavily, and a fanfaronade of trumpets and the shrdl scream of fifes announced that Li Hs. had at l^st left the palace. The cavalry opposite us prepared to receive His Maj- esty by turning tail, a man«uvre not accomplished without much squealing and fighting. There was a general stir among the spectators, men with arrows in their coats galloped frantic- ally, there was an onslaught on the " Derby dog, and an at- tack by men, armed with the long wooden paddles which are used for beating criminals, on inoffensive portions of the crowd. It is said that there were 5,000 servants and officials con- nected with the palace, and there were nominally 6,000 soldiers in Seoul, and the greater part of tliese took part in the many splendid processions which went to form the Royal procession. It would be impossible for a stranger to give in detail the com- ponent parts of such a show, the like of which has no existence elsewhere on earth, passing for more than an hour in the bright sunshine, in detachments, in compact masses, at a stately walk or a rapid run, in the full spendor of a barbaric medievalism, 56 Korea and Her Neighbors or to say what dignitaries flashed by in the kaleidoscopic blaze of color. The procession of the King was led by the '' general of the vanguard," superbly dressed, supported by retainers on his led pony, and followed by crowds of dignitaries, each with his train, soldiers, men carrying aloft frames of arrows, reaching nearly across the road, and huge flags of silk brocade sur- mounted by plumes of pheasant's feathers, servants in rows of a hundred in the most delicate shades of blue, green, or mauve silk gauze over white, halberdiers, grandees, each with a ret- inue of bannermen, rows of royal bannermen carrying yellow and blue silk flags emblazoned, cavalry men in imitation gold helmets and mediaeval armor, and tiger hunters wearing coarse black felt hats with conical crowns and dark blue coats, trail- ing long guns. With scarcely a pause followed the President of the Foreign Office, high above the crowd on a monocycle, a black wheel supporting on two uprights a black platform, carrying a black chair decorated with a leopard skin, the oc- cupant of which was carried by eight men at a height of 8 feet from the ground. More soldiers, bannermen, and drum- mers, and then came the chief of the eunuchs, grandly dressed, with an immense retinue, and a large number of his subordi- nates, most of whom up to that time, by their position in the palace and their capacity for intrigue, had exercised a very baneful influence on Korean affairs. The procession became more quaint and motley still. Palace attendants appeared in the brilliant garments of the Korean middle ages ; cavalry in antique armor were jumbled up with cavalry in loose cotton frocks and baggy trousers, supposed to be dressed and armed in European fashion, but I failed to de- tect the flattery of imitation. There were cavalry in black Tyrolese hats with pink ribbon round them, black cotton sacks loosely girdled by leather belts with brass clasps never cleaned, white wadded stockings, and hempen shoes. Some had leather saddles, others rode on pack saddles, with the great pad which The Kur-dong 57 should go underneath on the top; some held on to their saddles, others to their rope bridles, the ponies of some were led by- coolies in dirty white clothes; the officers were all held on their saddles, many tucked their old-fashioned swords under their arms, lest carrying them in regulation fashion should make their animals kick ; the feet of some nearly touched the ground, and those of others hung only halfway down their ponies' sides; ponies squealed, neighed, reared, and jibbed, but somehow or other these singular horsemen managed to form ragged lines. Then came foot soldiers with rusty muskets and innumer- able standards, generals, court dignitaries, statesmen, some with crimson hats with heavy black plumes, others with high peaked crinoline hats with projecting wings, others with lofty mitres covered with tinsel gleaming like gold, each with a splendid train. Mediaeval costumes blazing with color flashed past, there were more soldiers, and this time they carried Snider rifles, two Gatling guns were dragged \)y yamen runners, who frantically spanked all and sundry with their paddles, drum- mers beat their drums unmercifully, fifes shrieked, there were more dignitaries with fairylike retinues in blue and green silk gauze, the King's personal attendants in crowds followed in yellow, with bamboo hats trimmed with rosettes, standard- bearers came next, bearing the Royal standard, a winged tiger rampant on a yellow ground, more flags and troops, and then the curious insignia of Korean Royalty, including a monstrous red silk umbrella, and a singular frame of stones. More gran- dees, more soldiers, more musical instruments, and then come the Royal chairs, the first, which was canopied with red silk, being empty, the theory being that this was the more likely to receive an assassin's blow. A huge trident was carried in front of it. After this, borne high aloft by forty bearers clothed in red, in a superb chair of red lacquer, richly tasselled and can- opied, and with wings to keep off the sun, came the King, whose pale, languid face never changed its expression as he 58 Korea and Her Neighbors passed with all the dignity and splendor of his kingdom through the silent crowd. More grandees, servants, soldiers, standard-bearers, arrow- men, officials, cavalry, and led horses formed the procession of the Crown Prince, who was also carried in a red palanquin, and looked paler and more impassive than his father. The supply of officials seemed inexhaustible, for behind him came a quarter of a mile of grandees in splendid costumes, with hats decorated with red velvet and peacock's feathers, and throat lashes of great amber beads, with all their splendid trains, foot- men in armor bossed with large nails, drummers, men carry- ing arrow frames and insignia on poles, then the *' general of the rear guard" in a gleaming helmet and a splendid blue, crimson, and gold uniform, propped up by retainers on his handsome pony, more soldiers armed with old matchlock guns, lastly men bearing arrow frames and standards, and with them the barbaric and bizarre splendor of the Kiir-dong was over, and the white crowd once more overflowed the mean street. Quite late in the evening the Royal pageant returned by the light of stationary torches, with lanterns of blue and crimson silk undulating from the heads of pikes and bayonets. This truly splendid display was estimated to cost $25,000 — a heavy burden on the small resources of the kingdom. It is only thus surrounded that the King ever appears in public, and the splendor accentuates the squalor of the daily life of the masses of the people in the foul alleys which make up most of the city. It must be remembered that the people taking part in the pageant are not men hired and dressed up by a cos- tumier, but that they are actual Court officials and noblemen in the dress of to-day, and that the weapons carried by the sol- diers are those with which they are supposed to repel attack or put down rebellion. CHAPTER IV SEOUL, THE KOREAN MECCA FURTHER difficulties and delays, while they pushed my journey into the interior into the hot weather, gave me the advantage of learning a little about the people and the country before starting. In one sense Seoul is Korea. Take a mean alley in it with its mud-walled hovels, deep-eaved brown roofs, and malodorous ditches with their foulness and green slime, and it may serve as an example of the street of every village and provincial town. In country places there are few industrial specialties. A Seoul shop of "assorted notions" represents the shop of every country town. The white cloth- ing and the crinoline dress hat are the same everywhere as in Seoul. Whatever of national life there is exists only in the capital. Strong as is the drift towards London in our own agri- cultural districts, it is stronger in Korea towards Seoul. Seoul is not only the seat of government, but it is the centre of official life, of all official employment, and of the literary examina- tions which were the only avenues to employment. It is always hoped that something may be " picked up " in Seoul. Hence there is a constant permanent or temporary gravitation towards it, and the larger proportion of the youths who swing and lounge on sunny afternoons along the broad streets, aping the gait of yang-bans, are aspirants for official position. Gusts of popular feeling which pass for public opinion in a land where no such thing exists are known only in Seoul. It is in the capital that the Korean feels the first stress of his unsought and altogether undesired contact with Western civilization, and re- sembles nothing so much as a man awaking from a profound 59 6o Korea and Her Neighbors sleep, rubbing his eyes half-dazed and looking dreamily about him, not quite sure where he is. Seoul is also the commercial centre of a country whose ideas of commerce are limited to huckstering transactions. All business is done there. All country shops are supplied with goods from Seoul. All produce not shipped from the treaty ports converges on Seoul. It is the centre of the great trading guilds, which exercise a practical monopoly in certain sorts of goods, as well as of the guild of porters by whom the traffic of the country is carried on. The heart of every Korean is in Seoul. Officials have town houses in the capital, and trust their business to subordinates for much of the year. Landed proprietors draw their rents and "squeeze" the people on their estates, but are absentees living in the capital. Every man who can pay for food and lodging on the road trudges to the capital once or twice a year, and people who live in it, of whatever degree, can hardly be bribed to leave it even for a few weeks. To the Korean it is the place in which alone life is worth living. Yet it has no objects of art, very few antiquities, no public gardens, no displays except the rare one of the Kur-dong, and no theatres. It lacks every charm possessed by other cities. Antique, it has no ruins, no libraries, no literature, and lastly an indifference to religion without a parallel has left it without temples, while certain superstitions which still retain their hold have left it without a tomb ! Leaving out the temple of Confucius and the homage offi- cially rendered to his tablet in Korea as in China, there are no official temples in Seoul, nor might a priest enter its gates un- der pain of death, consequently the emphasis which noble re- ligious buildings give even to the meanest city in China or Japan is lacking. There is a small temple to the God of War outside the south gate, with some very curious frescoes, but I seldom saw any worshippers there. The absence of temples is a feature of the other Korean cities. Buddhism, which for D O w o w H H D o Seoul, the Korean Mecca 6l i,ooo years before the founding of the present dynasty was the popular cult, has been " disestablished" and practically pro- scribed since the sixteenth century, and Koreans account for the severe enactments against priests by saying that in the Jap- anese invasion three centuries ago Japanese disguised themselves as Buddhist priests and gained admission to cities, putting their garrisons to the sword. Be that true or false, Buddhism in Korea to be found must be sought. As there are no temples, so there are no other signs of re- ligion, and the hasty observer would be warranted in putting down the Koreans as a people without a religion. Ancestral worship, and a propitiation of daemons or spirits, the result of a timid and superstitious dread of the forces of Nature, are to the Korean in place of a religion. Both, I am inclined to be- lieve, are the result of fear, the worship of ancestors being dic- tated far less by filial piety than by the dread that ancestral spirits may do harm to their descendants. This cult prevails from the King to the coolie. It inspires the costly splendors of the Kur-dong, as well as the spread of ancestral food in the humblest hovel on New Year's Eve. The graves within an area of ten miles from the city wall are among the remarkable features of this singular capital. The dead have a monopoly of the fine hill slopes and southern aspects. A man who when alive is content with a mud hovel in a dingy alley, when dead must repose on a breezy hill slope with dignified and carefully tended surroundings. The little fine timber which exists in the denuded neighborhood of Seoul is owed to the Royal and wealthy dead. The amount of good land occupied by the dead is incredible. The grave of a mem- ber of the Royal family on a hill creates a solitude for a con- siderable distance around. In the case of rich and great men as well as of princes, the grave is a lofty grassy mound, often encircled by a massive stone railing, with the hill terraced in front and excavated in a horseshoe shape behind. A stone altar and stone lanterns are placed in front, and the foot of the 62 Korea and Her Neighbors hill, as at the '^ Princess's Tomb," is often occupied by a tem- ple-like building containing tablets with the name and rank of the dead. The Royal tombs are approached by stately avenues of gigantic stone figures, possibly a harmless survival of the practice of offering human and other sacrifices at a burial. These figures represent a priest, a warrior in armor, a servant, a pony, and a sheep (?). The poorer dead occupy hillsides in numbers, resting under grass mounds on small platforms of grass always neatly kept. The lucky place for interment is in all cases chosen by the geomancer. Behind rich men's graves pines are usually planted in a crescent. The dead population of the hillsides round Seoul is simply enormous. Funerals usually go out near dusk with a great display of colored lanterns, but I was fortunate enough to see an artisan's corpse carried out by daylight. First came four drums and a sort of fife perpetrating a lively tune as an accompaniment to a lively song. These were followed by a hearse, if it may be called so, a domed and gaudily painted construction with a garland of artificial flowers in the centre of the dome, a white Korean coat thrown across the roof, and four flagstaffs with gay flags at the four corners, bamboo poles, flower-wreathed, forming a platform on which the hearse was borne by eight men in peaked yellow hats garlanded with blue and pink flow- ers. Bouquets of the same were disposed carelessly on the front and sides of the hearse, the latter being covered with shield-shaped flags of gaudily colored muslin. The chief mourner followed, completely clothed in sackcloth, wearing an umbrella-shaped hat over 4 feet in diameter, and holding a sack- cloth screen before his face by two bamboo handles. Men in flower- wreathed hats surrounded him, some of them walking backwards and singing. He looked fittingly grave, but it is a common custom for those who attend the chief mourner to try to make him laugh by comic antics and jocular remarks. There are " burial clubs "in Seoul to which 100,000 cas/i are contributed (then worth about thirty-three dollars, silver). Seoul, the Korean Mecca 63 The first man to die receives 30,000 cash, the second 33,000, and the third 37,000. This man had belonged to one of these, which accounts for an artisan having such a handsome funeral. Mourners dress in straw-colored hempen cloth, and all wear the enormous hats mentioned before, which so nearly conceal the face that the carrying of the grass-cloth screen is almost a work of supererogation. A mourner may not enter the pal- ace grounds, and as mourning for a father lasts for three years, a courtier thus bereaved is for that time withdrawn from Court. Among the curious customs mainly of Chinese origin con- nected with death are the dressing the dying person in his best clothes when death is very close at hand. The very poor are buried coffinless in a wrapping of straw, and are carried by two men on a bier, the nature of the burden being concealed by hoops covered with paper. When Buddhist priests and temples were prohibited in the walled towns three centuries ago, anything like a national faith disappeared from Korea, and it is only through ancestral worship and a form of '' Shamanism " practiced by the lower and middle classes that any recognition of the unseen survives, and that is in its most superstitious and rudimentary form. Protestant Christian missionaries, preceded in 1784 by those of the Roman Catholic Church, entered Korea in 1884, almost as soon as the country was opened by treaty, and agents of the American Methodist Episcopal and Northern Presbyterian Churches took up their abode in Seoul. They have been fol- lowed by representatives of several of the divisions among Protestants — Southern Presbyterians, Canadian Presbyterians, Australian Presbyterians, and Baptists — and in 1890 the first English mission to Korea was founded under Bishop Corfe. A Roman Catholic Church and a very large Roman Catholic Cathedral with a spire occupy two of the most prominent sites in Seoul. One of the best sites is covered with the buildings 64 Korea and Her Neighbors belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Mission, schools for girls and boys, a printing press, a Union Church, and hospitals for men and women, with which dispensaries are connected. The girls' school connected with this mission is one of the most admirable in its organization and results that I have seen. The Presbyterians occupy a lowlier position, but have the same class of agencies at work, and lately the King handed over to them a large hospital in the city, known as the " Government Hospital." Bishop Corfe's mission occupies two modest sites in modest fashion, all its buildings being strictly Korean. On one side of Seoul, at Nak-tong, it has the Community House, where the bishop, clergy, doctor, and printer live and have their private chapel, also the Mission press, and a very efficient hospital for men, admirably nursed by the Sisters of St. Peter's Kilburn. On the slope of the British Legation Hill are the English Church of the Advent, a beautiful Korean building, the Com- munity House of the Sisters of St. Peter, and the Women's Hospital buildings, embracing a dispensary, a new hospital (the Dora Bird Memorial) of eighteen beds, with a room for a private patient, besides an old hospital, to be used only for in- fectious diseases. These are under the charge of a lady phy- sician, and are also nursed by the Sisters of St. Peter, who in both hospitals do admirable work in a bright and loving spirit which is beyond all praise. There are about 75 Protestant and 34 Roman missionaries in Korea, mostly in Seoul. The language has the reputation of being very difficult, and few of this large number have acquired facility in the use of it. The idea of a nation destitute of a religion, and gladly accepting one brought by the foreigner, must be dropped. The religion the Korean would accept is one which would show him how to get money without working for it. The indifference is extreme, the religious faculty is absent, there are no religious ideas to appeal to, and the moral teachings of Confucius have little influence with any class. Seoul, the Korean Mecca 65 The Korean has got on so well without a religion, in his own opinion, that he does not want to be troubled with one, spe- cially a religion of restraint and sacrifice which has no worldly- good to offer. After nearly twelve years of work, the number of baptized native Protestant Christians in 1897 was 777.^ The Roman Catholics claim 28,802, and that the average rate of increase is 1,000 a year.^ Their priests live mostly in the wretched hovels of the people, amidst their foul surroundings, and share their unpalatable food and sordid lives. Doubtless, mission work in Korea will not differ greatly from such work elsewhere among the older civilizations. Barriers of indiffer- ence, superstition, and inertness exist, and whatever progress is made will probably be chiefly through medical missions, showing Christianity in action, and native agency, and through such schools as I have already alluded to, which leave every feature of Korean custom, dress, and manner of living un- touched, while Christian instruction and training are the first objects, and where the gentle, loving, ennobling influence of the teacher is felt during every hour of the day. 1 In 1897 the influence of Christianity was much stronger than in 1895, and the prospects of its spread much more encouraging. 2 For statistics of Missions in February, 1897, see Appendix. CHAPTER V THE SAILING OF THE SAMPAN AT a point when the difficulties in the way of my pro- jected journey had come to be regarded as insurmount- able, owing to the impossibility of getting an interpreter, and I had begun to say " if I go " instead of *' ivhen I go," Mr. Miller, a young missionary, offered his services, on condition that he might take his servant to supplement his imperfect knowledge of Korean. Bishop Corfe provided me with a Chinese servant, Wong, a fine, big, cheery fellow, with inex- haustible good-nature and contentment, never a cloud of an- noyance on his face, always making the best of everything, ready to help every one, true, honest, plucky, passionately fond of flowers, faithful, manly, always well and hungry, and with a passable knowledge of English ! He was a Chefoo saiti- pan-vc\2A\ when Bishop Corfe picked him up, and nothing could make him into a regular servant, but he suited me admirably, and I was grieved indeed when I had to part with him. The difficulty about money which then beset every traveller in the interior cost a good deal of anxious planning. The Japanese ye7i and its subdivisions were only current in Seoul and the treaty ports, there were no bankers or money-changers anywhere, and the only coin accepted was the cash, of which at that time 3,200 nominally went to the dollar. This coin is strung in hundreds on straw strings, and the counting of it, and the carrying of it, and the being without it are all a nuisance. It takes six men or one pony to carry 100 yen in cash, £10 \ Travellers, through their Consuls, can obtain from the Foreign Office a letter to officials throughout the country called a kwan-ja, entitling the bearer to their good 66 iS The Sailing of the Sampan 67 offices, and especially to food, transport, and money. But as it usually happens that a magistrate advancing money to a for- eigner is not repaid by the Government, however accurately the sum has been paid in Seoul, the arrangement is a very odious one to officials, and I promised our Consul that I would not make use of it for money. Consequently, the boat which I engaged for the earlier part of the journey was ballasted with cash, and I took a bag of silver yen, and trusted to my usual good fortune, which in this case did not altogether fail. In addition to this uncouth and heavy burden, I took a saddle, a trestle-bed with bedding and mosquito net, muslin curtains, a folding chair, two changes of clothing, Korean string shoes, and a " regulation " waterproof cloak. Besides, I took green tea, curry powder, and 20 Ihs. of flour. I dis- carded all superfluities, such as flasks, collapsing cups, hand mirrors, teapots, sandwich tins, lamps, and tinned soups, meats, bouillon, and fruits. The kitchen equipment con- sisted of a Japanese brazier for charcoal, a shallow Japanese pan and frying-pan, and a small kettle, with charcoal tongs, the whole costing under two dollars ! The '* table equip- ment " was limited : a small mug, two plates and a soup plate, all in enamelled iron, and a knife, fork, and spoon, which folded up, a knife, fork, and spoon of common make being reserved for the "kitchen." Tables, trays, tablecloths, and sheets were from thenceforth unknown luxuries. I mention my outfit, because I know it to be a sufficient one, and that every pound of superfluous weight adds to the difficulty of get- ting transport in Korea and in many other countries. Besides, I was encumbered for the first time with a tripod camera weighing 16 lbs., and a hand camera weighing 4 fts., with the apparatus belonging to them, and had to reduce other things accordingly. On the whole, it is best to trust to the food of the country. Korea produces eggs, and in some re- gions chickens. The chestnuts are good, and though the flour, which can be got in a few places, is gritty, and the rice is a 68 Korea and Her Neighbors bad color, both are eatable, and the foreigner, always an ob- ject of suspicion, is less so when he buys and eats native viands, and does not carry about with him a number of (to Koreans) outlandish-looking utensils and commodities. Regarding much of the region which I purposed to visit no information could be obtained, either from Europeans or Korean officials, and the best map, a reduction of a Japanese map by Sir E. Satovv, turned out to be astray. Mr. Warner, of Bishop Corfe's Mission, had ascended the north branch of the Han, but it is still doubtful whether any European has been up the south and much larger branch which I explored on this journey. It was certain only that the country was mountainous, and that the rapids were numerous and severe. It had also been said earnestly, and with an appearance of knowledge, by several people that it would be impossible for a lady to travel in the interior ; and certainly much of what I heard, supposing it to be fact, was sufficiently deterring, but from many similar statements in other countries I knew that a deduction of at least fifty per cent, must be made ! On the 14th of April, 1894, when the environs of Seoul were seen through a mist of green, and plum and peach blossom was in the ascendant, and the heliotrope azalea was just begin- ning to tint the hillsides, and the air was warm and muggy, I left the kind friends who had done much to make my visit to Seoul interesting and agreeable, and went on ponyback through the south gate, passing the temple of the God of War, and over a pine-clothed ridge of Nam-San to Han Kang, four miles from Seoul, a little shipping village, where my boat lay, to avoid a rapid which lies between it and Ma-pu. Up to Ma-pu, 56 miles from Chemulpo, there is a very considerable tidal rise and fall which ceases at the rapid. A limp, silent crowd of men and boys denoted the where- abouts of the boat, from which Mr. Miller's servant, Che-on-i, emerging with the broad smile with which Orientals announce bad news, informed us that the boat was too small ! There The Sailing of the Sampan 69 were very few to be got, and I had not seen this one, Mr. Wyers, the Legation constable, having engaged her for me; and I went " on board " at once, with much curiosity, as she was to be my home for an indefinite number of weeks. And small she truly was, only 28 feet over all, by 4 feet 10 inches at her widest part, and with her whole cargo, animate and in- animate, on board she only drew 3 inches of water. The roof which was put on at my request was a marvel. A slight framework of a ridge pole and some sticks precariously tied together supported some mats of pheasant grass, with the long blades hanging down outside and over the gunwale, which was only 12 inches high. These mats were tied together over the ridge pole, and let in a streak of daylight all the way along. At its highest part this roof was only 4 feet 6 inches. It was just possible to sit under it without stooping. By putting forked sticks under what by courtesy were called the rafters, they could be lifted a foot from the gunwale to let in light and air. Two or three times in a strong breeze this roof collapsed and fell about our heads ! In the fore part of the boat, 7 feet long, one boatman pad- dled or poled, and in the hinder part, 4 feet long, the other poled or worked an oar. But the fore part was also our kitchen and poultry yard and the boatmen's kitchen. There also were kept faggots, driftwood, and miscellaneous stores, with the food and water in unappetizing proximity. There, too, Wong and Che-on-i spent their day ; and there they all cooked, ate, and washed clothes ; and there at night the boat- men curled themselves up and slept in a space 4 feetX4. The rest of the sampan divided itself naturally by the thwarts. My part, the centre, was originally 8 feet X 4 feet 10 inches, but encroachments by no means gradual constituted it a " free coup" for sacks, rice-bags, clothing, and baskets, till it wns reduced to a bare 6 feet, into which space my bed, chair, sad- dle, and luggage were packed for five weeks. In the hinder division, 7 feetX4 feet 4 inches, Mr. Miller lived and studied. 70 Korea and Her Neighbors and he, Wong, and Che-on-i slept. It was scarcely possible for six people and their gear to be more closely packed. Mr. Miller, though not an experienced traveller, cheerfully made the best of everything then and afterwards, and preserved the serenity of his temper under all circumstances. The sampan's crew of two consisted of Kim, her owner, a tall wiry, picturesque, aristocratic-looking old man, and his "hired man," who was never heard to speak except on two occasions, when, being very drunk, he developed a remarkable loquacity. On the whole, they were well behaved and quiet. I saw them in close proximity every hour of the day and was never annoyed by anything they did. Kim was paid ^30 per month for the boat, and his laziness was wonderful. To dawdle along, to start late and tie up early, to crawl when he tracked, and to pole or paddle with the least expenditure of labor, was his policy. To pole for an hour, then tie up and take a smoke, to spend half a day now and then on buying rice, to work on my sensibilities by feigning exhaustion, and to adopt every dodge of the lazy man, was his practice. The contract stipulated for three men, and he only took one, mak- ing some evasive excuse. But I have said the worst I can say when I write that they never made more than 10 miles in a day, and often not more than 7, and that when they came to severe rapids they always wanted to go back.^ Mr. Wyers busied himself in putting a mat on the floor and stowing things as neatly as possible, and when curtains had been put up, the quarters, though "■ cribbed, cabined, and con- fined," looked quite tolerable. The same limp, silent crowd looked on till we left Han Kang at midday. In a few hours things shook into shape, and after all the discomforts were not great, possibly the greatest being that the smoke and the smell of the boatmen's malodorous food blew through the boat. 1 I took very careful notes on the Han, but as minute details would be uninteresting to the general reader, and would involve a good deal of ap- parent repetition, I shall give only the most salient features of a journey which, if it has ever been made, has certainly not been described. CHAPTER VI ON THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND DURING the five weeks which I spent on the Han, though the routine of daily life varied little, there was no monot- ony. The country and the people were new, and we mixed freely, almost too freely, with the latter ; the scenery varied hourly, and after the first few days became not only beautiful, but in places magnificent, and full of surprises ; the spring was in its early beauty, and the trees in their first vividness of green, red, and gold ; the flowers and flowering shrubs were in their glory, the crops at their most attractive stage, birds sang in the thickets, rich fragrant odors were wafted off on the water, red cattle, though rarely, fed knee-deep in abounding grass, and the waters of the Han, nearly at their lowest, were clear as crystal, and their broken sparkle flashed back the sun- beams which passed through a sky as blue as that of Tibet. There was a prosperous look about the country too, and its security was indicated by the frequent occurrence of solitary farms, with high secluding fences, standing under the deep shade of fine walnut and persimmon trees. Unlike the bare, arid, denuded hillsides between Chemulpo and Seoul, the slopes along much of the route are wooded, and in many cases forested both with coniferae and deciduous trees, among which there are occasionally picturesque clumps of umbrella pines. The Pinus Si?iensis and the Abies Micros - perma abound, and there are two species of oak and three of maple, a Platanus, juniper, ash, mountain ash, birch, hazel, Sophora Japonica, Eiionymus alatus, Thiija Oriefifalis, and many others. The heliotrope, pink, and scarlet azaleas were in all their beauty, flushing the hillsides, and white and sul- 71 72 Korea and Her Neighbors phur-yellow clematis, actinidia, and a creeping Euo7iyinus were abundant. Of the wealth of flowering shrubs, mostly white blossomed, I had never seen one before either in garden or greenhouse, except the familiar syringa and spirea. The beautiful Ampelopsis Veitchiana was in its freshest spring green and tender red, concealing tree trunks, depending from branches, and draping every cliff and rock with its exquisite foliage; and roses, red and white, of a free-growing, climb- ing variety, having possession even of tall trees, hung their fragrant festoons over the roads. It was all very charming, though a little wanting in life. True, there were butterflies and dragon-flies innumerable, and brilliant green and brown snakes in numbers, and at first the Han was cheery with mallard and mandarin- duck, geese and common teal. In the rice fields the imperial crane, the egret, and the pink ibis with the deep flush of spring on his plum- age, were not uncommon, and peregrines, kestrels, falcons, and buzzards were occasionally seen. But the song-birds were it"^. The forlorn note of the night-jar was heard, and the loud, cheerful call of the gorgeous ringed pheasant to his dowdy mate; but the trilling, warbling, and cooing which are the charm of an English copsewood in springtime are alto- gether absent, the chatter of the blue magpie and the noisy flight of the warbler being poor substitutes for that entrancing concert. Of beast life, undomesticated, there were no traces, and the domestic animals are few. Sheep do not thrive on the sour natural grasses of Korea, and if goats are kept I never saw any. A small black pig not much larger than a pug is universal, and there are bulls and ponies about the better class of farms. There are big buff dogs, but these are kept only to a limited extent on the Han, in the idea that they attract the nocturnal visits of tigers. The dogs are noisy and voluble, and rush towards a stranger as if bent on attack ; but it is mere bravado — they are despicable cowards, and run away howling at the shaking of a stick. On the River of Golden Sand 73 Leopards, antelopes, and several species of deer are found among the mountains bordering the Han, but the beast by pre- eminence there, as throughout Korea, is the tiger. At first I was very incredulous regarding his existence and depredations. It was impossible to believe that peaceful agricultural valleys surrounded by hills, thinly clothed with dwarf oak scrub, could be ravaged by him, that dogs, pigs, and cattle are con- tinually carried off by him, and that human beings visiting each other at night or belated on the roads are his frequent prey. But the constant repetition of tiger stories, the terror of the villagers, the refusal of mapu and coolies to travel after dark, the certainty that in several places the loss of life had been recent, and that even in the trim settlement of Won-san a boy and child had been seized the day before I arrived and had been eaten on the hillside above the town, have made me a believer. Possibly some of the depredations attributed to tigers may be really the work of leopards, which undoubtedly abound, and have been shot even within the walls of Seoul. High up tlie Han, in a very lovely lake-like stretch, there is a village recently deserted because of the persistency with which tigers had carried of its inhabitants. The Korean tiger, judg- ing from its skin, in which the long hair grows out of a thick coat of fine fur, resembles the Manchurian tiger. I have heard of one which measured 13 feet 4 inches, but never saw a skin more than 11 feet 8 inches in length. The tiger-hunters form what may be called a brigade or corps, and may be called on for military service. They were conspicuous objects in the Ktir-dong^ with their long match- lock guns, loose blue uniforms, and conical-crowned, broad- brimmed hats. The tiger appears on the Royal standard, and tigers' skins are the insignia of high office, the leopard skins, in- dicating lower rank. Tlie Chinese give a very high price for tigers' bones as a medicine, considering them a specific for strength and courage. Tiger-hunting as a business seems con- fined to the northern provinces. On the Han, and specially 74 Korea and Her Neighbors along its northern affluents, are found three if not four species of deer, and the horns, in the velvet, of the large deer {^Cervus Manchuricus), which fetch from forty to sixty dollars a pair, are the prize most wanted by the hunters. Pheasants are lit- erally without number and are very tame ; I constantly saw them feeding among the crops within a few yards of the peas- ants at their work. They are usually brought down by falcons, which, when well trained, command as high a price as nine dollars. To obtain them three small birds are placed in a cylinder of loosely woven bamboo, mounted horizontally on a pole. On the peregrine alighting on this, a man who has been concealed throws a net over the whole. The bird is kept in a tight sleeve for three days. Then he is daily liberated in a room, and trained to follow a piece of meat pulled over the floor by a string. At the end of a week he is taken out on his master's wrist, and slipped when game is seen. He is not trained to return. The master rushes upon him and secures him before he has time to devour the bird. A man told me that he sometimes got between twenty and thirty pheasants a day, but had to walk or run loo // to do it. The season was nearly over, yet I. bought fine pheasants on the Han for three- pence and fourpence each. They were cheaper than chickens. The Han itself, rising in the Diamond Mountain of Kong- w6n-Do, and formed by a number of nearly parallel affluents, next to the border river Am-nok, is /// These remarks apply to every part of Korea which I afterwards saw. 8o Korea and Her Neighbors no newspapers. The Tong-haks (rebels, or armed reformers) were strong in a region immediately to the south of the great bend, which showed some dissatisfaction with things as they were, and a desire for reform in some minds. So far as I could learn, the region is not rich in ordinary minerals. I could hear nothing of ''the burning earth," though the geological formation renders its existence probable. Copper and iron are worked not far from the north branch to a limited extent. But the Han is the ''River of Golden Sand," and though the height of the gold season is after the summer rains, the auri sacra fames even then attracted gangs of men to the river banks, and gold in the mountains was a subject on which the Koreans were always voluble. The attitude of the people was friendly. I never saw a trace of actual hostility, though on the higher waters of the south branch it was very doubtful whether they had seen a European before. Their curiosity was naturally enormous, and whenever the boat tied up for a day it showed itself by crowds sitting on the bank as close to it as they could get, star- ing apathetically. They were frequently timid, and snatched up their fowls and hid them when we came in sight, but a lit- tle friendly explanation of our honesty of purpose, and above all, the sight of a few strings of cash, usually set everything straight. A foreigner is absolutely safe. During the ofttimes tedious process of hauling up the rapids, when Mr. Miller and the servants were tugging at the ropes, I constantly strolled for two or three hours by myself along the river bank, and whether the path led through solitary places or through vil- lages, I never met with anything more disagreeable than curi- osity shown in a very ill-bred fashion, and that was chiefly on the part of women. When the people understood that they would be paid it was not difficult to procure the little they had to sell at fairly reasonable rates. They were disposed to be communicative, and showed very little suspicion, far less in- deed than in parts of Korea where foreigners are common. On the River of Golden Sand 8l My Chinese servant was everywhere an object of most friendly curiosity and a centre of pleasurable interest. The mercury during April and May ranged from 42° to 72°, and the barometer showed remarkable steadiness. There were two heavy rainfalls, but the weather on the whole was superb, and the atmosphere clear and dry. KOREAN PEASANTS AT DINNER. CHAPTER VII VIEWS AFLOAT A FEW hours sufficed for settling in our very narrow- quarters, and by the end of the second day we had shaken down into an orderly routine. By dint of much driv- ing Kim was induced to start about seven, at which hour I had my flour and water stirabout. The halts for smoking, cook- ing, and eating were many, and about five o'clock he used to simulate exhaustion, a deception to which his lean form and thin face with its straight straggling white hair lent themselves effectively. Then followed the daily wrangle about the place to tie up, Kim naturally desiring a village and the proximity of junks, with much nocturnal smoking and gossip, while my wish was for solitude, quiet, and a pebbly river bottom, and with Mr. Miller's aid I usually carried my point. Between Kim's laziness and the frequent occurrence of rapids, lo miles came to be considered a good day's journey ! The same rapids made any settled plan of occupation impossible, yet on the early stages of the journey, when there were long quiet stretches of water between them, it was pleasant to elev^ate the roof and have a quiet morning's work till dinner at twelve. This, it must be confessed, was a precarious meal. Chickens for curry were not always attainable, and were often so small as to suggest the egg shell, and the river fish which were some- times got by pouncing on a boy fisherman were very minute and bony. Chestnuts often eked out a very scanty meal. Wong used to hunt along the river banks for wild onions and carrots, after the stock of the cultivated roots was exhausted, and he made paste of flour and water, rolled it with a bamboo 82 Views Afloat 83 on the top of a box, cut it into biscuits with the lid of a tin, and baked them in the frying-pan. Rice fritters too he made morning, noon, and night. Afternoon tea of Burrough's and Wellcome's '* tabloids " was never omitted, and after tying up came supper, an impoverished repetition of dinner, the whole a wholesome regimen, invariably eaten with appetite. Visiting villages and small towns, only to find the first a collection of mud hovels, and the last mud hovels with the ad- dition of ruinous official buildings and a forlorn Confucian temple, climbing to ridges bordering the Han to get a view of fertile and populous valleys, conversing with and interrogating the people through Mr. Miller and his servant, taking geo- graphical notes, temperatures, altitudes, barometric readings, and measurements of the river (nearly all unfortunately lost in a rapid on the downward journey), collecting and drying plants, photographing, and developing negatives under difficulties, all the blankets and waterproofs in the boat being requisitioned for the creation of a "dark room" — all these occupations made up busy and interesting days. The first two days were spent in turning the flank of the range on which is the so-called fortress of Nam Han, with its priest soldiers, one of the four which are supposed to guard Seoul and offer refuge in times of trouble. On the right bank there are many villages of farmers, woodcutters, and charcoal burners, and on the left an expanse of cultivated sandy soil be- tween the mountains and the river, there a broad rapid stream rippling brightly over white sand or golden gravel. After pass- ing the Yang-kun magistracy, a large village with a long street, where a whole fleet of sampans was loading with country pro- duce for the capital, and a number of junks were unloading salt, the Han makes a sharp bend to the south, and after a long rapid expands into a very broad stream. The valley broadens also, and becomes flat, the hills, absolutely denuded even of scrub, are low, and recede from the river ; their serrated black ridges of rock, and their deeply scored, corrugated, flushed 84 Korea and Her Neighbors sides, which spring had scarcely tinged with green, are for- bidding, and though the valley was green with young wheat, that is quite the most monotonous and uninteresting part of the journey. After circumventing the fine fortress summit of Nam Han, the river enters the mountains. From that time up to the head of possible navigation, the scenery in its variety, beauty, and unexpectedness exhausts the vocabulary of admiration. A short distance above Han Kang is the Buddhist temple, of Ryeng-an Sa, dedicated to the Dragon, one of the two Buddhist sanctuaries on the long course of the Han. On the left bank a low stone wall encloses a spot on which a female dragon alighted from heaven in the days of the last dynasty, and where still, in times of flood or drought, sacrifices are offered and libations poured out to ''Heaven." The only other temple is that of Pyok-chol on the right bank of the Han, above Yo Ju, four days from Seoul. A steep wooded prom- ontory projects into the still, deep, green water, crowned with two brick and stone pagodas. In a wooded dell at the back there are some picturesque and elaborately carved and painted temples and monastic buildings, and a fine bell five centuries old, surmounted by an entanglement of dragons, which, with some medallions on the sides, are of very bold de- sign and successful workmanship, and the whole is said to have been cast in Chung-Chong Do before the Japanese stole the arts and artists ! A pavilion for the temple dramas was occu- pied for the afternoon by a large picnic of women and children from Y6 Ju. In one of the monastic courts there is a marble pagoda with some finely executed bas-reliefs on its sides, claiming a not distant kinship with those of the "marble pagoda" in Seoul. The establishment consisted of an abbot, nineteen monks, and four novices. The abbot was the most refined, intellectual, and aristocratic looking man that I saw in Korea, with an innate courtesy and refinement of manner rare anywhere. He carried the weight of seventy years with much Views Afloat 85 grace and dignity, and niade us cordially welcome. This was the last we saw of Buddhism till we reached the Diamond Mountain six weeks later. At the village of Tomak-na-dali, where we tied up, they make the great purple-black jars and pots which are in univer- sal use. Their method is primitive. They had no objection to be watched, and were quite communicative. The potters pursue their trade in open sheds, digging up the clay close by. The stock-in-trade is a pit in which an uncouth potter's wheel revolves, the base of which is turned by the feet of a man who sits on the edge of the hole. A wooden spatula, a mason's wooden trowel, a curved stick, and a piece of rough rag are the tools, efficient for the purpose. Fifty // higher up, a few // from the river, are beds of kaolin used in the Government pottery and for the finer kinds of porcelain. For two days the Han was about 400 yards wide, with a very tortuous course, abounding in rapids, shallows, and green islands, with great expanses of pure white sand on its left bank, and frequent villages of woodcutters and charcoal burn- ers on both. On the i6th we reached the forks at the village of Ma-chai. There the north branch, which was to be after- wards traversed, comes down, and the south branch, in every way more important, arrives from the southward. Between the two there is a pretty wooded island then pink with azalea blossom. Beyond is a fine stretch of alluvium, nearly 6 feet deep, bearing rich crops of barley and wheat, but entirely un- protected from the desolations of the river in its annual rise, which engulfs every year acres of this prolific soil. Ten years ago the Han, altering its course, brought down from the top of a steep bank at some distance a hugh concrete double coffin 9 feet long and 16 inches thick ! The great alluvial expanse was make over to the Buddhists by the King, who receives annually a fixed amount of the produce. Between Kim's laziness and plausibility, and the rapids, which though not severe were frequent, and the food hunt, 86 Korea and Her Neighbors which was a necessity, our progress was slow, and it was not till the 19th of April that we reached Yo Ju, the first town of any importance and the birthplace of the late Queen. It is memorable to me as being the first place where the crowd was obstreperous and obnoxious, though not hostile. It is humili- ating to be a "show " and to get nothing by it ! I went out on a rock in the river in the hope of using the prismatic com- pass in peace, and was nearly pushed into the water, and \vhen I went up into the gate tower a stamping, curious crowd, climb- ing on everything that afforded a point of vantage, shook the old fabric so severely that the delicately balanced needle never came to rest. The crowd was dirty, the streets were foul and decayed, and worst of all was the magistrate's j^w*?;^, to which we had occasion to go, and where I found that a kwan-ja was powerless to obtain even common civility. The yameUy though finely situated and enclosing in its grounds a large and much decorated pavilion for Royal use, but used as a children's playground, was in a state of wreck. The woodwork was crumbling, beams and rafters were falling down, lacquer and paint were scaling off, torn paper fluttered from the lattice windows, plaster hung from the grimy walls, the once handsome gate tower was on its last legs, in the court- yard some flagstones had subsided, others were exalted, and audacious ragweed and shepherd's purse grew in their crevices. Poverty, neglect, and melancholy reigned supreme. Within the gates were plenty of those persons who suck the lifeblood of Korea. There were soldiers in Tyrolese hats and coarse cotton uniforms in which blue predominated, yamen runners in abundance, writers, officers of ///justice, messengers pre- tending to have business on hand, and many small rooms, in which were many more men sitting on the floor smoking long pipes, with writing materials beside them. One attendant, by no means polite, took my kwan-ja to the magistrate, and very roughly led the way to two small rooms, in the inner one of which the official was seated on the floor. Views Afloat 87 surrounded by a few elderly men. We were directed to stand at the opening between the two rooms, and behind us pressed as many of the crowd as could get in. I bowed low. No no- tice was taken. An attendant handed the magistrate a pipe, so long that it would have been impossible for him to light it for himself, and he smoked. Mr. Miller hoped that he was in good health. No reply, and the eyes were never raised. Mr. Miller explained the object of the visit, which was to get a lit- tle information about the neighborhood. There was only a very curt reply, and as the great man turned to one of his sub- ordinates and began to talk to him, and rude remarks were cir- culating, we took leave with the usual Korean phrases of po- liteness, which were not reciprocated. We were told that there are many '*high yang-hans'^ in Y6 Ju, and it seemed natural that the magistrate of a town of only 700 houses should not be a man of high rank. The story goes that when he came they used " low talk " to him and or- dered him about as their inferior. So he lives chiefly in Seoul, and the man who sat in sordid state amidst the ruins of the spacious and elaborately decorated yamen does his work and divides the spoils, and the yang-bans are left to whatever their devices may be. But this is not an isolated case. Nearly all the river magistrates are mainly absentees, and spend their time, salaries, and squeezings in the capital. I had similar inter- views with three other magistrates. I asked nothing except change in cash for three yen, and on each occasion was told that the treasury was empty. My kwan-ja, a pompous doc- ument from the Foreign Office, was of this use only, it pro- cured me a chicken at a high price in a town where the people were unwilling to sell ! At Yo Ju I saw for the only time either in Korea or China the interior of an ancestral temple. It is a lofty building, with a curved tile roof and blackwood ceiling, approached by a roofed gateway. Opposite the entrance is an ebony stool, on which are a brass bowl and incense burner. Above this is a 88 Korea and Her Neighbors large altar, supporting two candlesticks with candles, and above that again an ebony stand on which rests a polished black marble tablet inscribed with the name of the deceased. Be- hind that, in a recess in the wall, with elaborate fretwork doors, is his life-sized portrait in Chinese style. The floor is covered with plain matting. In the tablet the third soul of the deceased is supposed to dwell. Food is placed before it three times daily for three years in the case of a parent, and there the relations, after the expiration of that period, meet at stated seasons every year and offer sacrifice and " worship." At the large and prosperous-looking village of Chon-yaing the people told us that a *' circus " was about to perform and impelled us towards it ; but finding that it was in the court- yard of a large tiled-roof mansion, in good repair and of much pretension, we were retiring, when we were cordially invited to enter, and I was laid hold of (literally) by the serving- women and dragged through the women's court and into the women's apartments. I was surrounded by fully forty women, old and young, wives, concubines, servants, all in gala dress and much adorned. The principal wife, a very young girl wearing some Indian jewellery, was very pretty and had an exquisite complexion, but one and all were destitute of man- ners. They investigated my clothing, pulled me about, took off my hat and tried it on, untwisted my hair and absorbed my hairpins, pulled off my gloves and tried them on with shrieks of laughter, and then, but not till they had exhausted all the amusement which could be got out of me, they bethought themselves of entertaining me by taking me through their apartments, crowding upon me to such an extent as they did so that I was nearly carried off my feet. They took me through fourteen communicating rooms, with fine parquet floors, mostly spoiled by being covered in whole or in part with Brussels tapestry carpets of ''loud" and vulgar patterns in hideous aniline dyes. Great mirrors in tawdry gilt frames glared from Views Afloat 89 the tender coloring of the walls, and French clocks asserted their expensive vulgarity in every room. In the outer court a rope was stretched for the rope-dancers, and kettledrums and reed-pipes gave promise of such music as Koreans love. I was escorted across two other courts sur- rounded by verandas supported on dressed stone, and with iron railings instead of wood, to an elevated reception room, where a foreign table and some tawdry velvet-covered chairs clashed with the tastefulness of the walls and the fine mats bordered with the Greek fret on the floor. French clocks, all keeping different time, were much en evidence. The host, a youth of eighteen, eldest son of the governor of one of the most important governorships in Korea, welcomed us, and seemed anxious to receive us courteously. Wine, soup, eggs, and kimchi, an elaborate sort of '* sour kraut," were produced, and had to be partaken of, our host meanwhile smoking an expensive foreign cigar, which gave him an opportunity for the ostentatious display of a showy diamond ring. He was dressed in sea-green silk, and wore a hat of very fine quality. He wanted to see the inside of my camera and to be photo- graphed, for which purpose we retired to the back of the house to avoid the enormous crowd which had collected, and which was becoming every moment more impolite and dis- orderly. I made him exchange the foreign cigar, vulgar in a Korean's mouth, for the national long pipe. At this juncture some friends came up, hangers-on, who were feasting with him to celebrate his having obtained a good place in a recent ex- amination, and made a rudely-worded request for our immedi- ate departure. It was obvious that, after their unmannerly curiosity had been satisfied, our presence, and the courteous treatment extended to us, spoilt their amusement. The ring- leader spoke roughly to our host, who turned his back on us and retired meekly to his own apartments, although he is a son of an official of the highest rank, and a near relative of the go Korea and Her Neighbors late Queen. AVe could only make a somewhat ignominious exit, having been truly ** played out." This rage for French clocks, German mirrors, foreign cigars, chairs upholstered in velvet, and a general foreign tawdriness is spreading rapidly among the young "swells" who have money to spend, vulgarizing Korean simplicity, and setting the example to those below them of an extravagant and purely selfish expenditure. The house, with its many courtyards, was new and handsome, and money glared from every point. I was glad to return to the simplicity of my boat, hoping that with the " plain living, high thinking" might be combined ! Beyond the mountains east of Yo Ju, the Han passes through a noble stretch of rich alluvium, bearing superb, and fairly clean crops, and bordered by low, serrated, denuded, and much corrugated ranges, faintly tinged with green. On this gently rolling plain are many towns and villages, among the larger of which are Won Ju, Chung Ju, Chong-phyong, and Tan-Yang, all on or near the river, by which they con- veniently export their surplus produce, chiefly beans, tobacco, and rice, and receive in return their supplies of salt and for- eign goods. Even at that season of low water the traffic was considerable. Higher up, the scenery changes. Lofty limestone bluffs, often caverned, rise abruptly from the river, and wall in the fertile and populous valleys which descend upon it, giving place higher up to grand basaltic formation, range behind range, terraces of columnar basalt occasionally appearing. It was a lovely season, warm days, cold nights, brilliant sunshine, great white masses of sunlit clouds on a sky of heavenly blue, distances idealized in a blue veil which was not a mist, flowers at their freshest, every bird that has a note or a cry vocal, butterflies and red and blue dragon-flies hovering over the grass and water, fish leaping, all nature awake and jubilant. And every rift and bluif had its own beauty of blossoming scarlet azaleas, or syringas, contorted or stately pines, and Views Afloat 9> Ampelopsis Veitchiaiia rose-pink in its early leafage. There was a note of gladness in the air. Eight days above Seoul, on the left bank of the river, there is a ruinous pagoda built of large blocks of hewn stone, stand- ing solitary in the centre of a level plain formed by a bend of the Han. The people, on being asked about it, said, " When Korea was surveyed so long ago that nobody knows when, this was the centre of it." They call it the '' Halfway Place." After that the only suggestions of antiquity are some stone foundations, and a few stone tombs among the trees, which, from their shape, may denote the sites of monasteries. Near that pagoda were a number of men very drunk, and there were few days on which the habit of drinking to excess was not more or less prominent. The junkmen celebrated the evening's rest by hard drinking, and the crowd which nightly assembled on the shore when we tied up was usually enlivened by the noisy antics of one or more intoxicated men. From my observation on the Han journey and afterwards, I should say that drunkenness is an outstanding feature in Korea. And it is not disreputable. If a man drinks rice wine till he loses his reason, no one regards him as a beast. A great dignitary even may roll on the floor drunk at the end of a meal, at which he has eaten to repletion, without losing caste, and on becoming sober receives the congratulations of inferiors on being rich enough to afford such a luxury. Along with the taste for French clocks and German gilding, a love of foreign liquors is becoming somewhat fashionable among the yowwg yang-bans ^ and willing caterers are found who produce potato spirit rich in fusel oil as "old Cognac," and a very efl'ervescent cham- pagne at a shilling a bottle ! The fermented liquors of Korea are probably not unwhole- some, but the liking for them is an acquired taste with Euro- peans. They vary from a smooth white drink resembling buttermilk in appearance, and very mild, to a water-white spirit of strong smell and fiery taste. Between these comes 92 Korea and Her Neighbors the ordinary rice wine, slightly yellowish, akin to Japanese sake and Chinese samshu, with a faint, sickly smell and flavor. They all taste nnore or less strongly of smoke, oil, and alcohol, and the fusel oil remains even in the best. They are manu- factured from rice, millet, and barley. The wine-seller pro- jects a cylindrical basket on a long pole from his roof, resem- bling the '' bush " formerly used in England for a similar pur- pose. Probably one reason that the Koreans are a drunken people is that they scarcely use tea at all even in the cities, and the luxury of ''cold water" is unknown to them. The peasants drink hot rice water with their meals, honey water as a luxury, and on festive occasions an infusion of orange peel or ginger. The drying of orange peel is quite a business with Korean housewives. There were quantities of it hanging from the eaves of all the cottages. Up to a short distance above this pagoda, the rapids for which the Han is famous, though they made our progress slow, had not suggested serious difficulty, far less risk, but for the remaining fortnight they were tortuous rocky channels, through which the river, compressed in width, rushes with great violence and tremendous noise and clatter, or they are successive broken ledges of rock, with a chaos of flurry and foam, varied by deep pools, presenting formidable, and at some seasons insuperable, obstacles to navigation. To all ap- pearance they are far more dangerous than the celebrated rapids of the Yangtze, and the remains of timber rafts and junks attest their destructive properties. They occur at shorter and shorter intervals as the higher waters are reached, till eventually the Han becomes an unbroken rapid or cataract. Kim, though paid handsomely, was far too stingy to pay for any help en route, his ropes were manifestly bought in "the cheapest market," and though Wong, my powerful satnpan- man, worked with both strength and skill, and Mr. Miller and his servant toiled at the tow ropes, and in great exigencies I Views Afloat 93 gave a haul myself, we sometimes made only 7 miles a day, and ofttimes took two hours to ascend a few yards, two poling with might and main in the boat, and three tugging with all their strength on shore. Often the ropes snapped, when the boat went spinning and flying to the foot of the rapid, some- times with injury to herself and her contents, sometimes escaping. After a few of such risks I habitually landed, either on a boatman's back or wading in waterproof Wellingtons, which caused great wonderment in the lookers on. The worst rapids were always in the most beautiful places, and the strolls and climbs of three or four hours along the river banks, through fields with bounteous crops, through odorous Spanish chestnut groves, through thickets with their fascinating be- wilderments of roses, clematis, and honeysuckle, and past farmhouses with their privacy of bamboo screens, and deep shade of blossoming fruit trees, were very delightful. In ten days from Seoul we reach Chong-phyong, a town of some pretensions, where in connection with the yamen is a temple pavilion with a high white chair, facing a table with candlesticks upon it, floor, table, and chair deep in dust, though the building is used regularly for offering prayers and sacrifices for the King. Dust is not noteworthy in Korea, but the paintings in this temple are. On the end walls are vivid groups of six noblemen wearing fine horsehair palace hats with wings, each man holding a piece of folded paper in his hand, and listening intently as he bends forward towards the chair. The conception and technique of these paintings are admirable, and the sunset scenes on the back wall, though inferior in execution, are the work of a true artist. Close by is a Royal pavilion hanging over the edge of a high bluff above the Han, surrounded by superb elms, some of their trunks from 20 to 23 feet in circumference. The view of the fertile valley and of the mountains beyond is very fine, and the decorative woodwork, painted in Korean style, has been very handsome; but the phrase ^*has been" de- 94 Korea and Her Neighbors scribes most things Korean, and official squalor and neglect could scarcely go farther. At Chong-phyong and elsewhere the common people, in spite of their overpowering curiosity, were not rude, and usually retired to a respectful distance to watch us eat ; but from the class of scholars who hang on round all yametis we met with a good deal of underbred impertinence, some of the men going so far as to raise the curtain of my compartment and introduce their heads and shoulders beneath it, brow- beating the boatmen when they politely asked them to desist. On the other hand, men of the non-cultured class showed us various small attentions, sometimes helping with a haul at the ropes at a rapid, only asking in return that their wives might see me, a request with which I always gladly complied. At Chong-phyong, so great was female curiosity that a number of women waded waist deep after the boat to peer under the mats of the roof, and one of them, scrambling out to a rock for a final stare, overbalanced herself and fell into deep water. At one point, in the very early morning, some women presented themselves at the boat, having walked several // with a present of eggs, the payment for which was to be a sight of me and my poor equipments, they having heard that there was a boat with a foreign woman on board. The old cambric curtains brought from Persia, with a red pattern on a white ground, always attracted them greatly, and the small Japanese cooking utensils. In thirteen days from Seoul we reached Tan -Yang, a magis- tracy prettily situated on the left bank of the Han, with a picturesque Confucian temple on the hill above ; and a day later entered upon mountainous country of extreme beauty. The paucity of tributaries is very marked. Up to that point, except the north branch, there are but two — one which joins the Han at the village of Hu-nan Chang, on the right bank, and is navigable for 60 //, as far as the important town of Wan Juj and another, which enters 2 // above the pictur- Views Afloat 95 esquely-situated village of So-il, on the left bank. Above Tan-Yang the river forms long and violent rapids, alternating with broad stretches of blue, quiet water from 10 to 20 feet deep, rolling majestically, making sharp and extraordinary bends among lofty limestone precipices. Villages on natural terraces occur constantly, the lower terrace planted with mul- berry or weeping willows. Hemp is cultivated in great quan- tities, and is used for sackcloth for mourners' wear, bags, and rope. In my walks along the river I had several opportunities of seeing the curious method of separating the fibre, rude and primitive, but effectual. At the bottom of a stone paved pit large stones are placed, which are heated from a rough oven at the side. The hemp is pressed down in bundles upon these, and stakes are driven in among them. Piles of coarse Korean grass are placed over the hemp, and earth over all, well beaten down. The stakes are then pulled up and water is poured into the holes left by them. This, falling on the heated stones, pro- duces a dense steam, and in twenty-four hours the hemp fibre is so completely disintegrated as to be easily separated. A grand gorge, 3 miles long, with lofty cliffs of much-cav- erned limestone, varied by rock needles draped with Ampelopsis and clematis, and giving foothold to azaleas, spirea, syringa, pear, hawthorn, climbing roses, wistaria, cyclamen, lycopo- dium, yellow vetches, many LabiatcB, and much else, contains but one village, piled step above step in a deep wooded fold of the hills, on which millet culture is carried to a great height, on slopes too steep to be ploughed by oxen. This gorge opens out on slopes of rich soil, some of which is still uncultivated. The hamlets are small, and grow much hemp, and each has its hemp pit. They also grow Urtica Nivea, from the bleached fibre of which their grass cloth summer clothes are made. All these are surrounded with mulberry groves. The large village of Cham-su-ki, at the head of two severe rapids, in ascending which our ropes snapped three times, offers a good example of the popular belief in spirits. It is approached 96 Korea and Her Neighbors under a tasselled straw rope, one end of which is wound round a fine tree with a stone altar below it. On another rope were suspended a few small bags containing offerings of food. If a person dies of the pestilence or by the roadside, or a woman dies in childbirth, the spirit invariably takes up its abode in a tree. To such spirits offerings are made on the stone altar of cake, wine, and pork, but where the tree is the domicile of the spirit of a man who has been killed by a tiger, dog's flesh is offered instead of pork. The Cham-su-ki tree is a fine well-grown elm. Gnarled trees, of which we saw several on hilltops and sides, are occupied by the spirits of persons who have died be- fore reaching a cycle, i.e. sixty years of age. A steep cliff above Cham-su-ki is also denoted as the abode of daemons by a straw rope and a stone altar. We had some very cold and windy days near the end of April, the mercury falling to 34°, and one night of tempestuous rain. It would be absurd to write of sufferings, but at that tempera- ture in an open boat, with the roof lifting and flapping and threatening to take its departure, it was impossible to sleep. Afterwards the weather was again splendid. Abrupt turns, long rapids full of jagged rocks, long stretches of deep, still water, abounding in fish, narrow gorges walled in by terraces of basalt, lateral ravines disclosing fine snow- streaked peaks, succeeded each other, the shores becoming less and less peopled, while the parallel valleys abounded in fairly well-to-do villages. Just below a long and dangerous rapid we stopped to dine, and though the place seemed quite solitary, a crowd soon gathered, and sat on the adjacent stones talking noisily, trying to get into the boat, lifting the mats, discussing whether it were polite to watch people at dinner, some taking one side and some another, those who were half tipsy taking the affirmative. Some said that they had got news from sev- eral miles below that this great sight was coming up the river, and it was a shame to deprive them of it by keeping the cur- tains down. After a good deal of obstreperousness, mainly the Views Afloat 97 result of wine, a man overbalanced himself and fell into the river, which raised a laugh, and then they followed us good- naturedly up the rapid, one man helping to track, and asking as his reward that his wife might see me, on which I exhibited myself on the bow of the boat. At the village of Pang-wha San, built, contrary to Korean practice, on a height of 800 feet, there is a stone platform, on which was nightly lighted one of that chain of beacon fires ter- minating at Nam-San in Seoul, which assured the King that his kingdom was at peace. ^ Another village, Ha-chin, was im- pressive from the frightful ugliness of its women. After leav- ing Tan-Yang the curiosity increased. People walked great dis- tances to see us, saying they had never seen foreigners, and bringing eggs to pay for the sight, which I paid for, telling the people that we had nothing to show ; but extravagant rumors of what was to be seen in the boat had preceded us, and as the people assembled at daylight and generally waited patiently, I always yielded to their wishes, raised the thatch, and made the most of the red and white curtains. In one place I gave them some tea to drink. They had never seen it, and thought it was medicine, and on tasting it said, *'It must be very good for indigestion ! " I The telegraph has now superseded this picturesque arrangement. CHAPTER VIII NATURAL BEAUTY THE RAPIDS IN superb weather, and in the full glory of spring, we con- tinued the exploration of the Han above Tan-Yang, en- countering innumerable rapids, some of them very severe and horrible to look upon. The river valley, continually narrow- ing into gorges, rarely admits of hamlets, and the population is relegated to lateral and parallel valleys. On the 30th of April we tugged and poled the boat up seven long and severe rapids, with deep still stretches of water between them. The flora increased in variety, and the shapes of the mountains be- came very definite. Among other trees there were a large branching Acanthopanax ricinifolia, two species of euonymus, mistletoe on the walnut and mulberry, the Rhus semi-alata and Rhus vernicifera, pines, firs, the Abies microsperma, the Actinidia pueraria, Elceagmcs, Spanish chestnuts in great groves, alders, birches, maples, elms, limes, and a tree infre- quently seen which I believe to be a Zelkcuva. Among the flowers, there were marigolds, buttercups, scentless white and purple violets, yellow violas, white aconite, lady's slipper, hawk- weed, camomile, red and white dandelions, guelder roses, wyge- lias, mountain peonies, martagon and tiger lilies, gentians, pink spirea, yellow day lilies, white honeysuckle, the Iris Rossii, and many others. The day after leaving Tan-Yang we entered on the most beautiful part of the river. Great limestone cliffs swing open at times to reveal glorious glimpses, through fantastic gorges, of peaks and ranges, partly forest-covered, fading in the far distance into the delicious blue veil of dreamland ; the river, 98 Natural Beauty — The Rapids 99 occasionally compressed by its colossal walls, vents its fury in flurry and foam, or expands into broad reaches 20 and even 30 feet in depth, where pure emerald water laps gently upon crags festooned with roses and honeysuckle, or in fairy bays on peb- bly beaches and white sand. The air was full of gladness. The loud call of the fearless ringed pheasant was heard every- where, bees hummed and butterflies and dragon-flies flashed through the fragrant air. What mattered it that our ropes broke three times, that we stuck on a rock in a rapid and hung there for an hour in a deafening din and a lather of foam, and that we "beat the record " in only making 5 miles in twelve hours ! The limestone cliffs are much caverned, and near the village of To-tam, where they fall back considerably from the river, we explored one cave worthy of notice, with a fine entrance arch 43 feet in height, admitting into a vault considerably higher, with a roof of stalagmites. We ascended this cavern for 315 feet, and then had to return for lack of light. Near the mouth a natural shaft and rock-ladder give access to a fine upper gallery 12 feet high, only 60 feet of which we were able to investigate. Just above To-tam there is another limestone freak on the river bank, a natural bridge or arch, 127 feet in height and 30 feet wide, below which a fair green lawn slopes up to a height above. The bridge is admirably buttressed, and draped with roses, honeysuckle, and clematis, and various fantastic specimens of coni ferae grow out of its rifts. The beauty of the Han culminates at To-tam in the finest river view I had then ever seen, a broad stretch, with a deep bay and lofty limestone cliffs, between which, on a green slope, the picturesque, deep-eaved, brown-roofed houses of the village are built. The gray cliff is crowned with a goodly group of umbrella pines, in Korea called ''Parasol Pines," because they resemble in shape those carried before the King. Guard- ing the entrance of the bay are three picturesque jagged pyram- idal rocks much covered with the AmJ>elopsis VeiUhiatta, lOO Korea and Her Neighbors and of course sacred to daemon worship. These senthiels are from 40 to 83 feet high. To the southwest the Han, dark and deep, rolls out of sight round a pine-clad bluff, among the magnificent ranges of the Sol-rak-San mountains — masses of partially pine-clothed peaks and pinnacles of naked rock. To the northeast the river makes an abrupt bend below superb limestone cliffs, and disappears at the foot of Solmi-San, a triplet of lofty peaks. To-tam on its park-like slopes embraces this view, and were it not for the rapids and their delays and risks, might be a delightful summer resort from Seoul. There is fertility as well as grandeur, for the ridge behind the village, abrupt on the riverside, falls gently down on the other to a broad, well- watered level valley, cultivated for rice with extreme neatness and care, and which, after gladdening the eye with its productiveness for several miles, winds out of view among the mountains. There, and in most parts of the Han valley, I was much surprised with the neatness of the cultivation. It was not what the reports of other travellers had led me to expect, and it gives me the impression that the river passes through one of the most productive and prosperous portions of Korea. The crops of wheat and barley were usually superb, and remarkably free from weeds — in fact, the cleanliness would do credit to ''high farming" in the Lothians. It was no uncommon thing to find from 12 to 18 stalks as the product of one grain. At the end of April the barley was in ear, and beginning to change color, and the wheat was 6 inches high. As a general rule the stones were carefully picked off the land and were used for retaining walls for the rice terraces, or piled in heaps. Steep hillsides were being cleared of scrub and stones for cot- ton planting, and in many instances the cultivation is carried to a height of 1,000 feet, the cultivators always, however, liv- ing in the holes. All the parallel valleys are neatly and care- fully cultivated. The favorable climate, with its abundant, but not superabundant, rainfall, renders irrigation needless, Natural Beauty — The Rapids loi except in the case of rice. Every valley has its streamlet, and is barred across by dykes of mud from its head down to the Han, rice, with tobacco, beans, hemp, and cotton, being the great articles of export. On the whole, I was very agreeably surprised with the agriculture of the Han valley, and doubt not that it is capable of enormous development if the earnings of industry were secure. The soil is most prolific, heavy crops being raised without the aid of fertilizers. After leaving beautiful To-tam, the rapids become more and more frequent and exasperating, and when Kim sank down, playing upon my feelings by well-simulated exhaustion, I feared it would soon become real. The ropes broke frequently, and the constant scraping and bumping over rocks increased the leakiness of the boat so much, that in a lovely reach, where crystal water rippled on the white sand, I pitched my tent, and unloaded and beached the craft for repairs. In one strong deep rapid that day the rope parted, and the boat swirled down the surges, striking rocks as she spun down with such effect as to spoil a number of photographic negatives and soak my bedding. At the beautifully situated village of Pa-ka Mi, a post bore the following inscription in large characters — " If any servant of a yafig-baii passing through Pa-ka Mi is polite and behaves well, all right, but if he beliaves badly he will be beaten," an assertion of independence as refreshing as it is rare ! For among the curses of Korea is the existence of this priv- ileged class of yang-bans or nobles, who must not work for their own living, though it is no disgrace to be supported by their relations, and who often live on the clandestine industry of their wives in sewing and laundry work. A yang-ban car- ries nothing for himself, not even his pipe. Yang-ban stu- dents do not even carry their books from their studies to the classroom. Custom insist that when a member of this class travels he shall take with him as many attendants as he can muster. He is supported on his led horse, and supreme help- 102 Korea and Her Neighbors lessness is the conventional requirement. His servants brow- beat and bully the people and take their fowls and eggs with- out payment, which explains the meaning of the notice at Pa-ka Mi.i There is no doubt that the people, /. e. the vast mass of the unprivileged, on whose shoulders rests the burden of taxation, are hard pressed by the yang-bans, who not only use their labor without paying for it, but make merciless exactions under the name of loans. As soon as it is rumored or known that a merchant or peasant has laid up a certain amount of cash, a ya?ig-ban or official seeks a loan. Practically it is a levy, for if it is refused the man is either thrown into prison on a false charge and whipped every morning until he or his relations pay the sum demanded, or he is seized and practically im- prisoned on low diet in the yaug-baii's house until the money is forthcoming. It is the best of the nobles who disguise their exactions under the name of loans, but the lender never sees principal or interest. It is a very common thing for a noble, when he buys a house or field, to dispense with paying for it, and no mandarin will enforce payment. At Paik-kui Mi, where I paid off my boatmen, the yang-ban's servants were impressing all the boats for the purpose of taking roofing tiles to Seoul without payment. Kim begged me to give him some trifle to take down the river, with a few cash as payment, and a line to say that the boat was in my employment, service with a foreigner being a protection from such an exaction. There were two days more of most severe toil, in which it was scarcely possible to make any progress. The rapids were frightful, and when we reached a very bad one below the town of Yong-chhun, Kim, after making several abortive efforts, not, I think, in good faith, to ascend it, collapsed, and said he could not get up any higher. At another season boats of light draught can ascend to Yang-wol, 20 // farther. We had per- » Class privileges are now abolished, on paper at least, but their tradi- tion carries weight. Natural Beauty— The Rapids 103 formed a great feat in getting up to Yong-chhun in early May. There were no boats on the higher waters, and for much of the distance my sa7npa7i could hardly be said to be afloat. At Yong-chhun we were within 40 miles of the Sea of Japan. Wind and heavy rain which raised the river forbade all lo- comotion until the following evening, when we crossed the Han and reached the Yong-chhun ferry by a pretty road through a village and a wood, most attractive country, with many novelties in its flora. At the ferry a still expanse of the Han is over 10 feet deep, but the roar of another rapid is heard immediately above. A double avenue of noble elms with fine turf underneath them leads to the town, a magistracy of 1,500 people, a quiet market-place without shops, situated in a rich farming basin of alluvial soil, covered in May with heavy crops of barley and wheat, among which were fields hillocked for melons. The magistracy buildings are large and rambling, with what has been a fine entrance gate, with a drum and other instru- ments of aural torture for making the deafening din with which the yamen is closed and opened at sunrise and sunset. There are many stone tablets (not spontaneously erected) to worthy officials, a large enclosure in which sacrifices are offered to *' Heaven " (probably to the Spirits of the Land), a Confucian temple, and a king's pavilion, all very squalid and ruinous. A crowd not altogether polite followed us to the yamen, where I hoped that some information regarding an overland route to the Diamond Mountain might be obtained. On enter- ing the yamen precincts the underling officials were most insolent, and it was only after enduring their unpleasant be- havior for some time that we were conducted to a squalid inner room, where a deputy-mandarin sat on the floor with a smok- ing apparatus beside him, a man with a scornful and sinister physiognomy, who took not the slightest notice of us, and when he deigned to speak gave curt replies through an under- ling, while we stood outside the entrance, withstanding with 104 Korea and Her Neighbors difficulty the pressure of the crowd, which had surged in after us, private interviews being rare in the East. This was my last visit to a Korean yamen. As we walked back to the town, the crowd followed us closely, led by some "swells" of the literary class. One young man came up behind me and kicked me on the ankle, stepping back and then coming forward and repeating the of- fense. He was about to give me a third kick, when Mr. Miller turned round and very quietly, without anger, dealt him a scientific blow on the chest, which sent him off the road upon his back into a barley field. There was a roar of laughter from the crowd, and the young bully's companions begged Mr. Miller not to punish him any more. The crowd dispersed, the bullies, cowards like all their species, fell far behind, and we had a pleasant walk back to the ferry, where, although we had to wait a long time in the ferry boat, there was no as- semblage, and the ferryman and passengers were very civil. Mr. Miller regretted the necessity for inflicting punishment. It was Lynch law no doubt, but it was summary justice, and the perfect coolness with which it was administered would no doubt leave a salutary impression. The ferryman told us that a tiger had carried off a pig from Yong-chhun the previous night, and said that the walk to our boat through the wood without lanterns was very unsafe. Our boatmen had become alarmed and were hunting for us with torches. The circum- stances were eerie, and I was glad to see the lights. Ferries are free. The Government provides the broad, strong boats which are used for ferrying cattle as well as people, and the villages provide the ferrymen with food. Passengers who are not poor usually give a small douceur. A gale of wind with torrents of rain set in that night, and the rain continued till the next afternoon, giving me an oppor- tunity of seeing more of the detail of the magnificent cliffs of laminated limestone, which occur frequently, and are the most striking geological features of the Han valley, continually Natural Beauty — The Rapids 105 presenting the appearance of the leaves of a colossal book. Above the Yong-chhun rapid, on a steep and almost inacces- sible declivity, buttressed by these cliffs, are the remains of a very ancient fortress, the outer wall of which, enclosing the summit of the hill, is 2,500 feet in circumference, 25 feet high on the outside, from i to 12 feet on the inside, and from 9 to 12 feet thick. It is so arranged that its two gates, which open on nearly direct descents of 20 feet, and are approached by very narrow pathways, could only admit one man at a time. It was obviously incapable of reduction by any force but starvation. No mortar is used in the walls, which are very efficiently built of small slabs of stone never more than 6 inches thick. The people have no traditions of its construc- tion, but Mr. Miller, who is familiar with the fortresses of Nam- San and Puk Han, thinks that it is of a much earlier date than either. One of the signal fire stations is visible from this point on the river. On the 3rd of May we began the descent of the Han. The worn-out ropes were used for the cooking fire, the poles were stowed away, and paddles took their place. The heavy rains had raised the river a foot, and changed its bright waters into a turbid flood, down which we often descended in two minutes distances which had taken two laborious hours on the upward journey, flying down the centre of the stream instead of crawling up the sides. Many small disasters occurred. Several times the boat was nearly swamped by heavy surges, or shivered by striking sunken rocks ; or, losing steerage way, spun round and round, progressing downwards with many gy- rations, usually stern foremost, amidst billows and foam, but Kim, who was at his best on such occasions, usually contrived to bring her to shore, bow on, at the foot of the rapid. On one occasion, however, in a long rapid, in which the surges were high and strong, by some mismanagement, regarding which the boatmen quarrelled for an hour afterwards, the sam- pan shipped such heavy seas from both sides as nearly to lo6 Korea and Her Neighbors swamp her. I was all but washed off my camp-bed, which was on a level with the gunwale ; a number of sheets of geo- graphical notes were washed away, some instruments belong- ing to the R.G.S. were drowned in their box, more than forty photographic negatives were destroyed, and clothing, bedding, and flour were all soaked ! The rapids were in fact most ex- citing, and their risks throw those of the Fu and the Yangtze from Cheng-tu to Ichang quite into the shade. In spite of a delay of half a day at Tan-Yang, owing to a futile attempt to get cash for silver, and another half-day spent in beaching and repairing the boat, which had been badly bumped on a rock, we did the distance from Nang-chhon to Ma-chai on the forks in four and a half days, or less than a third of the time taken by the laborious ascent. The penniless situation became so serious that one day be- fore reaching Ma-chai I had to decide on returning to Seoul for cash ! The treasuries were said to be empty ; no one be- lieved in silver or knew anything about it, and supplies could not be obtained. Fortunately we arrived at the market-place of Ma-Kyo, a village of 1,850 people, on the market day, and the pedlars gladly exchanged cash for 35 silver /u bowed and expectorated, as is customary at the abodes of daemons. More than once we passed not far from houses outside of which the mutang or sorceress, with much feasting, beating of drums, and clashing of cymbals, was exercising the daemon which had caused the sickness of some person within. Por- tions of the expensive feast prepared on these occasions are offered to the evil spirit, and after the exorcism part of the food so offered is given to the patient, in the belief that it is a curative medicine, often seriously aggravating the disease, as when a patient suffering from typhoid fever or dysentery is stuffed with pork or kimshi / Recently a case came under the notice of Dr. Jaisohn {So Chai pit) in Seoul, in which a man, suffering from the latter malady, died immediately after eating raw turnips, given him by the mutang after being offered to the demons at the usual feast at the ceremony of exorcism.^ There is much wet rice along the route, as well as dry rice, with a double line of beans between every two rows, and in the rice revel and croak large frogs of extreme beauty, vivid green with black velvet spots, the under side of the legs and bodies being cardinal red. These appeared to be the prey of the graceful white and pink ibis, the latter in the intensified flush of his spring coloring. A descent from a second pass leads to the Keum-San Kang, 130 Korea and Her Neighbors a largish river in a rich agricultural region, and to the village of Pan-pyong, where they were making in the rudest fashion the great cast-iron pots used for boiling horse food, from iron obtained and smelted 33 // farther north. On two successive days there were tremendous thunder- storms, the second succeeded, just as we were at the head of a wild glen, by a brief tornado, which nearly blew over the ponies, and snapped trees of some size as though they had been matchwood. Then came a profound calm. The clouds lay banked in pink illuminated masses on a sky of tender green, cleft by gray mountain peaks. Mountain torrents boomed, crashed, sparkled, and foamed, the silent woods re- joiced the eye by the vividness of their greenery and their masses of white and yellow blossom, and sweet heavy odors enriched the evening air. On that and several other occasions, I recognized that Korea has its own special beauties, which fix themselves in the memory; but they must be sought for in spring and autumn, and off the beaten track. Dirty and squalid as the villages are, at a little distance their deep-eaved brown roofs, massed among orchards, on gentle slopes, or on the banks of sparkling streams, add color and life to the scenery, and men in their queer white clothes and dress hats, with their firm tread, and bundled-up women, with a shoggling walk and long staffs, brought round with a semicircular swing at every step, are adjuncts which one would not willingly dis- pense with. Before reaching the Paik-yang Kang, a broad, full river, an affluent of the northern Han, with singularly abrupt turns and perpendicular cliffs of a formation resembling that of the Palisades on the Hudson River, we crossed one of the great lava fields described by Consul Carles.^ This, which we crossed in a northeasterly direction, is a rough oval about 40 miles by 30, a tableland, in fact, sur- 1 " Recent Journeys in Korea," Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society y May, 1896. The Korean Pony— Roads and Inns 131 rounded by a deep chasm where the torrents which encircle it meet the mountains. Its plateaux are from 60 to 100 feet above these streams, which are all affluents of the Han, and are supported on palisades of basalt, exhibiting the pris- matic columnar formation in a very striking manner. In some places the lava, which is often covered either with conglomerate or a stiffish clay, is very near the surface, and large blocks of it lie along the streams. It is a most fertile tract, and could support a large population, but not being suited for rice, is very little cultivated, and grows chiefly oats, millet, and beans, which are not affected by the strong winds. There are two Dolmens, not far from the Paik-yang Kang. In one the upper stone is from 7 to 10 feet long, by 7 feet wide, and 17 inches deep, resting on three stones 4 feet 2 inches high. The other is somewhat smaller. The openings of both face due north. After crossing the Paik-yang Kang, there 162 yards wide and 16 feet deep, by a ferry boat of remarkably ingenious con- struction, rendered necessary by the fact that the long bridge over the broad stream was in ruins, and that the appropriation for its reconstruction had been diverted by the local officials to their own enrichment, we entered the spurs or ribs of the great mountain chain which, running north and south, divides Korea into two very unequal longitudinal portions at the vil- lage of Tong-ku. The scenery became very varied and pretty. Forests clothed many of the hills with a fair blossoming undergrowth untouched by the fuel gatherers' remorseless hook; torrents flashed in foam through dark, dense leafage, or bubbled and gurgled out of sight; the little patches of cultivation were boulder-strewn; there were few inhabitants, and the tracks called roads were little better than the stony beds of streams. As they became less and less obvious, and the valleys more solitary, our tergiversations were more frequent and prolonged, the mapu drove the ponies as fast as they could walk, the fords 132 Korea and Her Neighbors were many and deep, and two of the party were unhorsed in them, still we hurried on faster and faster. Not a word was spoken, but I knew that the men had tiger on the brai7i / Blundering through the twilight, it was dark when we reached the lower village of Ma-ri Kei, where we were to halt for the night, two miles from the Pass of Tan-pa-Ryong, which was to be crossed the next day. There the villagers could not or would not take us in. They said they had neither rice nor beans, which may have been true so late in the spring. How- ever, it is, or then was, Korean law that if a village could not entertain travellers it must convoy them to the next halt- ing-place. The mapu were frantic. They yelled and stormed and banged at the hovels, and succeeded in turning out four sleepy peasants, who were reinforced by four more a little farther on ; but the torches were too short, and after sputtering and flaring, went out one by one, and the fresh ones lighted slowly. The mapu lost their reason. They thrashed the torchbearers with their heavy sticks ; I lashed my mapu with my light whip for doing it ; they yelled, they danced. Then things improved. Gloriously glared the pine knots on the leaping crystal torrents that we forded, reddening the white clothes of the men and the stony track and the warm-tinted stems of the pines, and so with shouts and yells and waving torches we passed up the wooded glen in the frosty night air, under a firmament of stars, to the mountain hamlet of upper Ma-ri Kei, consisting of five hovels, only three of which were inhabited. It is a very forlorn place and very poor, and it was an hour before my party of eight human beings and four ponies were established in its miserable shelter, though even that was wel- come after being eleven hours in the saddle. CHAPTER XI DIAMOND MOUNTAIN MONASTERIES IT was a glorious day for the Pass of Tan-pa-Ryong (1,320 feet above Ma-ri Kei), the western barrier of the Keum- Kang San region. Mr. Campbell, of H.B.M.'s Consular Service, one of the few Europeans who has crossed it, in his charming narrative mentions that it is impassable for laden ani- mals, and engaged porters for the ascent, but though the track is nothing better than a torrent bed abounding in great boul- ders, angular and shelving rocks, and slippery corrugations of entangled tree roots, I rode over the worst part, and my ponies made nothing of carrying the baggage up the rock ladders. The mountain-side is covered with luxuriant and odorous vege- tation, specially oak, chestnut, hawthorn, varieties of maple, pale pink azalea, and yellow clematis, interspersed with a few distorted pines, primulas and lilies of the valley covering the mossy ground. From the spirit shrine on the summit a lovely panorama un- folds itself, billows of hilly woodland, gleams of water, wavy outlines of hills, backed by a jagged mountain wall, attaining an altitude of over 6,000 feet in the loftiest pinnacle of the Keum-Kang San. A fair land of promise, truly ! But this pass is a rubicon to him who seeks tlie Diamond Mountain with the intention of immuring himself for life in one of its many monasteries. For its name. Tan-pa, ''crop-hair," was bestowed on it early in the history of Korean Buddhism for a reason which remains. There those who have chosen the cloister emphasize their abandonment of the world by cutting off the ^Uopknot" of married dignity, or the heavy braid of bachelorhood. 133 134 Korea and Her Neighbors The eastern descent of the Tan-pa-Ryong is by a series of zigzags, through woods and a profusion of varied and magnifi- cent ferns. A long day followed of ascents and descents, deep fords of turbulent streams, valley villages with terrace cultivation of buckwheat, and glimpses of gray rock needles through pine and persimmon groves, and in the late afternoon, after struggling through a rough ford in which the water was halfway up the sides of the ponies, we entered a gorge and struck a smooth, broad, well-made road, the work of the monks, which traverses a fine forest of pines and firs above a booming torrent. Towards evening *' The hills swung open to the light "; through the parting branches there were glimpses of granite walls and peaks reddening into glory; red stems, glowing in the slant sunbeams, lighted up the blue gloom of the coniferse ; there were glints of foam from the loud-tongued torrent below; the dew fell heavily, laden with aromatic odors of pines, and as the valley narrowed again and the blue shadows fell the picture was as fair as one could hope to see. The monks, though road-makers, are not bridge-builders, and there were difficult fords to cross, through which the ponies were left to struggle by themselves, the viapu crossing on single logs. In the deep water I discovered that its temperature was almost icy. The worst ford is at the point where the first view of Chang-an Sa, the Temple of Eternal Rest, the oldest of the Keum-Kang San monasteries, is obtained, a great pile of tem- ple buildings with deep curved roofs, in a glorious situation, crowded upon a small grassy plateau in one of the narrowest parts of the gorge, where the mountains fall back a little and afford Buddhism a peaceful shelter, secluded from the outer world by snow for four months of the year. Crossing the torrent and passing under a lofty Hong-Sal- MuHy or "red arrow gate," significant in Korea of the patron- age of royalty, we were at once among the Chang-an Sa build- ings, which consist of temples large and small, a stage for Diamond Mountain Monasteries 135 religious dramas, bell and tablet houses, stables for the ponies of wayfarers, cells, dormitories, and a refectory for the abbot and monks, quarters for servants and neophytes, huge kitchens, a large guest hall, and a nunnery. Besides these there are quarters devoted to the lame, halt, blind, infirm, and solitary; to widows, orphans, and the destitute. These guests, numbering 100, seemed well treated. Be- tween monks, servants, and boys preparing for the priesthood there may be 100 more, and 20 nuns of all ages, from girlhood up to eighty-seven years. This large number of persons is supported by the rent and produce of Church lands outside the mountains, the contributions of pilgrims and guests, the moneys collected by the monks, who all go on mendicant expeditions, even up to the gates of Seoul, which at that time it was death for any priest to enter, and benefactions from the late Queen, which had become increasingly liberal. The first impression of the plateau was that it was a wood- yard on a large scale. Great logs and piles of planks were heaped under the stately pines and under a superb Salisburia adiantifoliay 17 feet in girth; 40 carpenters were sawing, planing, and hammering, and 40 or 50 laborers were hauling in logs to the music of a wild chant, for mendicant effort had been resorted to energetically, with the result that the great temple was undergoing repairs, almost amounting to a recon- struction. Of the forty-five monasteries and monastic shrines which exist in the Diamond Mountain, enhancing its picturesqueness and supplying it with a religious and human interest, Chang-an Sa may be taken as a fair specimen of the three largest, as it is undoubtedly the oldest, assuming the correctness of a his- torical record quoted by Mr. Campbell, which gives the date of its restoration by two monks, Yul-sa and Chin-h'yo, as a.d. 515, in the reign of Pop-heung, a king of Silla, then the most important of the kingdoms, afterwards amalgamated as Korea. The large temple is a fine old building of the type adapted 136 Korea and Her Neighbors from Chinese Buddhist architecture, oblong, with a heavy tiled roof 48 feet in height, with wings, deep eaves protecting masses of richly-colored wood-carving. The lofty reticulated roof is internally supported on an arrangement of heavy beams, elaborately carved and painted in rich colors. The panels of the doors, which serve as windows, and let in a "dim religious light," are bold fretwork, decorated in colors enriched with gold. The roofs of the actual shrines are supported on wooden pillars 3 feet in diameter, formed of single trees, and the panelled ceilings are embellished with intricate designs in col- ors and gold. In one Sakyamuni's image, with a distinctly Hindu cast of countenance, and a look of ineffable abstrac- tion, sits under a highly decorative reticulated wooden canopy, with an altar before it, on which are brass incense burners, books of prayer, and lists of those deceased persons for whose souls masses have been duly paid for. Much rich brocade, soiled and dusty, and many gonfalons, hang round this shrine. The "Hall of the Four Sages" contains three Buddhas in different attitudes of abstraction or meditation, a picture, wonderfully worked in gold and silks in Chinese embroidery, of Buddha and his disciples, for which the monks claim an antiquity of fourteen centuries, and sixteen Lohans, with their attendants. Along the side walls are a host of daemons and animals. Another striking shrine is that dedicated to the Lord of the Buddhistic Hell and his ten princes. The monks call it the " Temple of the Ten Judges." This is a shrine of great resort, and is much blackened by the smoke of incense and candles, but the infernal torments depicted in the pictures at the back of each judge are only too conspicuous. They are horrible beyond conception, and show a diabolical genius in hellish art, akin to that which inspired the creation of the groups in the Inferno of tlie temple of Kwan-yin at Ting-hai on Chusan, familiar to some of my readers. Besides the ecclesiastical buildings and the common guest- Diamond Mountain Monasteries 137 room, there are Government buildings marked with the Korean national emblem, for the use of officials who go up to Chang- an Sa for pleasure. It was difficult for me to find accommodation, but eventually a very pleasing young priest of high rank gave up his cell to me. Unfortunately, it was next the guests' kitchen, and the flues from the fires passing under it, I was baked in a tempera- ture of 91°, although, in spite of warnings about tigers, the dangers from which are by no means imaginary, I kept both door and window open all night. The cell had for its furni- ture a shrine of Gautama and an image of Kwan-yin on a shelf, and a few books, which I learned were Buddhist classics, not volumes, as in a cell which I occupied later, full of pic- tures by no means inculcating holiness. In the next room, equally hot, and without a chink open for ventilation, thirty guests moaned and tossed all night, a single candle dimly lighting a picture of Buddha and the dusty and hideous orna- ments on the altar below. A 9 P.M., midnight, and again at 4 a.m., which is the hour at which the monks rise, bells were rung, cymbals and gongs were beaten, and the praises of Buddha were chanted in an unknown tongue. A feature at once cheerful and cheerless is the presence at Chang-an Sa of a number of bright, active, orphan boys from ten to thirteen years old, who are at present servitors, but who will one day become priests. It is an exercise of forbearance to abstain from writing much about the beauties of Chang-an Sa as seen in two days of per- fect heavenliness. It is a calm retreat, that small, green, semicircular plateau which the receding hills have left, walling in the back and sides with rocky precipices half clothed with forest, while the bridgeless torrent in front, raging and thun- dering among huge boulders of pink granite, secludes it from all but the adventurous. Alike in the rose of sunrise, in the red and gold of sunset, or gleaming steely blue in the prosaic glare of midday, the great rock peak on the left bank, one of 138 Korea and Her Neighbors the highest in the range, compels ceaseless admiration. The appearance of its huge vertical topmost ribs has been well compared to that of the " pipes of an organ," this organ-pipe formation being common in the range ; seams and ledges half- way down give roothold to a few fantastic conifers and azaleas, and lower still all suggestion of form is lost among dense masses of magnificent forest. As I proposed to take a somewhat different route from Yu- chom Sa (the first temple on the eastern slope) from that trav- ersed by my predecessors, the Hon. G. W. Curzon and Mr. Campbell, I left the ponies and baggage at Chang-an Sa, the mapu, who were bent on ku-kyd?ig, accompanying me for part of the distance, and took a five days' journey in the glorious Keum-Kang San in unrivalled weather, in air which was elixir, crossing the range to Yu-chom Sa by the An-mun-chai (Goose- Gate Terrace), 4,215 feet in altitude, and recrossing it by the Ki-cho, 3,570 feet. Taking two coolies to carry essentials, and a na-my'd or mountain chair with two bearers, for the whole journey, all supplied by the monks, I walked the first stage to the monas- teries of P'yo-un Sa and Chyang-yang Sa, the latter at an ele- vation of about 2,760 feet. From it the view, which passes for the grandest in Korea, is obtained of the ''Twelve Thou- sand Peaks." There is assuredly no single view that I have seen in Japan or even in Western China which equals it for beauty and grandeur. Across the grand gorge through which the Chang-an Sa torrent thunders, and above primaeval tiger- haunted forests with their infinity of green, rises the central ridge of the Keum-Kang San, jagged all along its summit, each yellow granite pinnacle being counted as a peak. On that enchanting May evening, when odors of paradise, the fragrant breath of a million flowering shrubs and trailers, of bursting buds, and unfolding ferns, rose into the cool dewy air, and the silence could be felt, I was not inclined to enter a protest against Korean exaggeration on the ground that the Diamond Mountain Monasteries 139 number of peaks is probably nearer 1,200 than 12,000. Their yellow granite pinnacles, weathered into silver gray, rose up cold, stern, and steely blue from the glorious forests which drape their lower heights — winter above and summer below — then purpled into red as the sun sank, and gleamed above the twilight, till each glowing summit died out as lamps which are extinguished one by one, and the whole took on the ashy hue of death. The situation of P'yo-un Sa is romantic, on the right bank of the torrent, and is approached by a bridge, and by passing under several roofed gateways. The monastery had been newly rebuilt, and is one mass of fretwork, carving, gilding, and color, the whole decoration being the work of the monks. The front of the ''Temple of the Believing Mind" is a magnificent piece of bold wood-carving, the motif being the peony. Every part of the building which is not stone or tile is carved, and decorated in blue, red, white, green, and gold. It may be barbaric, but it is barbaric splendor. There too is a "Temple of Judgment," with hideous representations of tlie Buddhist hells, one scene being the opening of the books in which the deeds of men's mortal lives are written. The fifty monks of P'yo-un Sa were very friendly, and not impecunious. One gave up to me his oven-like cell, but repaid himself for the sacrifice by indulging in ceaseless staring. The wind bells of the establishment and the big bell have a melody in their tones such as I have rarely heard, and when at 4 a. m. bells of all sizes and tones announced that ''prayer is better than sleep," there was nothing about the sounds to jar on the pure freshness of morning. The monks are well dressed and jolly, and have a well-to-do air which clashes with any pre- tensions to asceticism. The rule of these monasteries is a strict vegetarianism which allows neither milk nor eggs, and in the whole region there are neither fowls nor domestic ani- mals. Not to wound the prejudices of my hosts, I lived on tea, rice, honey water, edible pine nuts, and a most satisfying 14<^ Korea and Her Neighbors combination of pine nuts and honey. After a light breakfast on these delicacies, the sub-abbot, took me to see his grand- mother, a very bright pleasing woman of eighty, who came from Seoul thirteen years ago and built a house within the monastery grounds, in order to die in its quiet blessedness. There I had to eat a second ethereal meal, and the hospitable hostess forced on me a pot of exquisite honey and a bag of pine nuts. These, the product of the Piims pinea, which grows profusely throughout the range, furnish an important and nu- tritious article of monkish diet, and are exported in quantities as a luxury. They are rich and very oily, and turn rancid soon after being shelled. The honey is also locally produced. The beehives, which usually stand two togetlier in cavities in the rocks, are hollow logs with clay covers mounted on blocks of wood or stone. Leaving this friendly hostess and the seven nuns of the nunnery behind, the sub-abbot showed me the direction in which to climb, for road there is none, and at parting presented me with a fan. A visit to the Keum-Kang San elevates a Korean into the distinguished position of a traveller, and many a young resi- dent of Seoul gains this fashionable reputation. It is not as containing shrines of pilgrimage, for most Koreans despise Buddhism and its shaven mendicant priests, that these moun- tains are famous in Korea, but for their picturesque beauties, much celebrated in Korean poetry. The broad backbone of the peninsula which has trended near to the east coast from Puk-chong southwards has degenerated into tameness, when suddenly Keum-Kang San, or the Diamond Mountain, with its elongated mass of serrated, jagged, and inaccessible peaks, and magnificent primaeval forest, occupying an area of about 32 miles in length by 22 in breadth, starts off from it near the 39th parallel of latitude in the province of Kang-won. Buddhism, which, as in Japan, possesses itself of the fairest spots in Nature, fixed itself in this romantic seclusion as early as the sixth century a. d., and the venerable relics of the time THE DIAMOND MOUNTAINS. Diamond Mountain Monasteries 141 when for 1,000 years it was the official as well as the popular cult of the country are chiefly to be found in the recesses of this mountain region, where the same faith, though now dis- credited, disestablished, and despised, still attracts a certain number of votaries, and a far larger number of visitors and so-called pilgrims, who resort to the shrines to indulge in ku- ky'dng, a Korean term which covers pleasure-seeking, sight- seeing, the indulgence of curiosity, and much else. So far as I have been able to learn, there are only two routes by which the Keum-Kang San can be penetrated, the one which, after following the bed of a singularly rough tor- rent, crosses the watershed at An-mun-chai, and on or near which the principal monasteries and shrines are situated, and the Ki-cho, a lower and less interesting pass. Both routes start from Chang-an Sa. The forty-t\vo shrines are the head- quarters of about 400 monks and about 50 nuns, who add to their religious exercises the weaving of cotton and hempen cloth. The lay servitors possibly number 1,000. The four great mon- asteries, two on the eastern and two on the western slope, absorb more than 300 of the whole number. All except the high monastic officials beg through the country, alms-bowl in hand, the only distinctive features of their dress being a very peculiar hat and the rosary. They chant the litanies of Buddha from house to house, and there are few who deny them food and lodging and a few cash or a little rice. The monasteries are presided over by what we should call "abbots," superiors of the first or second class according to the importance of the establishment. These Chong-sop and Son-tong are nominally elected annually, but actually continue in office for years, unless their conduct gives rise to dissatis- faction. Beyond the confirmation of the election of the Choiig-sop of those monasteries which possess a " Red Arrow Gate "by the Board of Rites at Seoul, the disestablished Church appears to be quite free from State interference. In the case of restoring and rebuilding shrines, large sums are 142 Korea and Her Neighbors collected in Seoul and the southern provinces, though faith in Buddhism as a creed rarely exists. On making inquiries through Mr. Miller as to the way in which the number of monks is kept up, I learned that the ma- jority are either orphans or children whose parents have given them to the monasteries at a very early age owing to poverty. These are more or less educated and trained by the monks. It must be supposed that among the number there are a few who escape from the weariness and friction of secular life into a region in which seclusion and devotion are possible. Of this type was the pale and interesting young priest who gave up his room to me at Chang-an Sa, and two who accompanied us to Yu-chom Sa, one of whom chanted Na Mu Ami Tabu nearly the whole day as he journeyed, telling a bead on his rosary for each ten repetitions. Mr. Miller asked him what the words meant. ''Just letters," he replied ; *' they have no meaning, but if you say them many times you will get to heaven better." Then he gave Mr. Miller the rosary, and taught him the mystic syllables, saying, ''Now, you keep the beads, say the words, and you will go to heaven." Among the younger priests several seemed in earnest. Others make the monasteries (as is largely the case with the celebrated shrines of Kwan-yin on the Chinese island of Pu-tu) a refuge from justice or creditors, some remain desiring peaceful indo- lence, and not a few are vowed and tonsured who came simply to view the scenery of the Keum-Kang San and were too much enchanted to leave it. As to the moribund Buddhism which has found its most se- cluded retreat in these mountains, it is overlaid with dgemonol- atry, and like that of China is smothered under a host of semi- deified heroes. Of the lofty aims and aspirations after right- eousness which distinguish the great reforming sects of Japan, such as the Monto, it knows nothing. The monks are grossly ignorant and superstitious. They know nearly nothing of the history and tenets of their own Diamond Mountain Monasteries 143 creed, or of the purport of their liturgies, which to most of them are just '* letters," the ceaseless repetition of which con- stitutes ^' merit." Though some of them know Chinese, and this knowledge means "education" in Korea, worship consists in the mumbling or loud intoning of Sanscrit or Tibetan phrases, of the meaning of which they have no conception. My impres- sion of most of the monks was that their religious performances are absolutely without meaning to them, and that belief, except among a few, does not exist. The Koreans universally attrib- ute to them gross profligacy, of the existence of which at one of the large monasteries it was impossible not to become aware, but between their romantic and venerable surroundings, the order and quietness of their lives, their benevolence to the old and destitute, who find a peaceful asylum with them, and in the main their courtesy and hospitality, I am compelled to ad' mit that they exercise a certain fascination, and that I prefer to remember their virtues rather than their faults. My sympa- thies go out to them for their appreciation of the beautiful, and for the way in which religious art has assisted Nature by the exceeding picturesqueness of the positions and decoration of their shrines. The route from Chang-an Sa to Yu-chom Sa, about 1 1 miles, is mainly the rough beds of two great mountain torrents. Along this, in romantic positions, are three large monasteries P'yo-un Sa, Ma-ha-ly-an Sa, and Yu-chom Sa, besides a number of smaller shrines, with from two to five attendants each, one especially, Po-tok-am sa, dedicated to Kwan-yin, picturesque beyond description — a fantastic temple built out from the face of a cliff, at a height of 100 feet, and supported below the centre by a pillar, round which a blossoming white clematis, and an Ampelopsis Veitchiana, in the rose flush of its spring leafage, had entwined their lavish growth. No quadruped can travel this route farther than Chang-an Sa. Coolies, very lightly laden, and chair-bearers carrying a na-myo, two long poles with a slight seat in the middle, a noose 144 Korea and Her Neighbors of rope for the feet, and light uprights bound together with a wistaria rope to support the back, can be used, but the occu- pant of the chair has to walk much of the way. The torrent bed contracts above Chang-an Sa, opens out here and there, and above P'yo-un Sa narrows into a gash, only opening out again at the foot of the An-raun-chai. Surely the beauty of that ii miles is not much exceeded anywhere on earth. Colossal cliffs, upbearing mountains, forests, and gray gleaming peaks, rifted to give roothold to pines and maples, ofttimes contracting till the blue heaven above is narrowed to a strip, boulders of pink granite 40 and 50 feet high, pines on their crests and ferns and lilies in their crevices, round which the clear waters swirl, before sliding down over smooth sur- faces of pink granite to rest awhile in deep pink pools where they take a more brilliant than an emerald green with the flash- ing lustre of a diamond — rocks and ledges over which the crys- tal stream dashes in drifts of foam, shelving rock surfaces on which the decorative Chinese characters, the laborious work of pilgrims, afford the only foothold, slides, steeper still, made passable for determined climbers by holes, drilled by the monks, and fitted with pegs and rails, rocks with bas-reliefs, or small shrines of Buddha draped with flowering trailers, a cliff with a bas-relief of Buddha, 45 feet high on a pedestal 30 feet broad, rocks carved into lanterns and altars, whose harsh outlines are softened by mosses and lichens, and above, huge timber and fantastic peaks rising into The summer heaven's delicious blue. A description can be only a catalogue. The actuality was in- toxicating, a canyon on the grandest scale, with every element of beauty present. This route cannot be traversed in European shoes. In Korean string foot-gear, however, I never slipped once. There wiis much jumping from boulder to boulder, much winding round rocky projections, clinging to their irregularities with scarcely foothold, and one's back to the torrent far below, and much Diamond Mountain Monasteries 145 leaping over deep crevices and '* walking tight-rope fashion" over rails. Wherever the traveller has to leave the difficulties of the torrent bed he encounters those of slippery sloping rocks, which he has to traverse by hanging on to tree trunks. Our two priestly companions were most polite to me, giving me a hand at the dangerous places, and beguiling the way by legends, chiefly Buddhistic, concerning every fantastic and ab- normal rock and pool, such as the Myo-kil Sang, the colossal figure of Buddha referred to before, a pothole in the granite bed of the stream, the wash-basin of some mythical Bodhi- sattva, the Fire Dragon Pool, and the bathing-places of dragons in the fantastic Man-pok-Tong (Grotto of Myriad Cascades), and the Lion Stone which repelled the advance of the Japa- nese invaders in 1592. Beyond the third monastery the gorge becomes wider and less fantastic, the forest thinner, allowing scattered glimpses of the sky, and finally some long zigzags take the traveller up to the open grassy summit of the An-mun-chai, on which plums, pears, cherries, blush azaleas, and pink rhododendrons, which had long ceased blooming below, were in their first flush of beauty. To the west the difficult country of the previous week's journey, gray granite, deep valleys, and tiger-haunted forest faded into a veil of blue, and in the east, over diminish- ing forest-covered ranges, gleamed the blue Sea of Japan, more than 4,000 feet below. On the eastern descent there are gigantic pines and firs, some of them ruthlessly barked, and the long dependent streamers of the gray-green Lycopodium Sieboldii with which they are festooned, give the forest a funereal aspect. Of this the peculiar fringed hats are made which are worn on occasion by both monks and nuns. After many downward zigzags, the track enters another rocky gorge with a fine torrent, in the bed of which are huge ** potholes," shown as the bathing- places of dragons, whose habits must have been much clean- lier than those of the present inhabitants of the land. 146 Korea and Her Neighbors The great monastery of Yu-chom Sa, with its many curved roofs and general look of newness and wealth, is approached by crossing a very tolerable bridge. The road, which passes through a well-kept burial-ground, where the ashes of the pious and learned abbots of several centuries repose under more or less stately monuments, was much encumbered near the monastery by great pine logs newly hewn for its restora- tion, which was being carried out on a very expensive scale. The monks made a difficulty about receiving us, and it was not till after some delay, and the production of my kwan-ja, that we were allotted rooms in the Government buildings for the two days of our halt. After this small difficulty, they were unusually kind and friendly, and one of the young priests, who came over the An-mun-chai with us, offered Mr. Miller the use of his cell on Sunday, saying that '* it would be a quieter place than the great room to study his belief" ! I had hoped for rest and quiet on the following day, having had rather a hard week, but these were unattainable. Besides 70 monks and 20 nuns, there were nearly 200 lay servitors and carpenters, and all were bent upon ku-kydng, the first European woman to visit the Keum-Kang San being regarded as a great sight, and from early morning till late at night there was no rest. The kang floor of my room being heated from the kitchen, it was too hot to exist with the paper front closed, and the crowds of monks, nuns, and servitors, finishing with the carpenters, who crowded in whenever it was opened, and hung there hour after hour, nearly suffocated me, the day being very warm. The abbot and several senior monks dis- cussed with Mr. Miller the merits of rival creeds, saying that the only difference between Buddhists and ourselves is that they don't kill even the smallest insect, while we disregard what we call "animal life," and that we don't look upon monasticism and other forms of asceticism as means of salva- tion. They admitted that among their priests there are more who live in known sin than strivers after righteousness. in :^ :0 U I v: H O o W :^ c H o H Diamond Mountain Monasteries 147 There are many bright busy boys about Yu-chom Sa, most of whom had already had their heads shaved. To one who had not, Che on-i gave a piece of chicken, but he refused it because he was a Buddhist, on which an objectionable-looking old sneak of a priest told him that it was all right to eat it so long as no one saw him, but the boy persisted in his refusal. At midnight, being awakened by the boom of the great bell and the disorderly and jarring clang of innumerable small ones, I went, at the request of the friendly young priest, our fellow-traveller, to see him perform the devotions, which are taken in turn by the monks. The great bronze bell, an elaborate piece of casting of the fourteenth century, stands in a rude, wooden, clay-floored tower by itself. A dim paper lantern on a dusty rafter barely lighted up the white-robed figure of the devotee, as he circled the bell, chanting in a most musical voice a Sanscrit litany, of whose meaning he was ignorant, striking the bosses of the bell with a knot of wood as he did so. Half an hour passed thus. Then taking a heavy mallet, and passing to another chant, he circled the bell with a greater and ever-increasing passion of devotion, beating its bosses heavily and rhythmically, faster and faster, louder and louder, ending by producing a burst of frenzied sound, which left him for a moment exhausted. Then, seizing the swinging beam, the three full tones which end the worship, and which are produced by striking the bell on the rim, which is 8 inches thick, and on the middle, which is very thin, made the tower and the ground vibrate, and boomed up and down the valley with their unforgettable music. Of that young monk's sincerity, I have not one doubt. He led us to the great temple, a vast " chamber of imagery," where a solitary monk chanted before an altar in the light from a solitary lamp in an alabaster bowl, accompanying his chant by striking a small bell with a deer horn. The dim light left cavernous depths of shadow in the temple, from which eyes and teeth, weapons, and arms and legs of other- 148 Korea and Her Neighbors wise invisible gods and devils showed uncannily. Behind the altar is a rude and monstrous piece of wood-carving represent- ing the upturned roots of a tree, among which fifty-three idols are sitting and standing. As well by daylight as in the dim- ness of midnight, there are an uncouthness and power about this gigantic representation which are very impressive. Below the carving are three frightful dragons, on whose faces the artist has contrived to impress an expression of torture and defeat. The legend of the altar-piece runs thus. When fifty-three priests come to Korea from India to introduce Buddhism, they reached this place, and being weary, sat down by a well under a spreading tree. Presently three dragons came up from the well and began a combat with the Buddhists, in the course of which they called up a great wind which tore up the tree. Not to be out-manoeuvred, each priest placed an image of Bud- dha on a root of the tree, turning it into an altar. Finally, the priests overcome the dragons, forced them into the well, and piled great rocks on the top of it to keep them there, founded the monastery, and built this temple over the dragons' grave. On either side of this unique altar-piece is a bouquet of peonies 4 feet wide by 10 feet high. The "private apartments " of this and the other monasteries consist of a living room, and very small single cells, each with the shrine of its occupant, and all very clean. It must be re- membered, however, that this easy, peaceful, luxurious life only lasts for a part of the year, and that all but a few of the monks must make an annual tramp, wallet and begging-bowl in hand, over rough, miry, or dusty Korean roads, put up with vile and dirty accommodation, beg for their living from those who scorn their tonsure and their creed, and receive "low talk " from the lowest in the land. Just before we left, the old abbot invited us into his very charming suite of rooms, and with graceful hospitality pre- pared a repast for us with his own hands — square cakes of rich oily pine nuts glued together with honey, thin cakes of Diamond Mountain Monasteries 149 *^ popped" rice and honey, sweet cake, Chinese sweatmeat, honey, and bowls of honey water with pine nuts floating on its surface. The oil of these nuts certainly supplied the place of animal food during my enforced abstinence from it, but rich vegetable oil and honey soon pall on the palate, and the abbot was concerned that we did not do justice to our entertainment. The general culture produced by Buddhism at these monaster- ies, and the hospitality, consideration, and gentleness of de- portment, contrast very favorably with the arrogance, super- ciliousness, insolence, and conceit which I have seen elsewhere in Korea among the so-called followers of Confucius. When we departed all the monks and laborers bade us a courteous farewell, some of the older priests accompanying us for a short distance. After descending tlie slope by the well-made road which leads down to the large monastery of Sin-kyei Sa, at the northeast foot of the Keum-Kang San, we left it for a rough and difficult westerly track, which, after affording some bright gleams of the Sea of Japan, enters dense forest full of great boulders and magnificent specimens of the Filix mas and Osmuinda regalis. A severe climb up and down an irregular, broken staircase of rock took us over the Ki-cho Pass, 3,700 feet in altitude, after which there is a tedious march of some hours along bare and unpicturesque mountain-sides before reaching the well-made path which leads through pine woods to the beautiful plateau of Chang-an Sa. The young priest had kept our baggage carefully, but the heat of his floor had melted the candles in the boxes and had turned candy into molasses, making havoc among photographic materials at the same time ! CHAPTER XII ALONG THE COAST ON leaving Chang-an Sa for Won-san we retraced our route as far as Kal-ron-gi, and afterwards crossed the Mak-pai Pass, from which there is a grand view of the Keum-Kang San. Much of a somewhat tedious day was spent in crossing a roll- ing elevated plateau bordered by high denuded hills, on which the potatoe flourishes at a height of 2,500 feet. The soil is very fertile, but not being suited to rice, is very little occupied. Crossing the Sai-kal-chai, 2,200 feet in altitude, the infamous road descends on a beautiful alluvial valley, a rich farming country, sprinkled with hamlets and surrounded by pretty hills wooded with scrub oak, which in the spring is very largely used for fertilizing rice fields. The branches are laid on the inundated surface till the leaves rot off, and they are then re- moved for fuel. In this innocent-looking valley the tiger scare was in full force. A tiger, the people said, had carried off a woman the previous week, and a dog and pig the pre- vious night. It seemed incredible, yet there was a consensus of evidence. Tigers are occasionally trapped in that region by baiting a pit with a dog or pig, and the ensnared animal is destroyed by poison or hunger to avoid injury to the skin, which, if it is that of a fine animal, is very valuable. A man is not the least ashamed of saying that he has not nerve or pluck for tiger-hunting, which in Korea is a danger- ous game, for the hunters are stationed at the head of a gorge, usually behind brushwood, and sometimes behind rocks, the big game, tigers and leopards, being driven up towards them by 150 Along the Coast 151 large bodies of men. When one realizes that the arms used are matchlocks lighted by slow matches from cords wound round the arm, and that the charge consists of three imper- fectly rounded balls the size of a pea, and that, owing to the thickness of the screen behind which the hunters are posted, the game is only sighted when quite close upon them, one ceases to wonder at the reluctance of the village peasants to turn out in pursuit of a man-eater, even though the bones bring a very high price as Chinese medicine. We put up at the only inn in the region. It had no *' clean room," but the landlord's wife gave up hers to me on con- dition that I would not keep the door open for fear of a tiger. The temperature was 93°, and to secure a little ventilation and yet keep my promise, I tore the paper off the lattice-work of the door. Mr. Miller described his circumstances thus. " I wanted to sleep in the yard, but the host would not let me for fear of tigers, so I had to sleep in a room 8 feet by 10 " (with a hot floor), "with seven other men, a cat, and a bird. By tearing the paper off a window near my head I saved myself from death by suffocation, and could have had a good night's rest had not the four horses been crowded into two stalls in the kitchen. They found their quarters so close that they squealed, kicked, bit, and fought all night, and their drivers helped them to make night hideous by their yelling." Nobody slept, and I had my full share of the unrest and disturbance, a bad preparation for an eleven hours' ride on the next day, which was fiercely hot, as were the remaining six days of the journey. The road from this lofty tiger-haunted valley to the sea level at Chyung-Tai is for the most part through valleys very sparsely peopled. Much forest land, however, was being cleared for the planting of cotton, and the peasant farmers are energetic enough to carry their cultivation to a height of 2,000 feet. [On nearly the whole of this journey I estimated that the land is capable of supporting double its present population.] At Hoa-chung, a prettily situated market-place, a student who 152 Korea and Her Neighbors had successfully passed the literary examination at the Kwagga in Seoul, surrounded by a crowd in bright colored festive clothing, was celebrating his return by sacrificing at his father's grave. On the various roads there were many proces- sions escorting village students home from the great competi- tion in the Royal presence at the capital, the student in colored clothes, on a gaily-caparisoned horse or ass, with music and flags in front of him, and friends, gaily dressed, walking beside him. On approaching his village he was met with flags and music, the headman and villagers, even the women in gay apparel, going out to welcome him. After this success he was entitled to erect a tall pole, with a painted dragon upon it, in front of his house. Success was, how- ever, very costly, and often hung the millstone of debt round a man's neck for the remainder of his life. After " passing" the student became eligible for official position, the sole object of ambition to an " educated" Korean. At Hoa-chung we turned eastwards, and took the main road to the coast, attaining an altitude (uncorrected) of 3,117 feet by continued ascents over rounded hills, which, when not ab- solutely bare except for coarse, unlovely grasses, only produced stunted hazel bush. After this an easy ascent among abso- lutely denuded hills leads up to a spirit shrine of more than usual importance, crowded with the customary worthless ex votos, rags and old straw shoes. At that point the road makes an altogether unexpected and surprising plunge over the bare shoulders of a bare hill into Paradise ! This pass of the ''Ninety-nine Turns," Tchyu-Chi-chang, deserves its name, the number of sharp zigzags not being ex- aggerated, as in the case of the "Twelve Thousand Peaks." It is so absolutely rocky, and so difficult in consequence, that it is more passable in snow than in summer. Its abrupt turns lead down a forest-clothed mountain ridge into a magnificent gorge, densely wooded with oak, Spanish chestnut, weeping lime, Abies exce/sa, and magnolia, looped together with the Along the Coast i ^3 white mille-fleur rose. On the northern side rises Hoang- chyong San, a noble mountain and conspicuous landmark, much broken up into needles and precipices, and clothed nearly to its summit with forests, of which the Finns sylvestris is the monarch. The descent of the pass takes one hour and a half, the road coming down upon a torrent 50 feet wide, only visible in glints of foam here and there, amid its smothering overgrowth of blossoming magnolia, syringa, and roses. The filthy, miserable hamlet of Chyung-Tai, composed of five hovels, all inns, was rather a comfortless close to a fatigu- ing day. These houses are roofed, as in some other villages, with thick slabs of wood heaped on each other, kept on, so far as they are kept on, by big stones. The forest above on the mountains is a Royal reservation, made so by the first king of this dynasty, who built stone walls round the larger trees. I had occasion to notice at Chyung-Tai, and in many other places, the extreme voracity of the Koreans. They eat not to satisfy hunger, but to enjoy the sensation of repletion. The training for this enjoyment begins at a very early age, as I had several opportunities of observing. A mother feeds her young child with rice, and when it can eat no more in an upright position, lays it on its back on her lap and feeds it again, tap- ping its stomach from time to time with a flat spoon to ascer- tain if further cramming is possible. " The child is father to the man," and the adult Korean shows that he has reached the desirable stage of repletion by eructations, splutterings, slap- ping his stomach, and groans of satisfaction, looking round with a satisfied air. A quart of rice, which when cooked is of great bulk, is a laborer's meal, but besides there are other dishes, which render its insipidity palatable. Among them are pounded capscicum, soy, various native sauces of abomi- nable odors, kirns hi, a species of sour kraut, seaweed, salt fish, and salted seaweed fried in batter. The very poor only take two meals a day, but those who can afford it take three and four. 154 Korea and Her Neighbors In this respect of voracity all classes are alike. The great merit of a meal is not so much quality as quantity, and from infancy onwards one object in life is to give the stomach as much capacity and elasticity as is possible, so that four pounds of rice daily may not incommode it. People in easy circum- stances drink wine and eat great quantities of fruit, nuts, and confectionery in the intervals between meals, yet are as ready to tackle the next food as though they had been starving for a week. In well-to-do houses beef and dog are served on large trenchers, and as each guest has his separate table, a host can show generosity to this or that special friend without helping others to more than is necessary. I have seen Koreans eat more than three pounds of solid meat at one meal. Large as a *' portion " is, it is not unusual to see a Korean eat three and even four, and where people abstain from these excesses it may generally be assumed that they are too poor to indulge in them. It is quite common to see from twenty to twenty-five peaches or small melons disappear at a single sitting, and with- out being peeled. There can be no doubt that the enormous consumption of red pepper, which is supplied even to infants, helps this gluttonous style of eating. It is not surprising that dyspepsia and kindred evils are very common among Koreans. The Korean is omnivorous. Dog meat is in great request at certain seasons, and dogs are extensively bred for the table. Pork, beef, fish, raw, dried, and salted, the intestines of animals, all birds and game, no part being rejected, are eaten — a baked fowl, with its head, claws, and interior intact, being the equivalent of ''the fatted calf." Cooking is not always essential. On the Han I saw men taking fish off the hook, and after plunging them into a pot of red pepper sauce, eating them at once with their bones. Wheat, barley, maize, millet, the Irish and sweet potato, oats, peas, beans, rice, radishes, turnips, herbs, and wild leaves and roots innumerable, sea- weed, shrimps, pastry made of flour, sugar, and oil, kimshi, Along the Coast i^^ on the making of which tlie whole female population of the middle and lower classes is engaged in November, a home- made vermicelli of buckwheat flour and white of egg, largely made up into a broth, soups, dried persimmons, sponge-cakes, cakes of the edible pine nut and honey, of flour, sugar, and sesamum seeds, onions, garlic, lily bulbs, chestnuts, and very much else are eaten. Oil of sesamum is largely used in cook- ing, as well as vinegar, soy, and other sauces of pungent and objectionable odors, the basis of most of them being capsicums and fermented rotten beans ! The magistracy of Thong-chhon, where we halted the next day at noon, and where the curiosity of the people was abso- lutely suffocating^ is a town sheltered from the sea, which is within 2 miles, by a high ridge, and is situated prettily in a double fold of hills remarkable for the artistic natural group- ing of very grand pines. At this point a spell of the most severe heat of the year set in, and the remainder of the journey was accomplished in a temperature ranging from 89° to 100° in the shade, and sel- dom falling below 80° at night, phenomenal heat for the first days of June. Taking advantage of it, the whole male popu- lation was in the fields rice planting. Rice valleys, reaching the unusual magnitude for Korea of from 3 to 7 miles in breadth, and from 6 to 14 miles in length, sloping gently to the sea, with innumerable villages on the slopes of the hills which surround them, were numerous. Among them I saw, for the only time, reservoirs for the storage of water for irriga- tion. The pink ibis and the spotted green frog were abundant everywhere. The country there has a look of passable pros- perity, but the people are kept at a low level by official exac- tions. On this coast of Kong-won -Do are the P'al-kyong or '^ Eight Views," which are of much repute in Korea. We passed two of them. Su-chung Dai (The Place Between the Waters) is a narrow strip of elevated white sand with the long roll of the 156 Korea and Her Neighbors Pacific on the east, and the gentle plash of a lovely fresh-water lake on the west. This lake of Ma-cha Tong, the only body of fresh water which I saw in Korea, about 6 miles in length by 2 in breadth, has mountainous shores much broken by bays and inlets, at the head of each of which is a village half hid- den among trees in the folds of the hills, while wooded conical islets break the mirror of the surface. On the white barrier of sand there are some fine specimens of the red-stemmed Pinus sylvesfris, with a carpet of dwarf crimson roses and pink lilies. Among the mountain forests are leopards, tigers, and deer, and the call of the pheasant and the cooing of the wild dove floated sweetly from the lake shore. It was an idyll of peace and beauty. The other of the "Eight Views" is rather a curiosity than a beauty, miles of cream-colored sand blown up in wavy billows as high as the plumy tops of thou- sands of fir trees which are helplessly embedded in it. During the long hot ride of eleven hours, visions of the evening halt at a peaceful village on the seashore filled my mind, and hope made the toilsome climb over several promon- tories of black basalt tolerable, even though the descents were so steep that the mapu held the ponies up by their tails ! In the early twilight, when the fierce sun blaze was over, in the smoky redness of a heated evening atmosphere, when every rock was giving forth the heat it had absorbed in the day, across the stream which is at once the outlet of the lake and the boundary between the provinces of Kang-won and Ham- gyong, appeared a large, straggling, gray-roofed village, above high-water mark, on a beach of white sand. Several fishing junks were lying in shelter at the mouth of the stream. Women were beating clothes and drawing water, and children and dogs were rolling over each other on the sand, all more or less idealized by being silhouetted in purple against the hot, lurid sky. As the enchantment of distance faded and Ma-cha Tong revealed itself in plain prose, fading from purple into sober Along the Coast 157 gray, the ideal of a romantic halt by the pure sea vanished. A long, crooked, tumble-down narrow street, with narrower off-shoots, heaps of fish offal and rubbish, in which swine, mangy, blear-eyed dogs, and children, much afflicted with skin disease, were indiscriminately routing and rolling, pools covered with a thick brown scum, a stream which had degen- erated into an open sewer, down which thick green slime flowed tardily, a beach of white sand, the upper part of which was blackened with fish laid out to dry, frames for drying fish everywhere, men, women, children, all as dirty in person and clothing as it was possible to be, thronging the roadway as we approached, air laden with insupportable odors, and the vilest accommodation I ever had in Korea, have fixed this night in my memory. The inn, if inn it was, gave me a room 8 feet by 6, and 5 feet 2 inches high. Ang-paks, for it was the family granary, iron shoes of ploughs and spades, bundles of foul rags, sea- weed, ears of millet hanging in bunches from the roof, pack saddles, and worse than all else, rotten beans fermenting for soy, and malodorous half-salted fish, just left room for my camp-bed. This den opened on a vile yard, partly dunghill and partly pigpen, in which is the well from which the women of the house, with sublime sang-froid, draw the drinking water ! Outside is a swamp, which throughout the night gave off sickening odors. Every few minutes something was wanted from my room, and as there was not room for two, I had every time to go out into the yard. Wong's good-night was, <*I hope you won't die." When I entered, the mercury was 87°. After that, cooking for man and beast and the kang floor raised it to 107°, at which point it stood till morning, vivify- ing into revoltingly active life myriads of cockroaches and vermin which revel in heat, not to speak of rats, which ran over my bed, ate my candle, gnawed my straps, and would have left me without boots, had I not long before learned to hang them from the tripod of my camera. From nine years 158 Korea and Her Neighbors of travelling, some of it very severe and comfortless, that night stands out as hideously memorable. The raison d'etre of Ma-cha Tong, and the numerous coast villages which exist wherever a convenient shore and a protec- tion for boats occur together, is the coast fishing. The fact that a floating population of over 8,000 Japanese fishermen make a living by fishing on the coast near Fusan shows that there is a redundant harvest to be reaped. The Korean fish- erman is credited with utter want of enterprise, and Mr. Oiesen, in the Customs' report for Won-san for 1891, accuses him of ''remaining content with such fish as will run into crudely and easily constructed traps, set out along the shore, which only require attention for an hour or so each day." I must, however, say that each village that I passed possessed from seven to twelve fishing junks, which were kept at sea. They are unseaworthy boats, and it is not surprising that they hug the shore. I believe that the fishing industry, with every other, is paralyzed by the complete insecurity of the earnings of labor and by the exactions of officials, and that the Korean fisherman does not care to earn money of which he will surely be deprived on any or no pretence, and that, along with the members of the industrial classes generally, he seeks the pro- tection of poverty. The fish taken on this coast, when salted and dried, find their way by boat to Won-san, and from thence over central Korea, but in winter pedlars carry them directly inland from the fishing villages. Salterns on the plan of those often seen in China occur frequently near the villages. The operation of making salt from sea water is absolutely primitive, and so rough and dirty that the whiteness of the coarse product which re- sults is an astonishment. In spite of heavy losses and heavier "squeezings," this industry, which is carried on from May to October, is a profitable one. The road beyond that noisome halting-place traverses pic- turesque country for many miles, being cut out of the sides of Along the Coast 159 noble cliffs, or crosses basaltic spurs by arrangements resem- bling rock ladders, keeping perforce always close to the sea, now on dizzy precipices, then descending to firm hard stretches of golden sand, or winding just above high-water mark among colossal boulders which are completely covered with the Am- pelopsis Veitchiafia, the creeper /c?r ^jc^^/Zf//^^ of Korea. The sea was green and violet near the shore and a vivid blue in the distance, and on its rippleless surface fishing boats with gray hulls and brown sails lay motionless, for the rush and swirl of tides, rising and falling as they do on the west coast from 25 to 38 feet, are unknown on the east coast, the variation between high and low water being within 18 inches. It was the hottest day of the year, and it was fortunate that the prettily situated market-place of Syo-im had a new and clean inn, in which it was possible to prolong the noonday halt, and to get a good dinner of fresh and salt fish, vegetables, herbs, sauces, and rice, for the sum of two cents gold. There also, being the market-day, Mr. Miller succeeded in obtaining cash for four silver _y^7^ from the pedlars. After passing over a tedious sandy plain with a reserve of fine firs, under which the countless dead of ages lie under great sand mounds held together by nets or branches of trees, we reached at sunset my ideal, a clean, exquisitely situated vil- lage of nine houses, of which one was an inn where, contrary to the general rule, we were made cordially welcome,^ The nine families at Chin-pul possessed seven good-sized fishing boats. That inn is of unusual construction. There is a broad mud 1 A kwan-ja, being an official passport, lays a traveller open to the sus- picion that, like officials, he will take the best of everything he can get without paying for it, and this dread, added to a natural distrust of for- eigners, led to more or less unwillingness to receive us in many places, the mapu having to console the people by asseverating that I paid the full price for all I got, and that even when I tore a sheet of paper from the window I paid for it ! l6o Korea and Her Neighbors platform of which fireplaces and utensils for cooking for man and beast occupy one half, and the other is matted for sleeping and eating. My room, which had no window, but was clean and plastered, opened on this, and as the mercury was at iii° until 3 A. M. owing to the heated floor, I sat at the door nearly all night, so the dawn and an early start, and the coolness of the green and violet shades of the almost rippleless ocean, which laved its varied shore of bays, promontories, and lofty cliffs, were very welcome. A valley opening on the sea which it took five hours to skirt and cross, covered with grain and newly planted rice, is liter- ally fringed with villages, which look comfortably prosperous in spite of exactions. A smaller valley contains about 3,000 acres of rice land only, and on the slopes surrounding all these are rich lands, bearing heavy crops of wheat, millet, barley, cotton, tobacco, castor oil, sesamum, oats, turnips, peas, beans, and potatoes. The ponies are larger and better kept in that region, and the red bulls are of immense size. The black pig, however, is as small and mean as ever. The crops were clean, and the rice dykes and irrigation channels well kept. Good and honest government would create as happy and prosperous a people as the traveller finds in Japan, the soil being very similar, while Korea has a far better climate. During the land journey from Chang-an Sa to Won-san I had better opportunities of seeing the agricultural methods of the Koreans than in the valleys of the Han. As compared with the exquisite neatness of the Japanese and the diligent thriftiness of the Chinese, Korean agriculture is to some extent wasteful and untidy. Weeds are not kept down in the summer as they ought to be, stones are often left on the ground, and there is a raggedness about the margins of fields and dykes and a dilapidation about stone walls which is unpleasing to the eye. The paths through the fields are apt to be much worn and fringed with weeds, and the furrows are not so straight as they might be. Yet on the whole the cultivation is much bet- Along the Coast i6l ter and the majority of the crops far cleaner than I had been led to expect. Domestic animals are very few, and very little fertilizing material is applied to the ground except in the neigh- borhood of Seoul and other cities, a fact which makes its ex- ceeding fertility very noteworthy. The rainfall is abundant but not excessive, and the desolat- ing floods which afflict Korea's opposite neighbor, Japan, are as unknown as earthquakes. Irrigation is only necessary for rice, which is the staple of Korea. Except on certain rice lands, two crops a year are raised throughout central and south- ern Korea, the rice being planted in June, or rather trans- planted from the nurseries in which it is sown in May, and is harvested early in October, when the ground is ploughed and barley or rye is sown, which ripens in May or early June of the next year, after which water is let in, the field is again ploughed while flooded, and the rice plants are set out in rows of *' clumps," two or four or even six plants in a *' clump." Where only one crop is raised, the rice field lies fallow from the end of October till the following May. In wheat, barley, or rye fields the sowing is in October, and the harvest in May or June, after which beans, peas, and other vegetables are sown. Along the "great roads," as the crops approach ripeness, ele- vated watch-sheds are erected in the fields as safeguards against depredations. The crops, on the whole, are very fine, and would be immense were it not for the paucity of fertilizing material. Agricultural implements are rude and few. A wooden ploughshare with a removable iron shoe is used which turns the furrows the reverse way to ours. A wooden spade, also shod with iron, is largely used for heavy work. This, which excites the ridicule of foreigners as a gratuitous waste of man power, is furnished with several ropes attached to the blade, each of which is jerked by a man while another man guides the blade into the ground by its long handle. The other im- plements are the same sort of sharp-pointed sharp hoe which is i62 Korea and Her Neighbors in use in China, and which in the hands of the eastern peasant fills the place of shovel, hoe, and spade, a reaping hook, a short knife, a barrow, and a bamboo rake which is largely used in the denudation of the hills. Grain, peas, and beans are threshed out with flails as often as not in the roadway of a village, while the grinding of flour and the hulling of rice are accomplished by the stone quern, and the stone or wooden mortar, with an iron pestle worked by hand or foot, the ^^ pang- a,'' or, as has been previously described, by a " ;;////," or water ^^ pajig-a.'' Rice is threshed by beating the ears over a board, and all grain is winnowed by being thrown up in the wind. The pony is not used in agriculture. Ploughing is done by the powerful, noble, tractable, Korean bull, a cane ring placed in his nostrils when young rendering him manageable even by a young child. He is four years in attaining maturity, and is now worth from ^3 to ^£4, his value having been enhanced by the late war and the prevalence of rinderpest in recent years. Milk is not an article of diet. In some districts ox- sleds of very simple construction are used for bringing down fuel from the hills and produce from the fields, and at Seoul and a itw other cities rude carts are to be seen ; but ponies, men, and bulls are the means of transport for produce and goods, the loads being adjusted evenly on wooden pack saddles, or in the case of small articles in panniers of plaited straw or netted rope. In the latter, ingeniously made to open at the bottom and discharge their contents, manure is carried to the fields. Both bulls and ponies are shod with iron. The pony carries from 160 to 200 lbs. Sore backs are lamentably common. The breed of pigs is very small. Pigs are always black and loathsome. Their bristles stand up along their backs, and they are lean, active, and of specially revolting habits. The clogs are big, usually buff, long-haired, and cowardly, and cari- cature the Scotch collie in their aspect. The fowls are Along the Coast 163 plebeian, and for wildness, activity, and powers of flight are unequalled in my experience. Ducks are not very common, and geese are kept chiefly as guards, and for presentation at weddings as emblems of fidelity. The few sheep bred in Korea are reserved for Royal sacrifices. I have occasionally seen mutton on tables in Seoul, but it has been imported from Ciiefoo. The villages which make their living altogether by agriculture are usually off the high roads, those which the hasty traveller passes through depending as much on the enter- taining of wayfarers as on the cultivation of the land. In these, nearly every house has a covered shelf in front at which food can be obtained, but lodging is not provided, and the villages which can feed and lodge beasts as well as men are few. The fact that the large farming villages are off the road gives an incorrect notion of the population of Korea. On the slope of a hillside above a pleasant valley lies the town of An-byong, once, judging from the extent of its decay- ing walls and fortifications, and the height of its canopied but ruinous gate-towers, a large city. The ya^nen and other Gov- ernment buildings are well kept, and being in good repair, are in striking contrast to those previously seen on the route. The ''main street" is, however, nothing but a dirty alley. The towni has a diminishing population, and though it makes some paper from the Brouso7iettia Papyriferay and has several schools, and exchanges rice and beans for foreign cottons at Won-san, it has a singularly decaying look, and is altogether unworthy of its position as being one of the chief places in the province of Ham-gyong. Outside of it the road crosses a remarkably broad river bed by a bridge 720 feet long, so dilapidated that the ponies put their feet through its rotten sods several times. From An-byong to Ta-ri-mak, a short distance from Nam- San on the main road from Seoul to Won-san, is a long and tedious ride through thinly peopled country and pine woods full of graves. We spent two nights there at a very noisy and 164 Korea and Her Neighbors disagreeable inn, in which privacy was unattainable and the vermin were appalling. There the host was specially unwill- ing to take in foreigners, on the ground that we should not pay, a suspicion which irritated our friendly mapu, who vociferated at the top of their voices that we paid *' even for the smallest things we got." The swinging season was at hand, each amusement having its definite date for beginning and ending, and in every village swings were being erected on tall straight poles. Wong could never resist the temptation of taking a swing, which always amused the people. At this inn there were some musical performers who made both night and day wearisome to me, but gave great pleasure to others. I have not previously mentioned my sufferings on the Han from the sounds produced by itinerant musicians, and by the mutaiig or sorceress and her coadjutors ; but, as has been forcibly brought out in a paper on Korean music by Mr. Hulbert in the Korean Repository,^ the sounds are peculiar and unpleasing, because we neither know nor feel what they are intended to express, and we bring to Korean music not the Korean temperament and training but the Western, which de- mands *' time " as an essential. It maybe added that the Koreans, like their neighbors the Japanese, love our music as little as we love theirs, and for the same reason, that the ideas we express by it are unfamiliar to them. One reason of the afflictive and discordant sounds is that the gamut of Korea differs from the musical scale of European countries, with the result that whenever music seems to be trembling on the verge of a harmony, a discord assails the ear. The musical instruments are many, but they are not carefully finished. Among instruments of percussion are drums, cym- bals, gongs, and a species of castanet. For wind instruments there are unkeyed bugles, flutes, and long and short trumpets; and the stringed instruments are a large guitar, a twenty-five stringed guitar, a mandolin, and a five-stringed violin. The 1 February, 1896. Along the Coast 165 discord produced by a concert of several of these instruments is lieard in perfection at the opening and closing of the gates of cities. There are three classes of Korean vocal music, the first being the Si-Jo or "classical " style, andante tremtdoso, and " punc- tuated with drums," the drum accompaniment consisting mainly of a drum beat from time to time as an indication to the vo- calist that she has quavered long enough upon one note. The Si'jo is a slow process, and is said by the Koreans to require such long and patient practise that only -the dancing girls can excel in it, as they alone have leisure to cultivate it. One branch of it deals with convivial songs, of one of which I give a translation from the gifted pen of the Rev. H. B. Hul- bert of Seoul. ^ The Korean, prisoned during the winter in his small, dark, dirty, and malodorous rooms, with neither a glowing fireside J I 'Twas years ago that Kim and I Struck hands and swore, however dry The lip might be or sad the heart, The merry wine should have no part In mitigating sorrow's blow Or quenching thirst. 'Twas long ago. II And now I've reached the flood-tide mark Of life ; the ebb begins, and dark The future lowers. The tide of wine Will never ebb. 'Twill aye be mine To mourn the desecrated fane Where that lost pledge of youth lies slain. Ill Nay, nay, begone ! The jocund bowl Again shall bolster up my soul Against itself. What, good-man, hold! Canst tell me where red wine is sold ? Nay, just beyond that peach tree there ? Good luck be thine, I'll thither fare. i66 Korea and Her Neighbors nor brilliant lamp to mitigate the gloom, welcomes spring with lively excitement, and demands music and song as its natural ac- companiment— song that shall express the emancipation, breath- ing space, and unalloyed physical pleasure which have no coun- terpart in our English feelings. Thus a classical song runs : — The willow catkin bears the vernal blush of summer's dawn When winter's night is done ; The oriole, who preens herself aloft on swaying bough, Is summer's harbinger ; The butterfly, with noiseless fiil-ful of her pulsing wing, Marks off the summer hour. Quick, boy, thy zither ! Do its strings accord ? 'Tis well. Strike up ! / must have song. The second style of Korean vocal music is the Ha CKi or popular. The most conspicuous song in this class is the A-ra- rilng, of 782 verses. It is said that the A-ra-riing holds to the Korean in music the same place that rice does in his food — all else being a mere appendage. The tune, but with the trills and quavers, of which there are one or two to each note, left out, is given here, though Mr. Hulbert, to whom I am greatly indebted, calls it '* a very weak attempt to score it." a - ra-riing i^^^ i^ m. A - ra-riing a - ra-riing a - ra - ri - o - 61 - sa pai ddi-6 - ra. Mun-gyuugsai-chai pak-tala-u. .nu - - - houg-do-kai paug-maing-i ta na-kan-da. The chorus of A-ra-ri'mg is invariable, but the verses wliich are sung in connection with it take a wide range through the fields of lyrics, epics, and didactics. There is a third style, which is between the classical and the popular, but which hardly deserves mention. Along the Coast 167 To my thinking, the melancholy which seems the motif of most Oriental music becomes an extreme plaintiveness in that of Korea, partly due probably to the unlimited quavering on one note. While what may be called concerted music is torture to a Western ear, solos on the flute ofttimes combine a singular sweetness with their mournfulness and suggest ** Far- off Melodies." Love songs are popular, and there is a tender grace about some of them, as well as an occasional glint of humor, as indicated by the last line of the third stanza of one translated by Mr, Gale.^ The allusions to Nature generally 1 LOVE SONG Farewell's a fire that burns one's heart, And tears are rains that quench in part, But then the winds blow in one's sighs, And cause the flames again to rise. My soul I've mixed up with the wine. And now my love is drinking, Into his orifices nine Deep down its spirit's sinking. To keep him true to me and mine, A potent mixture is the wine. Silvery moon and frosty air. Eve and dawn are meeting; Widowed wild goose flying there, Hear my words of greeting! On your journey should you see Him I love so broken-hearted. Kindly say this word for me, That it's death when we are parted. Flapping off the wild goose clambers, Says she will if she remembers. Fill the ink-stone, bring the water. To my love I'll write a letter; Ink and paper soon will see The one that's all the world to me, While the pen and I together, Left behind, condole each other. l68 Korea and Her Neighbors show a quick and sympathetic insight into lier beauties, and occa- sional stanzas, of which the one cited is among several translated by Mr. Hulbert, have a delicacy of touch not unworthy of an Elizabethan poet.^ The Korean Repository is doing a good work in making Korean poetry accessible to English readers. There was not, however, any flute music at Ta-ri-mak. There were classical songs, with a direful drum accompani- ment, and a wearisome repetition of the A-ra-rilng, continuing all day and late into the hot night. A few pedlars passed by, selling tobacco, necessaries, and children's toys, the latter rudely made, and only attractive in a country in which artistic feeling appears dead. There are shops in Seoul, Phyong-yang, and other cities devoted to the sale of such toys, painted in staring colors, and illustrative chiefly of adult life. There are also monkeys, puppies, and tigers on wheels, all for boys, and soldiers in European uni- forms have appeared during the recent military craze, and boys are very early taught to look forward to official life by representations of mandarins' chairs, red-tasselled umbrellas, and fringed hats. Girls being of comparatively small account, toys specially suited to them are not many. Japanese lucifer matches, which, when of the cheap sort, seem only slightly inflammable, as I have several times used a whole box without igniting one, were in the stock of the ped- lars, and are making rapid headway in the towns, but even so near Won-san as Ta-ri-mak is, the people were still using flint and steel to light chips of wood dipped in sulphur, though the cheap and smoky kerosene lamp has displaced the tall, upright candlestick and the old-fashioned dish lamps there and in very many other country places. > I asked the spotted butterfly To take me on his wing and fly To yonder mountain's breezy side. The trixy tiger moth I'll ride As home I come. Along the Coast 169 From the high road from Seoul to Won-san we diverged at Nam-San to visit the large monastery of Sok-wang Sa, famous as being the place where, in the palmy days of Korean Buddhism, Atai-jo, the first king of the present dynasty, was educated and lived. The monastery itself, with its temples, was erected by this king to mark the spot where, 504 years ago, he received that supernatural message to rule in virtue of which his descendant occupies the Korean throne to-day. In this singularly beautiful spot Atai-jo's early years were spent in religious exercises, study, and preparation, and many of the superb trees which adorn the grand mountain clefts in which Sok-wang Sa is situated are said to have been planted by his hands. His regalia and robes of state are preserved in a building by themselves, which no one is allowed to enter except the duly appointed attendant. A bridle track along- side of a clear mountain stream leads through very pretty and prosperous-looking country, and over wooded foothills for some miles to the base of a fine mountain range. We passed for a length of time through rich and heavily-timbered monas- tic property, then the beautiful valley narrowed, and by a *' Red Arrow Gate " we entered on a smooth broad road, on which the sun glinted here and there through the heavy foliage of an avenue of noble pines, a gap now and then giving en- trancing glimpses of the deep delicious blue of the summer sky, of a grand gorge dark with pines, firs, and the exotic Cleyera Japoiiica and zelkawa, brightened by the tender green of maples and other deciduous trees, and by flashes of foam from a torrent booming among great moss-covered boulders. Then came bridges with decorative roofs, abbots' tomb- stones under carved and painted canopies, inscribed stone tablets, glorious views of a peaked, forest-clothed mountain barring the gorge, and as the pines of the avenue fell into groups at its close, and magnificent zelkawas, from whose spreading branches white roses hung in graceful festoons, over- lyo Korea and Her Neighbors arched the road, a long irregular line of temples and monastic buildings appeared, clinging in singular picturesqueness to the sides of the ravine, which there ascends somewhat rapidly towards the mountain, which closes it. An abbot, framed in the doorway of a quaint building, and looking like a picture of a portly, jolly, mediaeval friar, wel- comed us, and he and his monks regaled us with honey water in the large guest- hall, but simultaneously produced a visitors' book and asked us how much we were going to pay, the sum being duly recorded. The grasping ways of these monks, who fleeced the mapu so badly as to make them say they '' had fallen among thieves," contrast with the friendly hospitality of their brethren of the Diamond Mountain, and can only be accounted for by the contaminating influences of a treaty port, from which they are distant only a long day's journey ! ** See the sights first and then pay," they said, the glorious views and the quaint picturesqueness of the monastic buildings clustering on the crags above the cataracts being the sight par excellence. It was refreshing to turn from the contemplation of the sensual, acquisitive, greedy faces of most of the monks to Nature at her freshest and fairest, on one of the loveliest days of early June. The interiors of the temples are shabby and dirty, the paint is scaling off the roofs, and the floors and even the altars were hidden under layers of herbs drying for kitchen use. Besides the tablet to the first king of the present dynasty in a hand- some tablet-house, the noteworthy ''sight" to be seen is a small temple dedicated to the "Five Hundred Disciples." Sok-wang Sa is not a holy place, and the artist who carica- tured the devout and ascetic followers of the ascetic Sakymuni has bequeathed a legacy of unhallowed suggestion to its in- mates ! The "Five Hundred " are stone images not a foot in height, arranged round the dusty temple in several tiers, each one with a silk cap on, worn with more or less of a jaunty air on Along the Coast 171 one side of the head or falling over the brow. The variety of features and expression is wonderful ; all Eastern nationalities are represented, and there are not two faces or attitudes alike. The whole display shows genius, though not of a high order. Among the infinite variety, one figure has deeply set eyes, an aquiline nose, and thin lips; another a pug nose, squinting eyes, and abroad grinning mouth; one is Mongolian, another Caucasian, and another approximates to the Negro type. Here is a stout, jolly fellow, with a leer and a broad grin suggestive of casks of porter and the archaic London drayman ; there is an idiot with drooping head, receding brow and chin, and a vacant stare ; here again is a dark stage villain, with red cheeks and a cap drawn low over his forehead ; then Mr. Pecksniff confronts one with an air of sanctimoniousness obvi- ously difficult to retain ; Falstaff outdoes his legendary jollity ; and priests and monks of all nations leer at the beholders from under their jaunty caps. It is an exhibition of unsancti- fied genius. Nearly all the figures look worse for drink, and fatuous smiles, drunken leers, and farcical grins are the rule, the effect of all being aggravated by the varied and absurd arrangements of the caps. The grotesqueness is indescribable, and altogether '' unedifying." It was a great change to get on the broad main road to Won-san, and to see telegraph poles once more. There was plenty of goods and passenger traffic across the fine plain covered with rice and grain, margined by bluffs, and dotted with what have obviously once been islands, near which Won- san is situated. Where the road is broad, a high heap of hardened mud runs along the centre, with hardened mud corrugations on either side ; where narrow, it is merely the top of a rice dyke. The bridges are specially infamous ; in fact, they were so rot- ten that the mapu would not trust their ponies upon them, and we forded all the streams. Yet this road, which I found 172 Korea and Her Neighbors equally bad at the three points at which I touched it, is one of the leading thoroughfares by which goods pass from the east to the west coast and vice versa, — tobacco, copper, salt fish, sea- weed, galena, and hides from the east, and foreign shirtings, watches, and miscellaneous native and foreign articles from the west. The heat of the sun was but poorly indicated by a shade temperature of 84°, and it was in his full noontide fierceness that we reached the huddle of foul and narrow alleys and ir- regular rows of thatched shops along the high road which make up the busy and growing Korean town of Won-san, which, with an estimated population of 15,000 people, lies along a strip of beach below a pine-clothed bluff and ranges of mountains, then green to their summits, but which I saw in December of the same year in the majesty of the snow which covers them from November to May. The smells were fearful, the dirt abominable, and the quantity of wretched dogs and of pieces of bleeding meat blackening in the sun perfectly sicken- ing. This aspect of meat, produced by the mode of killing it, has made foreigners entirely dependent on the Japanese butchers in Seoul and elsewhere. The Koreans cut the throat of the animal and insert a peg in the opening. Then the butcher takes a hatchet and beats the animal on the rump until it dies. The process takes about an hour, and the beast suffers agonies of terror and pain before it loses consciousness. Very little blood is lost during the operation ; the beef is full of it, and its heavier weight in consequence is to the advantage of the vendor. Then came a level stretch of about a mile, much planted with potatoes, glimpses of American Protestant mission-houses in conspicuous and eligible positions (eligible, that is, for everything but mission work), and the uneven Korean road glided imperceptibly into a broad gravel road, fringed on both sides with neat wooden houses standing in gardens, which gradually thickened into the neatest, trimmest, and most at- Along the Coast 173 tractive town in all Korea, the Japanese settlement of the treaty port of Won-san, opened to Japanese trade in 1880 and to foreign trade generally in 1883. Broad and well-kept streets, neat wharves, trim and fairly substantial houses, showing the interior dollishness and dainti- ness characteristic of Japan, a large and very prominent Japanese Consulate in Anglo-Japanese style, the offices of the *' N.Y.K.," the Japan Mail Steamship Company (an abbrevia- tion as familiar to residents in the Far East as "P. & O."), a Japanese Bank of solid reputation, Customs' buildings, of which a neat reading-room forms a part, neat Japanese shops where European articles can be bought at moderate prices, a large schoolhouse, with a teacher in European dress, and active manikins and hobbling but graceful women, neither veiled nor muffled up, are the features of this pleasant Jap- anese colony, which is so fortunate as to have no history, its progress, though not rapid, having been placid and peaceful, not marred by friction either with Koreans or foreigners of other nationalities ; and even the recent war, though it led to the removal of the Chinese consul and his countrymen, an in- significant fraction of the population, had left no special traces, except that the enormous wages paid to transport coolies by the Japanese had enabled them to gamble with yen instead of cash ! I was most hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Gale of the American Presbyterian Mission. Mr. Gale's work was the im- portant one of the preparation of a dictionary of the Korean language in Korean, Chinese, and English, which was pub- lished in 1897. During the twelve days which I spent at Won-san I made a junk excursion in Yung-hing or Broughton Bay, in the south- west corner of which the port is situated. It is a superb bay, with an area of fully 40 square miles, a depth of from 6 to 12 fathoms, with good holding ground, never freezes in winter, is sheltered by promontories and mountains from the winds of 174 Korea and Her Neighbors every quarter, and its entrance is protected by islands. To English readers it is probable that the sole interest of this fine bay lies in the fact that its northern arm, Port Lazareff, which was the object of my cruise, is the harbor which Russia is credited with desiring to gain possession of for the terminus of her Trans-Siberian Railway. Whether this be so or no, or whether Port Shestakoff, on the same coast, but 60 miles farther north, is more defensible and better adapted for a naval as well as a terminal port, the time has gone by for grudging to Russia an outlet on the Pacific, and I for one should prefer it on the coast of eastern Korea than on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea. The head of Port Lazareff is about 16 miles from Won-san, and is formed by the swampy outlets of the river Dun-gan, among the many branches of which lie inhabited, low-lying islands. There are rude but extensive salt works at the shal- lows in which this noble inlet terminates, after receiving several streams besides the Dun-gan. Port Lazareff has, in addition, abundant supplies of water from natural springs. The high hills which surround the bay are grassy to their sum- mits, but there is very little wood, and the villages are small and far between. Game is singularly abundant. Pheasants are nearly as plentiful as sparrows are with us, the wary turkey bustard abounds, there are snipe in the late summer, and pigeons, plover, and water-hen are common. In spring and autumn wild fowl innumerable crowd the waters of every stream and inlet, swans, teal, geese, and ducks darkening the air, which they rend with their clamor as the sportsman in- vades their haunts. A Korean junk does not impress one by its seaworthiness, and it is not surprising that the junkmen hug the shore and seek shelter whenever a good sailing breeze comes on. She is built without nails, iron, or preservative paint, and looks rather like a temporary and fortuitous aggregation of beams and planks than a deliberate construction. Two tall, heavy Along the Coast ly^ masts fixed by wedges among the timbers at the bottom of the boat require frequent attention, as they are always swaying and threatening to come down. The sails are of matting, with a number of bamboos running transversely, with a cord attached to each, united into one sheet, by means of which tacking is effected, or rather might be. Practically, navigation consists in running before a light breeze, and dropping the mass of mats and bamboos on the confusion below whenever it freshens, varying the process by an easy pull at the sweeps, one at the stern and two working on pins in transverse beams amidships, which project 3 feet on each side. The junk is fitted with a rudder of enormous size, which from its position acts as a keel board. The price is from 60 to 80 dollars. This singular craft sails well before the wind, but under other circumstances is apt to become unmanageable. Won-san has telegraphic communication with Seoul, and chiefly through the enterprise of the N.Y.K., it is connected by most comfortable steamers with Korean ports and with Wladivostok, Kobe, and Nagasaki, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Chefoo, Newchwang, and Tientsin. Steamers of a Russian line call there at intervals during the summer season. There are no Western merchants or Western residents except the mis- sionaries and the Customs staff, and foreign trade is chiefly in the hands of the Japanese. About 60 // from Won-san are some large grass-covered mounds, of which the Koreans do not care to speak, as they regard them as associated with an ancient Korean custom, now looked upon as barbarous. During the last dynasty, and more than five centuries ago, it was customary, when people from age and infirmity became burdensome to their relations, to in- carcerate them in the stone cells which these mounds contain, with a little food and water, and leave them there to die. In similar mounds, elsewhere in Korea, bowls and jars of coarse pottery have been found, as well as a few specimens of gray 176 Korea and Her Neighbors There is nothing sensational about Won-san.'- It has no " booms" in trade or land, but " keeps the even tenor of its way." It is to me far the most attractive of the treaty ports. Its trim Japanese settlement, from which green hills rise abruptly, backed by fine mountain forms, dignified by snow for seven months of the year, and above all, the exquisite caves to the northwest, where the sea murmurs in cool grottos, and beats the pure white sand into ripples at the feet of cliffs hidden by flowers, ferns, and grass, and its air of dreamy re- pose— ''a land where it is always afternoon" — point to its future as that of a salubrious and popular sanitarium. In January of 1897, ^1"^^ population of Won-san was as follows:- Japanese . 1,299 French 2 Chinese 39 Russian 2 American 8 Danish I German . 3 Norwegian . I British 2 i»357 Estimated Korean population, 15,000. CHAPTER XIII IMPENDING WAR — EXCITEMENT AT CHEMULPO HAVING heard nothing at all of public events during my long inland journey, and only a few rumors of unlocal- ized collisions between the Tong-haks (rebels) and the Royal troops, the atmosphere of canards at Won-san was somewhat stimulating, though I had already been long enough in Korea not to attach much importance to the stories with which the air was thick. One day it was said that the Tong-haks had gained great successes and had taken Gatling guns from the Royal army, another that they had been crushed and their mysterious and ubiquitous leader beheaded, while the latest rumor before my departure was that they were marching in great force on Fusan. Judging from the proclamation which they circulated, and which, while stating that they rose against corrupt officials and traitorous advisers, professed unswerving loyalty to the throne, it seemed credible that, if there were a throb of patriotism anywhere in Korea, it was in the breasts of these peasants. Their risings appeared to be free from ex- cesses and useless bloodshed, and they confined themselves to the attempt to carry out their programme of reform. Some foreign sympathy was bestowed upon them, because it was thought that the iniquities of misrule could go no further, and that the time was ripe for an armed protest on a larger scale than the ordinary peasant risings against intolerable exactions. But at the very moment when these matters were being dis- cussed in Won-san with not more than a languid interest, a formidable menace to the established order of things was tak- ing shape, destined in a few days to cast the Tong-haks into 177 lyS Korea and Her Neighbors the shade, and concentrate the attention of the world on this insignificant peninsula. Leaving Won-san by steamer on 17th June, and arriving at Fusan on the 19th, I was not surprised to find a Japanese gun- boat in the harbor, and that 220 Japanese soldiers had been landed from the Higo Maru that morning and were quartered in the Buddhist temples on the hill, and that the rebels had cut the telegraph wires between Fusan and Seoul. Among the few Europeans at Fusan there was no uneasiness. The Japanese, with their large mercantile colony there, have considerable interests to safeguard, and nothing seemed more natural than the course they took. A rumor that Japanese troops had been landed at Chemulpo was quite disregarded. On arriving at Chemulpo, however, early on the morning of the 2ist, a very exciting state of matters revealed itself. A large fleet, six Japanese ships of war, the American flag ship, two French, one Russian, and two Chinese, were lying in the outer harbor. The limited accommodation of the inner har- bor was taxed to its utmost capacity. Japanese transports were landing troops, horses, and war material in steam launches, junks were discharging rice and other stores for the commis- sariat department, coolies were stacking it on the beach, and the movement by sea and land was ceaseless. Visitors from the shore, excited and agitated, brought a budget of astound- ing rumors, but confessed to being mainly in the dark. On landing, I found the deadly dull port transformed : the streets resounded to the tread of Japanese troops in heavy marching order, trains of mat and forage carts blocked the road. Every house in the main street of the Japanese settle- ment was turned into a barrack and crowded with troops, rifles and accoutrements gleamed in the balconies, crowds of Koreans, limp and dazed, lounged in the streets or sat on the knolls, gazing vacantly at the transformation of their port into a foreign camp. Only two hours had passed since the first of the troops landed, and when I visited the camp with a young Impending War lyg Russian officer there were 1,200 men under canvas in well- ventilated bell tents, holding 20 each, with matted floors and drainage trenches, and dinner was being served in lacquer boxes. Stables had been run up, and the cavalry and mountain guns were in the centre. The horses of the mountain battery- train, serviceable animals, fourteen hands high, were in ex- cellent condition, and were equipped with pack saddles of the latest Indian pattern. They were removing shot and shell for Seoul from the Japanese Consulate with 200 men and 100 horses, and it was done almost soundlessly. The camp, with its neat streets, was orderly, trim, and quiet. In the town sentries challenged passers-by. Every man looked as if he knew his duty and meant to do it. There was no swagger. The manikins, well armed and serviceably dressed, were obviously in Korea for a purpose which they meant to ac- complish. What that purpose was, was well concealed under color of giving efficient protection to Japanese subjects in Korea, who were said to be imperilled by the successes of the Tong- haks. The rebellion in southern Korea was exciting much alarm in the capital. Such movements, though on a smaller scale, are annual spring events in the peninsula, when in one or other of the provinces the peasantry, driven to exasperation by official extortions, rise, and, with more or less violence (oc- casionally, fatal), drive out the off'ending mandarin. Punish- ment rarely ensues. The King sends a new official, who squeezes and extorts in his turn with more or less vigor, until, if he also passes bearable limits, he is forcibly expelled, and things settle down once more. This Tong-hak (*' Oriental " or ''National") movement, though lost sight of in presence of more important issues, was of greater moment, as being organized on a broader basis, so as to include a great number of adherents in Seoul and the other cities, and with such definite and reasonable objects that at first I was inclined to l8o Korea and Her Neighbors call its leaders " armed reformers " rather than '* rebels." At that time there was no question as to the Royal authority. The Tong-hak proclamation began by declaring in respect- ful language loyal allegiance to the King, and went on to state the grievances in very moderate terms. The Tong-haks asserted, and with undoubted truth, that officials in Korea, for their own purposes, closed the eyes and ears of the King to all news and reports of the wrongs inflicted on his people. That ministers of State, governors, and magistrates were all indiffer- ent to the welfare of their country, and were bent only on enriching themselves, and that there were no checks on their rapacity. That examinations (the only avenues to official life) were nothing more than scenes of bribery, barter, and sale, and were no longer tests of fitness for civil appointment. That officials cared not for the debt into which the country was fast sinking. That " they were proud, vainglorious, adulterous, avaricious." That many officials receiving ap- pointments in the country lived in Seoul. That " they flatter and fawn in peace, and desert and betray in times of trouble." The necessity for reform was strongly urged. There were no expressions of hostility to foreigners, and the manifesto did not appear to take any account of them. The leader, whose individuality was never definitely ascertained, was credited with ubiquity and supernatural powers by the common people, as well as with the ability to speak both Japanese and Chinese, and it was evident from his measures, forethought, the dispo- sition of his forces, and some touches of Western strategic skill, that he had some acquaintance with the modern art of war. His followers, armed at first with only old swords and halberds, had come to possess rifles, taken from the official armories and the defeated Royal troops. For in the midst of the thousand wild rumors which were afloat, it appeared certain that the King sent several hundred soldiers against the Tong- haks under a general who, on his way to attack their camp, raised and armed 300 levies, who, in the engagement which Impending War 181 followed, joined the " rebels " and turned upon the King's troops, that 300 of the latter were killed, and that the general was missing. This, following other successes, the deposition of several important officials, and the rumored march on Seoul, had created great alarm, and the King was supposed to be pre- pared for flight. But the events of the two or three days before I landed at Chemulpo threw the local disturbance into the shade, and it is only with the object of showing with what an excellent pretext for interference the Tong-haks had furnished the Jap- anese, that I recall this petty chapter of what is now ancient history. The questions vital to Korea and of paramount diplomatic importance were, " What is the object of Japan? Is this an invasion? Is she here as an enemy or a friend?" Six thou- sand troops provisioned for three months had been landed. Fifteen of the Nippon Yusen Kaishd' s steamers had been with- drawn from their routes to act as transports, the Japanese had occupied the Gap, a pass on the Seoul road, and Ma-pu, the river port of the capital, and with guns, and in considerable force, had established themselves on Nam Han, a wooded hill above Seoul, from which position they commanded both the palace and capital. All these movements were carried out with a suddenness, celerity, and freedom from hitch which in their military aspects were worthy of the highest praise. To any student of Far Eastern politics it must have been ap- parent that this skilful and extraordinary move on the part of Japan was not made for the protection of her colonies in Chemulpo and Seoul, nor yet against Korea. It has been said in various quarters, and believed, that the Japanese ministry was shaky, and had to choose between its own downfall and a foreign war. This is a complete sophism. There can be no question that Japan had been planning such a movement for years. She had made accurate maps of Korea, and had secured reports of forage and provisions, measurements of the i82 Korea and Her Neighbors width of rivers and the depth of fords, and had been buying up rice in Korea for three months previously, while even as far as the Tibetan frontier, Japanese officers in disguise had gauged the strength and weakness of China, reporting on her armies on paper and, in fact, on her dummy guns, and antique, honeycombed carronades, and knew better than the Chinese themselves how many men each province could put into the field, how drilled and how armed, and they were acquainted with the infinite corruption and dishonesty, com- bined with a total lack of patriotism, which nullified even such commissariat arrangements as existed on paper, and rendered it absolutely impossible for China to send an army efficiently into the field, far less sustain it during a campaign. To all appearance Japan had completely outwitted China in Korea, and a panic prevailed among the Chinese. Thirty ladies of the households of the Chinese Resident and Consul embarked for China on the appearance of the Japanese in Seoul, and 800 Chinamen left Chemulpo the day I arrived, the consternation in the Chinese colony being so great that even the market gardeners, who have a monopoly of a most thriving trade, fled. I never before saw the Chinaman otherwise than aggra- vatingly cool, collected, and master of the situation, but on that June day he lost his head, and, frenzied by race hatred and pecuniary loss, was transformed into a shouting barbarian, not knowing what he would be at. The Chinese inn where I spent the day was one centre of the excitement, and each time that I came in from a walk or received a European visitor, a number of the employeSy usually most quiet and reticent, hud- dled into my room with faces distorted by anxiety, asking what I had heard, what was going to be, whether the Chinese army would be there that night, whether the British fleet was coming to help them, etc., and even my Chinese servant, a most excellent fellow, was beside himself, muttering in English through clenched teeth, " I must kill, kill, kill ! " Impending War 183 Meanwhile the dwarf battalions, a miracle of rigid disci- pline and good behavior, were steadily tramping to Seoul, where matters then and for some time afterwards stood thus. The King was in his secluded palace, and that which still posed as a Government had really collapsed. Mr. Hillier, the English Consul-General, was in England on leave, and the acting Consul-General, Mr. Gardner, C.M.G., had only been in Korea for three months. The American Minister was a newer man still. The French and German Consuls need hardly be taken into account, as they had few, if any, inter- ests to safeguard. Mr. Waeber, the able and cautious diplo- matist who had represented Russia for nine years, and had the confidence of the whole foreign community, had been ap- pointed cha7'ge d'affaires at Peking, and had left Seoul in the previous week. There remained, therefore, facing each other, Otori San, the Japanese ambassador to Peking, who was in Korea on a temporary mission, and Yuan, a military mandarin who had been for some years Chinese Resident in Seoul, a man entrusted by the Chinese Emperor with large powers, who was credited by foreigners with great force, tact, and ability, and who was generally regarded as " the power behind the throne." I had frequently seen Otori San in the early months of the year, a Japanese of average height, speaking English well, wearing European dress as though born to it, and sporting white " shoulder-of-mutton " whiskers. He lounged in draw- ing-rooms, making trivial remarks to ladies, and was remark- able only for his insignificance. I believe he made the same impression, or want of impression, at Peking. But circum- stances or stringent orders from Tokyo had transformed Mr. Otori. Whether he had worn a mask previously I know not, but he showed himself rough, vigorous, capable, a man of action, unscrupulous, and not only clever enough to outwit Yuan in a difficult and hazardous game, but everybody else. In the afternoon of that memorable day at Chemulpo the 184 Korea and Her Neighbors Vice-Consul called on me and warned me that I must leave Korea that night, and the urgency and seriousness of his manner left me no doubt that he was acting on information which he was not at liberty to divulge. I had left my travel- ling gear at Won san in readiness for an autumn journey, and was going to Seoul that night for a week to get my money and civilized luggage before going for the summer to Japan. It was a serious blow. Other Europeans advised me not to be '* deported," but it is one of my travelling rules never to be a source of embarrassment to British officials, and sup- posing the crisis to be an acute one, I reluctantly yielded, and that night, with two English fellow-sufferers, left Che- mulpo in the Japanese steamer Higo Maru, bound for ports in the Gulf of Pechili, which cid-de-sac would have proved a veritable "lion's mouth" to her had hostilities been as imminent as the Vice-Consul believed them to be. I had nothing but the clothing I wore, a heavy tweed suit, and the mercury was 80°, and after paying my passage to Chefoo, the first port of call, I had only four cents left. It was four months before I obtained either my clothes or my money ! CHAPTER XIV DEPORTED TO MANCHURIA THOUGH I landed at Chefoo in heavy tweed clothing, I was obliged to walk up the steep hill to the British Con- sulate, though the mercury was 84° in the shade, because I had no money with which to pay for 2^ jitiriksJia / My reflec- tions were anything but pleasant. My passport and letters of introduction, both private and official, were in Seoul, my travel- ling dress was distinctly shabby, and I feared that an impecu- nious person without introductions, and unable to prove her identity, might meet with a very cool reception. I experi- enced something of the anxiety and timidity which are the everyday lot of thousands, and I have felt a far tenderer sym- pathy with the penniless, specially the educated penniless, ever since. I was so extremely uncomfortable that I hung about the gate of the British Consulate for some minutes before I could summon up courage to go to the door and send in a torn address of a letter which was my only visiting card ! I thought, but it may have been fancy, that the Chinese who took it eyed me suspiciously and contemptuously. The sudden revulsion of feeling which followed I cannot easily forget. Mr. Clement Allen, our justly popular Consul, met me with a warm welcome. I needed no proof of identity or anything else, he only desired to know what he could do for me. My anxiety was not quite over, for I had to make the humiliating confession that I needed money, and immedi- ately he took me to Messrs. Ferguson and Co., who transact banking business, and asked them to let me have as much as I wanted. An invitation to tiffin followed, and Lady O' Conor, 185 i86 Korea and Her Neighbors and the wife of the Spanish minister at Peking, who were stay- ing at the Consulate, made up a bundle of summer clothing for me, and my ''deportation" enriched me with valued friend- ships. Returning in a very different frame of mind to the Higo Maruj I went on in her in severe heat to the mouth of the Peiho River in sight of the Taku forts, and after rolling on its muddy surges for two days, proceeded to Newchwang in Man- churia, reaching the mouth of the Liau River in five days from Chemulpo. Rain was falling, and a more hideous and disas- trous-looking country than the voyage of two hours up to the port revealed, I never saw. The Liau, which has a tremen- dous tide and strong current, and is thick with yellow mud, is at high water nearly on a level with the adjacent flats, of which one sees little, except some mud forts on the left bank of the river, which are said to be heavily armed with Krupp guns, and an expanse of mud and reeds. Of the mud-built Chinese city of Ying-tzu (Military Camp), known as Newchwang, though the real Newchwang is a dere- lict port 30 miles up the Liau, nothing can be seen above the mud bank but the curved, tiled roofs of yamens and tem- ples, though it is a city of 60,000 souls, the growth of its population having kept pace with its rapid advance in com- mercial importance since it was opened to foreign trade in i860. 'Several British steamers with big Chinese characters on their sides were at anchor in the tideway, and the river sides were closely fringed with up-river boats and sea-going junks, of various picturesque builds and colors, from Southern China, steamers and junks alike waiting not only for cargoes of the small beans for which Manchuria is famous, but for the pressed bean cake which is exported in enormous quantities to fertilize the sugar plantations and hungry fields of South China. There is a Bund, and along and behind it is the foreign settlement, occupied by about forty F.uropeans. The white buildings of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, the houses Deported to Manchuria 187 of the staff, the hongs of two or three foreign merchants, and the British Consular buildings, may be said to constitute the settlement. It has the reputation of being one of the kindliest and friendliest in the Far East, and the fact that the river closes annually about the 20th of November for about four months, and that the residents are thrown entirely on their own re- sources and on each other, only serves to increase that inter- dependence which binds this and similarly isolated communi- ties so strongly together. I was most kindly welcomed at the English Consulate then and on my return, and have most pleasant remembrances of Newchvvang, its cordial kindness, and cheerful Bund, and breezy blue skies, but at first sight it is a dreary, solitary-looking place of mud, and muddy waters for ever swallowing large slices of the land, and threatening to engulf it altogether. " Peas," really beans, ^ are its chief raison d'etre, and their ups and downs in price its mild sensations. "Pea-boats," long and narrow, with matting roofs and one huge sail, bring down the beans from the interior, and mills working night and day express their oil, which is as good for cooking as for burning. The viceroyalty of Manchuria, in which I spent the next two months, is interesting as in some ways distinct from China, be- sides having a prospective interest in connection with Russia. Lying outside of the Great Wall, it has a population of several distinct and mixed races, Manchus (Tartars), Gilyaks, Tung- usi, Solons, Daurs, and Chinese. Along with these must be mentioned about 30,000 Korean families, the majority of whom have left Korea since 1868, in consequence of political disturb- ance and official exactions.^ The facts that the dynasty which has ruled China by right of conquest since 1644 is a Manchu dynasty, and that it im- 1 Glycene hispides (Dr. Morrison). 2 According to information obtained by the Russian Diplomatic Mission in Peking, i88 Korea and Her Neighbors posed the shaven forehead and the pigtail on all Chinese men successfully, while it absolutely failed to prevent the women from crippling their feet, though up to this day no woman with "Golden Lilies" (crushed feet) is allowed to enter the Imperial palace, naturally turn attention to this viceroyalty, which, in point of its area of 380,000 square miles, is larger than Austria and Great Britain and Ireland put together, while its population is estimated at from 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 only. Thus it offers a vast field for emigration from the con- gested provinces of Northern China, and Chinese immigrants are steadily flocking in from Shan-tung, Chi-li, and Shen-si, so that Southern Manchuria at this time is little behind the inner provinces of China in density of population. It is different in the northern province, where a cold climate and vast stretches of forest render agriculture more difficult. If it had not been for the war and its attendant complications, I had purposed to travel through it from Northern Korea. But it is unsettled at all times. The majority of its immi- grants consists of convicts, fugitive criminals, soldiers who have left the colors, and gold and ginseng hunters. There is something almost comical about some of the doings of this unpromising community. It comprises large organized bands of mounted brigands, well led and armed, who do not hesitate to come into collision with the Imperial troops, frequently coming off victors, and at times, as when I was in Mudken, wresting forts from their hands. During the Taiping rebellion, when the Chinese troops were withdrawn from Manchuria, these bands carried havoc and terror everywhere, and seizing upon towns and villages, ruled them by right of conquest ! ^ In recent years the Government has decided to let voluntary colonists settle in the northern provinces, and has even furnished them with material assistance. Still, things are bad, and the brigands have come to be re- » Information received by the Russian Diplomatic Mission in Peking. Deported to Manchuria 189 garded as a necessary evil, and are "arranged with." They are not scrupulous as to human life, and when they catch a rich merchant from the south, they send an envoy to his guild with a claim for ransom, strengthened by the threat that if it is not forthcoming in so many days, the captive's head will be cut off. Winter, when the mud is frozen hard, is the only time for the transit of goods by land, and long trains of mule carts may then be seen, a hundred or more together, starting from Newchwang, Mukden, and other southern cities, each carrying a small flag, which denotes that a suitable blackmail has been paid to an agent of the brigand chiefs, and that they will not be robbed on the journey ! Later, when I was on the Siberian frontier of Manchuria, the brigands were in great force, and having been joined by half-starved deserters from the Chinese army, were harrying the country, and the peasants were flying in terror from their farms. Among the curious features of Manchurian brigandage, is that its virulence rises or falls with good or bad harvests, inun- dations, etc. For many of the usually respectable peasant farmers, in times of floods and scanty crops, join the robber bands, returning to their honest avocations the next season ! In spite, however, of this terrorism in the northeast, Man- churia is one of the most prosperous of the Chinese viceroy- alties, and its foreign trade is assuming annually increasing importance.^ I was disappointed to find that the Manchus (or Tartars) 1 Taking the port of Newchwang, through which, with certain excep- tions, all exports of native produce and imports of foreign merchandise and Chinese productions pass, in 1871 16 steamers and 203 sailing vessels entered the port, with a total tonnage of 65,933 tons; in 1881, 114 steamers and 218 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 159,098 tons; and in 1891, 372 steamers and 61 sailing vessels, with a total tonnage of 334,709 tons. In the same period, British tonnage had increased from 38.6 of the whole to 58 per cent, of the whole. In 187 1 German tonnage nearly equalled British, being 37,6 of the whole, but it had declined in 1891 to 28 per cent, of the whole. 190 Korea and Her Neighbors differ little in appearance from the race which they have sub- dued. The women, however, are taller, comlier, and more robust in appearance, as may be expected from their retaining the natural size and shape of their feet, and not only their coiffure but their costume is different, the Manchu women wearing sleeveless dresses from the throat to the feet, over under dresses with wide embroidered sleeves. AVith some ex- ceptions, they are less secluded than their Chinese sisters, and have an air of far greater freedom. Most of the Manchu customs have disappeared along with the language, which is only spoken in a few remote valleys, and is apparently only artificially preserved because the ruling dynasty is Manchu. It is only those students who are aspir- ants for literary degrees and high office in the viceroyalty who are obliged to learn it. People of pure Manchu race are chiefly met with in the north. Manchus, as kinsmen of the present Imperial dynasty, enjoy various privileges. Every male adult, as soon as he can string a short and remarkably inflexible bow (no easy task), becomes a '' Bannerman," i.e. he is enrolled in one of eight bodies of irregulars, called *' Banners" from their distinctive flags, and from that time receives one /^/ As " it is the unexpected which happens," it would not be surprising if certain moves, ostensibly with the object of placing the independence of Korea on a firm basis, were made even before these volumes are published. 458 Korea and Her Neighbors of Customs, formerly of H.B.M.'s Chinese Consular Service. So long as he is in control at the capital, and such upright and able men as Mr. Hunt, Mr. Oiesen, and Mr. Osborne are Commissioners at the treaty ports (Appendix D), so long will England be commercially important in Korean estimation. The Customs revenue, always increasing, and collected at a cost of 10 per cent, only, is the backbone of Korean finance ; and everywhere the ability and integrity of the administration give the Commissioners an influence which is necessarily in favor of England, and which produces an impression even on corrupt Korean officialism. That this service should remain in our hands is of the utmost practical importance. In the days of Japanese ascendency there was a great desire to upset the present arrangement, but it was frustrated by the tact and firmness of the Chief Commissioner. The next danger is that it should pass into Russian hands, which would be a severe blow to our prestige and interests. Some of the leading Rus- sian papers are agitating this question, and the Novoie Vrei7iia of 9th September, 1897, in writing of the opening of the ports of Mok-po and Chi-nam-po to foreign trade, says : — " These encroachments are chiefly due to the cleverness of the British officials who are at the head of the Financial and Cus- toms Departments of the Korean administration." It adds, *'If Russia tolerates any further increase in this policy . . . Great Britain will convert the country into one of her best markets." The Novoie Vremia goes on to urge ** the Russian Government to exercise, before it is too late, a more searching surveillance than at present, to take steps to reduce the num- ber of British officials in the Korean Government (the Cus- toms), and to compel Japan to withdraw what are practically the military garrisons which she has established in Korea." Such, in brief outline, is the position of political affairs in Korea at the close of 1897. Her long and close political con- nection with China is severed ; she has received from Japan a gift of independence which she knows not how to use; Last Words on Korea 459 England, for reasons which may be guessed at, has withdrawn from any active participation in her affairs; the other Euro- pean Powers have no interests to safeguard in that quarter ; and her integrity and independence are at the mercy of the most patient and the most ambitious of Empires, whose inter- ests in the Far East are conflicting, if not hostile. It is with great regret that I take leave of Korea, with Rus- sia and Japan facing each other across her destinies. The dis- taste I felt for the country at first passed into an interest which is almost affection, and on no previous journey have I made dearer and kinder friends, or those from whom I parted more regretfully. I saw the last of Seoul in snow in the blue and violet atmosphere of one of the loveliest of her winter morn- ings, and the following day left Chemulpo in a north wind of merciless severity in the little Government steamer Hyenik for Shanghai, where the quaint Korean flag excited much interest and questioning as she steamed slowly up the river. APPENDIXES APPENDIX MISSION STATISTICS I 6 1 5 be a bii a bo 2 £ 03 -4 ^ +^ 0 a (D S .2 1 a 0 03 ;-i a 1 ;-i a a. a a. a a -a § i ^ u d M 0 0 03 .— 1 f 0 ID 03 2 1 i 1 i i .2 1 J3 2 2 1 ID CO >> > >> a, 1 a. Name of Mission. M _2 1 s 03 03 a "3 0 ct 05 a a^' S (D bc a be a I s 1 1 1 s a .2 5 03 2 0, 05 2 .2 a a It a -a a 03 5 a "C, S c« 4^ c p P S ^ 03 g £ •5 'i 3 1 03 3 0 1 0 a a .a 0 11 a: .2 ^ 1 be 0-1 Vh •M «M r.B .05 ,Q 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o-o -5 0 g hi ^ s-" ai u u ^ ^ jht3 •-I Q 2 a; a> ID '^■a ID (D O) S • (D « 03 03 a £i X5 .Q ^ .aH Xi .Q ^ J2 -3 -Q > .Q pQ >•* 2 s g ss S £ at S'S a s ^ > 3« a a 2 H ^ ^ ^ ^ 55 ;?; ^ ^ ;z; ^ ^ ^ £; American Presbyter- ian Mission (North) 1884 11 2 5 4 25 American Presbyter- ian Mission (South) 1892 4 2 2 3 Australian Presbyter- - 13 8 5 210 635 3 2 510 ian Mission 1891 1 3 1 Y.M.C.A. Mission of Canada . 1889 1 1 - American Meth. Epis. Mission (North) 1885 8 7 7 4 4 7 7 57 588 2 266 American Meth. Epis. Mission (South) . 1896 1 Ella Thiuj; Memorial Mission (Baptist) . 1895 1 1 1 1 3 1 Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel 1890 9 7 3 Soci6t6 des Missions- Etrangeres . 1784 26 8 19 466 18 1,250 515 28,802 * Besides much in labor and in contributions for support of native evangelists, 462 A. FOR KOREA, 1896. ^ to to 3 3 t/3 ;h f3 2 a ct a a O) M M >> 3 G o ,c: ip ■o 05 1 OT '5b O 1 1 i? a 2 3 1 a 3 a 3 s 1 ^ S ? 1 1 ■T3 a i2 o ! a o CO 1 1 be 3 •3 3 i 3 CO 1 CO 3 •p 3 1 11 a 3 1 .22 s .2 "cS 3 02 a -a a jn B s 3 5 ;3 "^ S a 'B • O o ■s o o O o o o o o O O "o O o o §1 ^ Uc hi :h ^iri tH ft t^ S-i S-r ^ ;-i •^ t* u tj tt «>!. S © m ai O) a> OJ • a> -J a> O) tt) m . E£ X2 ^ 2 ^ ^ ^ ^^ :D ^ II e 2 2 S 3 3 3 O a-? e a 3 s s sf g 3 a 3 3 3 3 30 3i£ 3 3 3 3 3 3 >> s 3 Ha ^ z; 1^ » » ;z; 25 z; ^ ^ ;2 ^ ^ ^ z; ^ ^ 12; r 1 1^ 139 1 1 50 35 13 2 4 1 3 339 7 1 20,295 2,000 1796.44^ 10 783 •< 1 9 1 1 7 512 4 21 121 1 204 1 1 110 50 1 24 3 10 5 2 3 116 795 4 3 7,778 29,786 $647.37 160 schools, and the enlargement and construction of Church edifices, 463 464 Appendix B APPENDIX B Direct Foreign Trade of Korea, 1886-96 {i.e. net value of foreign goods imported in foreign, or foreign- type, vessels into the Treaty Ports, and taken cognizance of by the foreign Customs ; and of native goods similarly ex- ported and re-exported from the Treaty Ports to foreign countries.) Year. Net imports of Foreign Goods {i.e. exclusive of Foreign Goods re-exported to Foreign Countries). Exports and Re-exports' of Native Goods to Foreign Countries. Total. 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 $2,474,185 2,815,441 3,046,443 3,377,815 4,727,839 5,256,468 4,598,485 3,880,155 5,831,563 8,088,213 6,531,324 $ 504,225 804,996 867,058 1,233,841 3,550,478 3,366,344 2,443,739 1,698,116 2,311,215 2,481,808 4,728,700 $2,978,410 3,620,437 3,913,501 4,611,656 8,278 317 8,622,812 7,042,224 5,578,271 8,142,778 10,570,021 11,260,024 Note. — The increase in the foreign trade of Kovea between 1886 and 1896 may not have been so great as the above figures w^ithout explanation would imply. It is generally stated that side by side with the trade in foreign vessels at the Treaty Ports a considerable traffic has been carried on by junk between non-Treaty ports in Korea and ports in China and Japan. This junk trade was probably much larger in the earlier years of the period the figures of which are compared, and the rapid development shown in the table may be partly due to the increasing transfer of traffic from native craft to foreign-type vessels which offer greater regularity and safety and less delay. ' i.e. including native goods imported from another Korean port and re-exported to a foreign country. Appendix B 465 Comparative Table of the net Dues and Duties Collected AT THE Three Ports for the Years 1884-96 Year. Import Duties. Export Duties. Tonnage Dues. Total. 1884 $79,373.71 $19,234.74 $3,478.19 $102,086.64 1885 119,364.41 19,602.22 2,996.90 141,963 53 1886 132,757.12 24,812.11 2,708.75 160,277.98 1887 203,271.68 40,384.52 3,045.12 246,701.32 1888 219,759.81 43,330.62 4,124.55 267.214.98 1889 213,457.49 61,835.23 4,707.04 279,999.76 1890 327,460.11 178,552.14 8,587.90 514,600.15 1891 372,022.07 168,096.36 8,940.26 549,058.69 1892 308,954.13 123,212.24 6,247.05 438,41342 1893 262,679 28 85,720.22 5,717.16 354,116.66 1894 357,828.34 115,779.33 7,398 64 481,006.31 1895 601,588.06 124,261.22 15,448.20 741,297.48 1896 448,137.16 226,342.45 17,304.75 691,784.36 CoMPARAVivE Statement of the Japanese and non- Japanese Cotton Goods Imported into Korea during the Year 1896 Classi- fication Japa nese. Non-Japanese. Total. Description.' of Quan- tity. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Shirtings— Gray $ $ 1 Plain Pieces 6,715 23,660 428,911 1,567,967 435,626 1,591,627 Shirtings— Wliite 31 121 5,445 21,768 5,476 21,889 T-Cloths . 1,211 2,719 1,660 4,177 2,871 6,896 Drills 163 634 11,583 47,998 11,746 48,632 Turkey-Red Cloths 1,652 3,663 7,519 17,349 9,171 21,012 Sheetings . 30,184 115,914 14,793 58,455 44,977 174,369 Cotton Flannel . 762 2,870 1,432 3,927 2,194 6,797 Cotton Blankets . Pairs 1,625 3,883 1,625 3,883 Cotton Yarn and Thread . Piculs Value 12,821 368,064 521,528 1,795 71,386 1,793,027 14,616 439,450 2,314,555 Cotton Goods, Un- classed . » 1 644,671 2379,319 1,023,990 Total . Value 1,166,199 2,172,346 3,338,545 » Chiefly narrow-width cloth, gray or white, checked or plain. " Including $2,549 Chinese Cottons, 466 Appendix C APPENDIX C Return of Principal Articles of Export (net) to Foreign Coun- tries for the Years 1896-95 Cliemulpo. Fusan. Won -san. Articles. 1896. 1895. 1896. 1895. 1896. 1895. Beans £48,485 £45,679 £65,731 £22,337 £24,132 £32,049 Fish (dried manure) . , . . 4,296 639 4,394 312 Cowliides . 8,789 14,036 11,077 37,225 4,424 6,152 Ginseng 29J39 575 . Paper 2.326 1,785 1,806 2.236 24 9 Rice .... 92,444 62,390 178,852 17,646 549 Seaweed . 55 40 6,705 3,809 Sundries . 12.713 8,992 13,633 9,361 2,101 3,590 Total . . £194,551 £133,497 £282,100 £93,253 £35,624 £42,112 1896. 1895. Currency. Sterling. Currency. Sterling. Total exports from Korea . . . $4,728,700 £512,275 $2,481,808 £268,862 Appendix C 467 Return of Principal Articles of Foreign Import (net : i.e. ex- cluding Re-exports) to Open Ports of Korea during the Years 1896-95. Articles. Chenmlpo. Fusan. Won-san. 1896. 1895. 1896. 1895. 1896. 1895. Cotton goods— Shirtings £103.196 6,956 12,508 6,736 14,015 27,271 5.634 14,394 £172.549 11,554 7,199 8,594 20,129 26,098 4,876 29,065 £51 .920 10,670 24;9i4 11,018 222 6,363 £54.911 8,183 ]9,'432 3,886 4,'836 £21,982 1,072 - 40 23 30,867 1,590 1,871 8.732 £55,190 2,066 1,330 4,500 38,608 3,483 4,364 15,125 Lawns and muslins Sheetings- Japanese English and American Japanese piece-goods.... Yarn- Japanese English and Indian Other cottons Total £190,710 £280,064 £105,137 £91,238 £66,177 £124,666 Woolens 3,266 4,933 578 884 182 333 Metals 7,172 8,620 15,253 10,342 7,690 1 6,217 Sundries- Dyes 4.818 22,358 4,798 20,035 9,312 5,717 3.018 28,943 89,417 10,794 13.641 3,575 9,819 457 3,859 9.639 65.057 111,902 2,363 3,546 4,571 9,560 4.513 2,358 2,972 8,167 50,828 3,084 1,402 3,348 7,479 478 2.024 2.818 5,606 38,859 777 2,241 2,018 6,463 69 381 1,203 4,058 26,241 1,667 3 154 Grass-cloths. Matches 1,680 3,990 1 Kerosene oil- American Kussian Provisions Sake 1 176 Silk piece-goods 12.848 Other articles 30,884 Total £188,416 £228,743 £88,878 £65,098 £43,451 £55,400 Grand total.... £382,203 1,088 £522,360 596 £209,846 £167,562 £117,500 £186,616 126 Less excess of re- exports over im- ports in some ar- ticles Net total £381,115 £521,764 £209.846 £167,562 £117,500 £186.490 1896. 1895. Currency. Sterling. Currency. Sterling. Total for Korea $6,539,630' £708,461 88,084,465' £875,816 '1 dollar = 2s. 2d. 468 Appendix C vo 00 M u a .s o o Ph G &. c c W en (A (A bO c ■p. IS en i o 13 1 3 °'|-'|JS' 11 ii .-tcq c 1 i : : : :t>r : ! m \\\^:f IS d s S B CO tn 1 3.381 118,145 1,082 2,202 10,375 is .CO .-gC^C^jH CO(N ?3^ bi) c OQ E» 1 OO t- OO (N : =2 : :eo' S| <^ :S :| : :^ g§ 5Z5 American . . British . . Chinese . . German . . Japanese . . Norwegian . Russian . . Korean . . Appendix D 469 APPENDIX D The population of the three Korean treaty ports was as follows in Jan- uary, 1897 =— Chemulpo Settlement. Japanese 3,904 Chinese 404 British 15 German 12 American 7 French 7 Norwegian 3 Greek 3 Italian i Portuguese i Total .... 4,357 Estimated native population .... 6,756 Fusan Settlement. Japanese 5,5o8 Chinese 34 British 10 American 7 German 2 Danish ........ I French I Italian i Total .... 5,564 Estimated native population of Fusan City and the Prefecture of Tung nai .... 33,000 470 Appendix D Japanese Chinese American German British French Russian Danish Norwegian Total Estimated native population W5n-san Settlement. 1,299 39 8 3 2 2 2 I I i»357 15,000 Appendix E 471 APPENDIX E Treaty between Japan and Russia with Reply of H.E. the Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs MEMORANDUM The Representatives of Russia and Japan at Seoul, having conferred under the identical instructions from their respective Governments, have arrived at the following conclusions : — While leaving the matter of His Majesty's, the King of Korea, return to the Palace entirely to his own discretion and judgment, the Representa- tives of Russia and Japan will friendly advise His Majesty to return to that place, when no doubts could be entertained concerning his safety. The Japanese Representative, on his part, gives the assurance, that the most complete and effective measures will be taken for the control of Japanese soshi. The present Cabinet Ministers have been appointed by His Majesty by his own free will, and most of them have held ministerial or other high offices during the last two years and are known to be liberal and moderate men. The two Representatives will always aim at recommending His Majesty to appoint liberal and moderate men as Ministers, and to show clemency to his subjects. The Representative of Russia quite agrees with the Representative of Japan that at the present state of affairs in Korea it may be necessary to have Japanese guards stationed at some places for the protection of the Japanese telegraph line between Fusan and Seoul, and that these guards, now consisting of three companies of soldiers, should be withdrawn as soon as possible and replaced by gendarmes, who will be distributed as follows : fifty men at Fusan, fifty men at Ka-heung, and ten men each at ten intermediate posts between Fusan and Seoul. This distribution may be liable to some changes, but the total number of the gendarme force shall never exceed two hundred men, who will afterwards gradually be withdrawn from such places, where peace and order have been restored by the Korean Government. For the protection of the Japanese settlements at Seoul and the open ports against possible attacks by the Korean populace, two companies of Japanese troops may be stationed at Seoul, one company at Fusan and 472 Appendix E one at Won-san, each company not to exceed two hundred men. These troops will be quartered near the settlements, and shall be withdrawn as soon as no apprehension of such attacks could be entertained. For the protection of the Russian Legation and Consulates the Russian Government may also keep guards not exceeding the number of Japanese troops at those places, and which will be withdrawn as soon as tranquillity in the interior is completely restored. (Signed) C. Waeber, Representative of Russia. J. KOMURA, Representative of Japan. Seoul, \\th May, 1896. PROTOCOL The Secretary of State, Prince Lobanow-Rostovskey, Foreign Minister of Russia, and the Marshal Marquis Yamagata, Ambassador Extraordi- nary of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, having exchanged their views on the situation of Korea, agreed upon the following articles : — I For the remedy of the financial difficulties of Korea, the Governments of Russia and Japan will advise the Korean Government to retrench all superfluous expenditure, and to establish a balance between expenses and revenues. If, in consequence of reforms deemed indispensable, it may be necessary to have recourse to foreign loans, both Governments shall by mutual consent give their support to Korea. II The Governments of Russia and Japan shall endeavor to leave to Korea, as far as the financial and economical situation of that country will per- mit, the formation and maintenance of a national armed force and police of such proportions as will be sufficient for the preservation of the in- ternal peace, without foreign support. Ill With a view to facilitate communications with Korea, the Japanese Government may continue {contimiera) to administer the telegraph lines which are at present in its hands. It is reserved to Russia (the rights) of building a telegraph line be- tween Seoul and her frontiers. These different lines can be repurchased by the Korean Government, so soon as it has the means to do so. Appendix E 473 IV In case the above matters should require a more exact or detailed ex- planation, or if subsequently some other points should present themselves upon which it may be necessary to confer, the Representatives of both Governments shall be authorized to negotiate in a spirit of friendship. (Signed) Lobanow. Yamagata. Moscow, 9M June, 1896. The following is the exact translation of the reply sent to the Japanese Minister by the Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, concerning the Russo- Japanese Convention : — Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mar. gth, 2nd year of Kxin-yang (1897). Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 2nd instant, informing me that, on the 14th day of May last, a memo- randum was signed at Seoul by H.E. Mr. Komura, the former Japanese Minister Resident, and the Russian Minister, and that, on the 4th of June of the same year, an Agreement was signed at Moscow, by H.E. Marshal Yamagata, the Japanese Ambassador, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Russia ; and that these two documents have been laid publicly before the Imperial Diet. You further inform me that on the 26th ultimo you received a telegram from your Government, pointing out that the above- mentioned Agreement and memorandum in no way reflect upon, but, on the contrary, are meant to strengthen, the independence of Korea, — this being the object which the Governments of Japan and Russia had in view, — and you cherish the confident hope that my Government will not fail to appreciate this intention. In accordance with telegraphic instruc- tions received from the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs you enclose copies of the Agreements referred to. I beg to express my sincere thanks for your despatch and the informa- tion it conveys. I would observe, however, that as my Government has not joined in concluding these two Agreements, its freedom of action as an independent Power cannot be restricted by their provisions. — I have, etc., (Signed) Ye Wanyong, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. Kato, Minister of Japan, etc. INDEX Abbot, a refined, 84. Absolutism of the Korean crown reimposed, 377. Agricultural implements, rude and few, 161. Agriculture, primitive charac- ter of, 78; improved methods in the Han Valley, 100; meth- ods of, 160 ; ministry of, 383. Ah Wong, 31. Allen, Mr. Clement, 185; Dr., 352, 353. 354, 443- Altar-piece, an unique, 148. American Missions, 22, 63, 172, 279, 311, 346-350, 388. Am-nok River, the, 14, 17, 74. Amur Province, the, 234, 242. Amur River, the, 219, 220, 233, 241, 242, 244. An-byong, 163. Ancestral temple, an, 87; wor- ship, 61, 63, 88, 401. An-chin-Miriok, 345. Ang-paks, 77, 125, 157. Animal and Bird life, 73, 74, 150. An-ju, 328. An-kil Yung Pass, crossing the, 330. An-mun-chai, the, 138, 141, 144, 146. An object of curiosity, 88, 94, 97, 127, 146. Appenzeller, Rev. H. G., 388. A-ra-riing style of music, 166. Archipelago, a remarkable, 15. Army, 56, 57, 210 ; standing, an extravagance, 434. A-san, 206; battle of, 207. Assassination of the Queen, 271, 455. Assembly, a national, 373. Atai-jo king, 169. Australian ladies, mission work by, 28. Baikal horses, 237. Banks and Banking, 26. "Bannermen," (irregular sol- diery) of Manchuria, 190, 191. Barter, the mode of exchange, 78. Bas-reliefs, 84. Beacon fires, 97, 105. Beheading abolished, 265. "Believing Mind, Temple of the," 139. Bell of Song-do, 295; of Seoul, the great (see Seoul). Birukoff, Mr., 388. Botany, Native, 17, 95, 98. Bows and arrows, reliance on in Manchuria, igo. Bridges, infamous character of the, 171 ; precarious, 293. Brigands of Manchuria, 189. British political influence and trade, 457. Broughton Bay, junk excursion in, 15, 173. Brown, Mr. M'Leavy, 37, 369, 397, 435, 448, 457. Buddha, statues of, 136, 144. Buddha worship, 137. Buddhism, disestablishment of, 61; moribund, 142; introduc- tion of, 148 ; palmy days of Korean, 169; gross supersti- tions of, 399; relics of Korean, 286. Buddhist hells, representations of, 139; nunneries, 115, 135. 475 476 Index Buddhistic legends, 145. Buddhist monastery and tem- ple, 63, 76, 79, 84, 319. Bull, Korean, as a beast of burden, 36, no ; used for ploughing, 162. Burial customs, 63, 204, 286, 288-291. Burial places, 36, 61. Butchers, methods of, 172. Cabinet, the, 371, 374, 375; min- isters, execution of, 367, Campbell, Mr., 133, 135, 138, 826. Carles, Consul, 130, 329, 355. Cavalry, Chinese, General Tso's brigade, 210. Cave, a remarkable, 99. Cham-su-ki, 95, 96; tree, 96. Chang-an Sa, 137, 141, 142, 143, 144, 150, 160. Charms, 408. Cha-san, 322, 344. y Che-chon, 106, Chefoo, arrival at, 185; return to, 213. Chemulpo, 20, 30, 33 ; war ex- citement at, 178 ; exodus of Chinese from, 182 ; return of authoress to, 245; accident on the way to, 267; arrival at, 357; railroad from to the cap- ital, 450; leave from, 459; banks at, 32, 436; cemetery at, 318; Chinese settlement in, 31, 245; Japanese settle- ment in, 31, 181, 246; Korean quarter, 33; occupation of, by Japanese, 206, 245; population of. 469, trade in, 33. Children, non-burial of in Man- churia, 204 ; sale of daemons, 412. Chil-sung Mon, the, 315, 316. China, diplomatic relations with Korea, 19, 182. Chinese in Korea, 12, 20, 182; predominant influence of, 22, 452; their settlement in Che- mulpo, 31; the colony at Seoul, 44; consternation in Chinese colony, 182; connec- tion with Korea severed, 458. Chinese Manchuria, 237, 244. Chin-nam-po, 19, 357, 458. Chino-Japanese War, origin of the, 206. Choi Sok daemon, 420, Chol-muri Kaut, the, 411. Chol-yong-To, 23. Chong-dong, 427, 437. Chong-phong, town of, 90, 93, 94; female curiosity at, 94. Chong-sop (abbots), 141. Chon-shin daemons, 418. Chon-yaing, 88. Chosen Magazine, The, 440. Cho Wang daemon, 420. Christianity, progress of, 201, 202. Christian missions (see Mission- aries and the Missions). Christians, native, 65, 227. Christian work in Seoul, 63; in Korea, 65; Korean estimate of, 438. Christie, Dr., 198, 201, 202, 211. Chu-la, 25, 306. Chun-chhon, 109. Chung-Chong-Do, 75, 84. Chyu-pha Pass, the, 129. Class privileges, loi, 446, 450. Climate, healthy character of, 16; at Mukden, 201. Coasts, character of, 15; tour along, 150. Coinage of, 20, 66, 398. Concubinage, a recognized in- stitution, 342. Confucian college, the, 382; temples, 76, 83, 94, 103. Confucianism in Korea, 21, 22. Conjugal fidelity, 116, 341, 343, Conspiracies, frequency of, 447. Constitutional changes, 371-386. Conventions with China, re- nunciation of the, 207. Cookery of the Koreans, 154. Corfe, Bishop, 33, 37, 49, 63, 64, 66, 68. Corfe Mission at Seoul, 30, 33, 64, 68. Corruption, 431, 448. Index 477 Cossacks, Russian, rigid discip- line of, 238. Costumes, 26, 27, 45, 46. Council of State, formation of a, 370, 375. Council of State (Korean), or- ganization of, 375. Court functionaries, 428, 430. Crown Prince, the, 253, 273, 362, 365, 428; Princess, the, 273. Customs, Korean, 59, 78, loi, 114, 127, 265, 266, 287, 359. Customs revenue the backbone of Korean finance, 458. Curzon, the Hon. G. W., 138. Daemon festivals, 410, Dcemons, classification of, 421. Daemon Worship, 79; fear of daemons, 127, 129; daemonism, 399, 404, 409, 417. Dallet's Histoire de 1' Eglise de Koree, 11; quoted in regard to the position of women, 341, 355. Dancing women, 344, 352. Death, customs connected with, 63. Deluge, a Manchurian, 193. Diamond Mountain Monasteries, 133- Diamond Mountain, the, 74, 75, 103, 129, 133, 140. Disciples, Five Hundred, Tem- ple to, 170. Distinctions between Patrician and Plebeian abolished, 385. Divination, 407, 408. Dog-infested Seoul, 47. Dog meat, use of, 154. Dogs, 47, 72. Dolmens, 131, Domestic animals, few, 161; life unknown, 355; slaves, 47. Domiciliary visit, 304. Dragon daemons, 417. Drunkenness common, 91. Dwellings, 77. Dye, General, American mili- tary adviser, 271, 272, 277, 279. Dynasty, Korean, worn out, 255. Eastern Siberia, maritime prov- inces of, 242-244. Eastern Siberian, drift of popu- lation to, 244. Edgar, H. M. S., 302. Edicts. See Royal. Education, 143, 203, 387, 438; the ministry of, 382, 391. Education and Foreign Trade, 387. Education in the hamlets, 79. " Eight Views," the 155. Elm trees, fine, 93. English mission, the first, 63. English-speaking Koreans at Seoul, 4g. Eternal Rest, Temple of, 134. Eui-chyeng Pu (the cabinet), 371, 377. Europeans, Korean estimate of, 438. Examinations for official posi- tion, 152; royal exams, abol- ished, 388. Exorcists and Exorcism, 114, 344, 350, 400, 405, 423. Exports and Imports, 392; re- turns of, 466, 467. Extortions and tyrannies, 450. Falconry, 74. Farmers, 447, 450. Fauna of, 16. Fengtien Cavalry Brigade, 210. Ferguson & Co., Messrs., 185. Fermented liquors, 91, 92. Ferries, 104. Ferry boat, an ingenious, 131. Festivals, 410-413. Fetishes, 416, 421. Fever, attack of, 193. Finance, 396. Fire Dragon Pool, the 145. Fish and Fishing, 158. "Five Hundred Disciples," temple of the, 170. Floods in Manchuria, 193. Flora of, 17. Forced labor, 337. Foreign Goods, trade in, 24, 387 391, 395, 464. 478 Index Foreign liquors, love of, 91; Office, the, 381. Forest wealth, 17. Formosa, transfer of , 269. Fortress, an ancient, 105. " Four Sages," Hall of the, 136. Fox, Mr., 37, 39. French clocks, rage for at Y6 Ju, 90, 91. Frescoes, curious, 60, 319. Friendly character of people, 80. " Frog-boxes," 408. Funerals, observances at, 62, 286. Fusan, 20, 23, 24, 25; its Japan- ese character, 26; markets of, 28; Europeans in, 178; Jap- anese soldiers in, 245, 454; population of, 469. Gale, Mr., 167, 173; Mrs., 173. Game, 174. Gap Pass, the, 36, 181. Gardner, Mr. (acting consul), 35, 183; Mrs. and Miss, 37. Gautama, a shrine of, 137. Geographical position deter- mines Korea's political rela- tionships, 452. Geology and the geological for- mation, 15. Gesang, The, (singing and danc- ing girls) of Phyong-yang, 352, 353- Ginseng, "the elixir of life," 296; extent of its cultivation, 297; preparation for market, 298. Girl-babies, not specially wel- come in a family, 300, 341. Girls, seclusion of, 119. Godobin, Fort, 214. God of War, temple to the, 319. Gold-digging, 108, 322, 324. Gold-dust exports, 108. " Golden Sand, the river of," 80. Gold ornaments, 108. Gorge, a grand, 95. Government departments (Ko- rean) reorganized, 381. Government Gazette^ the, 373, 374, 377. '* Government Hospital," the, 64. " Great Fifteenth Day," the 266. Greathouse, General, 76. Greathouse, Mr., 441. Greek Church in Siberia, 229; its Litany, 231. Ha-chin, its ugly women, 97. Ha Ch'i style of music, 166. Ha-in class, the, 448. Hair-cropping edict, 359, 363. " Half-way Place," the, 91, " Hall of the Four Sages," 136, Ham-gyong Do, 219, 223, 233. Ham-gyong Province, 156, 163. Hanka Lake, 242, 244. Han Kang, village of, 68, 70, 76. Han River, 35, 36, 40, 68, 71,74, 75, 77, 80, 85, 92, 99, 103, 106, no; a cheap and convenient highway, in; descent of the, 105; fauna and flora of, 71, 72, 98; rapids of, 75, 92, 93, loi, 102, 105, no, in; scenery around the, 71. Han valley, inhabitants of the, 76, 78-79; cultivation of the, 100; limestone cliffs of the, 104; schools in the, 79; tem- perature of the, 81. Harbors of Fusan and Won-San, 14, 30. Hart, Sir Robert, 213. Hats, monstrous, 345. Heidemann, Mr., 223, 228, 231. Hemp cultivation, 95. Hermit City, the, 37, " Hermit Nation," the, opened by the treaties of 1883, 11. Hillier, Mr., 183, 246, 251, 259, 269, 281, 283. Hills, denudation of, 17. *' Hill Towns," the, 308. Hiroshima, trial of assassins at, 277. Hoa-chung, 151, 152. Hoang-chyong San, 153. Home Office, the, 381. Homesteads of the Han Valley, 79- Hong, Colonel, 271, 272, 274. Hon-j6, 293. Ho-pai, or divining table, the, 408. Index 479 Hospitals supported and con- ducted by the Missions, 33. Household spirits, 418. Hulbert, Rev. H. B., 164, 165, 166, 391. Hu-nan Chang, 94. Hun-chun, 228, 230, 237; Chi- nese at, 237, 238. Hun-ho river, the, 199. Hunt, Mr., 25, 458. Hwang-hai Do, 16. Hwang-hai Province, 303. Hyon, Colonel, 272. Idleness of the nobles at Seoul, 46 Im, accident to my servant, 331. Images, stone, 170, 171. Im-jin, 292. Im-jin Gang, the, 292. Immorality, 341. Import trade, value of, 393. Incantations, 425. Independence Arch, the, 439. Independence of Korea assured by the Japanese, 247; opposed by the native officials, 262. Independence, proclamation of, 247. Independent newspaper, the, 439, 440. Industries, 26. Inns, regular and irregular, 124, 125, 157, 294, 326. Inouye, Count, 247, 251, 261, 262, 268, 270, 274, 280. Inscription, an amusing, loi. Interior of the country, efforts to reach, 49, 66. Interrupted Shadow, Island of the, 23. Inundation in Manchuria, 195. Isolation maintained up to 1876, 19. I-tai, the innkeeper, 31, 245. Itinerary of travel, 357, 358. Jaisohn, Dr., 129, 389, 439. Japanese, designs of in Korea, 181, 206 ; lacking in tact, 263, 453; in Korea, 26; their settlement in Chemulpo, 31 ; hatred of the Koreans to- wards, 31, 344; shipping and commerce of, 32; control rice trade of Chemulpo, 32; the Legation and colony at Seoul, 43; Japs in Won-San, 176; prestige, a blow to, 278. Japan, last glimpse of, 23; sea of, 14, 30, 74, 103, 145, 149; outwits China in Korea, 182. Jones, Mr. Heber, 341, 400, 415, 418. "Judgment, Temple of," 139. Junks, Korean, 174. Justice, the Ministry of, 383. Ka-chang, 322, 323. Kai-chhon, 355. Kai-Song (Song-do), 293. Kal-ron-gi, 150. Kang-ge Mountains, 297. Kang, the, 197, 204. Kang-won Do, the, 14. Kang-won Province, 156. Kanjo Shimbo newspaper, the, 440. Ka-phyong, 109, 112. Keum-Kang San Mountains, the, 107, 129, 133, 140, 141, 146, 149, 150; Monasteries of, 134, 141. Keum-San Gang river, 129. Keum-San goldfields, 323, 355. Khabaroffka, 242, 244; Korean settlers near, 225, 233. Khordadbeh, the Arab, his " Book of Roads and Prov- inces," 12, Ki-cho, the, 138, 141, 149. Ki-jun, 355. Kimchi, 89, 153, 154. Kim Ok-yun, murderer of, 432. Kim, the boatman, 70, 82, 85, 92, 101-102, 107, King Li Hsi and the Kur-dong at Seoul, 58; audience with, appearance and character of, 252, 253, 256-260, 268, 428; practically a prisoner, 362; escapes to the Russian Lega- tion, 365, 430; issues procla- mation respecting hair-crop- 48c Index ping, 363; power of the, 371, 375, 378. King's oath, the "Korean, 249. Kings, palace of the, 295. Kit-ze introduces the elements of Chinese civilization in the I2th century, 12, 355; his tomb and temple, 318, 319. Kobe, 175. Kol-lip daemon, 421. Ko-mop-so river, the 323. Ko-moun Tari, 310. Komura, Mr., 278, 281. Kong-won Do, 74, 155. Kong-won, 107. Korea, its geographical position, II, 14; the church of, 11; open- ed first by the treaties, 11; population, 13; rivers, lakes, and harbors, 14; volcanoes, 14; geology, 15; mountains, 15; climate, 16; fauna, 16; forest wealth, 17; flora, 17; minerals, 17; rulers of, 18; cabinet ministers, 18; army, 19; provinces of, 19; the rev- enue and its sources, 19; trea- ties with, 19; the coinage, 19, 20; treaty ports, 20; language, 20, 21; religion, 21, 64, 399; society, 22; neighbors of, 23; foreign women in, 28; rebel- lion in Southern, 179; Jap- anese proposals for its ad- ministration, 206; the King's oath, 249; dynasty of, worn out, 255; a dark chapter in its history, 271; last words on, 445; her resources, 445; class privileges in,ioi, 446, 450; dis- satisfaction in, 281 ; farmers in, 447, 450; Japanese influence in, 25. 31, .359. 431, 449. 452; law, administration of in, 441 ; mar- kets in, 28; missionary meth- ods in, 28-30, 64; money of, 66, 67, 78; provincial gov- ernment of, 372, 378; roads in, 20, 128; security in, 295; trade in, 24, 32, 304, 307, 391; winter in, 36. Korean animals, 73; bulls, 36, no, 162; customs, 59, 65, 78, loi, 114, 120, 127, 283, 355, 359; dogs, 47, 73; dwellings, 77; education, 142, 387; finance, 396; graves, 36, 61; inns, 124-128; nobles and officials, 46; pigs, 73, 162, 322; ponies, 36, 54, 121, 162; roads, 20, 128 ; sheep, 72, 163 ; sol- diers, 56, 209; streets, 27; travellers, 127; villages, 77, 162, 225, 234. Korean CJwistian Advocate, and Christian News, the, 440. Korean Repository, the, 11, i68, 346, 352, 440. Koreans, the, traces of Manchu- rian conquest on, 12; uniform- ity of their costume, 12; phy- siognomy of, 12; a handsome race, 12; height of, 13; mental calibre of, 13; possess Oriental vices, 13; seclusion and infe- rior position of women, 13, 45, 339-343; their corruption and brutal methods of pun- ishment, 33; squalid character of ordinary Korean life, 52, 330; encumbered with debt, 78; a drunken people, 92; voracity and omnivorous char- acter, 154; their music, 164; settlers in Siberia, 223; attach themselves to the Greek Church, 229; under Muscovite government, 233; race im- proved by settlement in Si- beria, 236, 336; independence of secured by Japanese, 247. Kowshing, the transport, 207. Ko-yang, 285, 286. Krasnoye Celo, 230, 233, 234. Ku-mu-nio, no. Kun-ren-tai, the palace guard, 270, 271, 272, 275, 278, 280, 281, 282, 362; abolition of the, 386. Kuntz and Albers, Messrs., 216, 220, 224, 239. Kur-dong, the, a unique but Index 481 now rare ceremonial, 51, 60, 61, 119, 247. K'wan, 233. Kwan-ja, the, (official passport), 86, 87, 128, 146, 159, 283. Kwan-yin, 143; image of, 137. Kwass, 231. Kyei, or associations, 440. Kyeng-pok Palace, 251, 256, 365, 369, 433, 437. Kyeng-wun Palace, the, 369, 398, 428, 429, 437. Kyong-heung, 227. Kyong-hwi Province, 303. Kyong-kwi Do, 75. Kyong-ku-kyong. 141, 146. Kyong-sang Province, 25, 30. Kyong-won Do, 75. Lakes, 14. Landis, Dr., 400, 415, 421. Language of the Koreans, 20, 173. Laundresses, 45, 339. Lava-fields, 16, 131. Law its administration infa- mous, 441. Liau river, the, 186, 193, 199. Li Hsi, the King, royal proces- sion of at Seoul, 55; in seclu- sion at outbreak of war, 183. Li Hung Chang, 267, Lindholm, Mr., 241. Lion Stone, the, 145. Liquor drinking, 91. Litany, a Greek, 231. Literary swells, 104, 339, Literature, the Temple of, 382. Lone-tree Hill, the, 45. Long-shin daemons, 417. Lotus dance, the, 352. Lucifer matches, 168. Lynch law, amateur, 104. Macdonald, Sir Claude, 430. Ma-cha Tong lake, 156, 158. Ma-chai, 85, 106, iii. Magistrate, an interview with a, 86. Ma-ha-ly-an Sa monastery, 143. Mak-pai Pass, the, 150. Ma-kyo, 106. Mama, or the smallpox daemon, 413, 414- Manchu head-dress, 200; sol- diers, 208, 210. Manchu race, the, 190. Manchuria, brigands in, 188; Chinese immigrants to, 188; Government of, 201; immi- grations from, 12; population of, 187; trade of, 189; vice- royalty of, 187, 191; authoress departs to, 186; sojourn at vice royalty of, 187; a deluge in, 193; old capital of, 201; prac- tice of medicine in, 203; less hostile to foreigners, 207: visit to Russian, 223. Mandarins and their retainers, 329- Mang-kun, the, 114, 360. Man-pok-Tong, the, 145; fear of tigers, 132, 292, 302, 325; superstition of, 129. Manufactures, 18. Ma-pu, 35, 40, 68, 181. Mapus, or grooms, 121-132, 164, 284, 285, 293, 302. Marble pagoda of Seoul, the, 43. Ma-ri Kei, 132. Market, a Korean, 28, 306, 307. Marriage customs, 114, 342. Marriage, early, prohibited, 385. Matunin, Mr., 227. Meals, 79; by the way, 82, 83. Medicine, practice of in Man- churia, 203; medical missions in Korea, 424. Mesozoic and metamorphic rocks. (See Geology.) Miller, Mr., a young missionary fellow-traveller, 66, 70, 83, 87, 104, 105, 142, 151, 159- Mineral wealth of, 17, 18, 25, 108. Missionaries and the Missions, 20, 21, 29, 30, 63, 64, 65, 172, 198, 201, 346, 390; statistics of Missions, 462, 463. Monarchy, character of the, 18. Monasteries, Diamond Mount- ain, 133. Monastery of Sok-WangSa, 169. 482 Index Mongolian eye, obliquity of in the Koreans, 12. Millet, the use of, 321. Min clan, the, 261. Ming tombs, the, 201. Ministers, execution of, 367; of State, duties of, 379. " Ministres de Parade," 201. Min Yeng-chyun, 371. Miriang, 25. Mirioks, 76, iii, 286. Miriok Yang Pass, 321. Missionary work, 22, 29, 30, 63- 65, 172, 201, 207, 227, 346; statistics of, 462. Mission Hospital, a fine, 202; service, a, 350. Miura, General Viscount, 269, 270, 275, 277, 453, 455. Moffet, Mr., 76, 312, 313, 316, 320, 347. Mok-po, 458. Mok-po river, 14, 19. Money, 66, 78. Monks, 133-149; ignorant and superstitious, 142. Monuments, 294. Mou-chin Tai, 328, 336, 338. Mounds, used for interment of the living, 175. Mountainous character of the country, 15; of Seoul, 45. Mourning costume, 63, Mukden, anti-foreign feeling in, 208,211; cabs of, 199; mission hospital, 202; pawnshops, 205; suicides in, 205 ; system of medicine, 203; trade of, 200, 211; city of, 192, 199, 200; its successful missions, 201, 202, 208. Mulberry gardens of Seoul, Mulberry palace of Seoul, 45, 247, 416. Music, discordant character of the native, 164, 165; vocal, 166. Murata rifle, the, 209. Mu-tang, belief in, 422-426. Mu-tang sorcerors, 114, 129, 164, 287, 290, 312, 335, 351, 400, 408; as oracles, 412; rites of, 413; marriage with, 425. Myo-kil Sang, the, 145. Nagasaki, Chinese town of, 23, 213, 269, Nai Kak, the, 377. Naktong, 64. Nak-Tong river, 14, 25. Nam Chhon valley and river, 308, 309. Nam Han fortress, 83, 84, 105, 181. Nam-San, 45, 68, 163, 169; for- tress, 105. Nam San mountains, 39, 43, 45, 68, 97. Nang-chon, 106, no, 112. JVaniwa, the cruiser, 207. National life of Korea exists only at Seoul, 59. Newchwang, city of, 175, 186, 187, 191, 192, 212, 355; port of, 189. Newspapers issued at Seoul, 440. Nicolaeffk, 219. Night, a hideously memorable, 157. Nikolskoye, military station of, 240, 241 ; Korean settlements near, 233. "Ninety-nine Turns," pass of the, 152. Nippon Yusen Kaisha, steamers of, 175, 181. Nobles, their idleness, 46; a privileged class, loi; exac- tions of, 102. North branch of the Han, voy- age on, 106. Northward ho! 320. Nowo Kiewsk, Russian military post, 224, 225, 234, 238. Nuns, 141. O-bang-chang-kun daemons, 415. O'Conor, Lady, 186. Officials, superbly dressed, 46, 54; resent the new regime in- augurated by the Japanese, Index 483 262; considered as vampires in Korea, 303, 370, 372; memo- rabilia governing, 379; cor- ruption of, 397, 431. O-hung-suk Ju, 301. Oieson, Mr., 158, 458. Oil paper used as mats, 323. Okamoto, Mr., 271, 277. Omnivorous Koreans, 154. Op Ju daemon, 420. Oracles, 412. Orange peel, use of, 92. Oricol, 246. Osaka, 267. Osborne, Mr., 458. Oshima, General, 318. Otori, Mr., 44, 183, 269, 373, 374, 455.. Ou-chin-gang, 344. Outfit, 67. Pagoda, a ruinous, 91. Pai-Chai College, 388. Paik-kui Mi, 102, 113. 114. Paik-tu San Mountain, 14, 15, 334. Paik-Yang Kang River, The, 130, 131. Pai-low, the 439. Pa Ju, 285, 292. Pa-ka Mi, loi, 102. Pak-su Mu, the, 409. Pak-Yong-Ho, the Minister, 247. Palace department, the, 385. P'al-kyong, 155, Pa-mul daemon, 420. Pangas, 123, 162. Pang-wha San, 97. Pan-pyong, 130. Pan-su, the, 402, 424, Paper manufacture, 306, 323. Passenger cart, a Chinese, 197. Pawnshops of Mukden, 205. *' Pea-boats," 187, 192. Peasants' houses, 77. Peasant farmer, the, 78, 305. Pechili, Gulf of, 184, 213. Pedlers, Korean, 75, 306. Peiho river, 186. Peking, European exodus from, 213. Peking Pass, the, 43, 437, 439. Peninsula of Korea, its geo- graphical location, 13. People, the, oppressed by taxa- tion, 102. Phallic symbols, iii. Phyong-an Do, 321; goldfields, 108, 322. Phyong Kang goldfields, 108. Phong-yang, 280, 293, 305, 308, 310, 312-319, 328, 330; occupa- tion by the Japanese, 313; battle of, 209, 261, 317; size of. 356; coal mines of, 315; dancing and singing girls at, 352; first view of, 310; Japan- ese soldiers for, 245, 285; mis- sion work at, 346, 350; toy shops in, 168. Physical appearance and height of the Koreans, 13, 26. Physiognomical features of the Koreans, 12. Pigs, 73, 162, 322. Pirates, attacked by, 212. Police, 434, 441. Political relationships, 452. Pong-san, 304. Ponies, 32, 36, 54, 121, 122, 162. Popheung, king, 135. Population, 13, 76. Port Lazareff, 174, Port Shestakoff, 174, 219. Po-san, 345, 355. Posango, 75. Possiet Bay, 224, 228, 233. Potato cultivation, 229, 333. Po-tok-am shrine, 143. Potong Mon, 315, 317. Potters at work, 85. Pottery, native, 307. Prefectural towns on the Han, no, 112. Primorsk, 220, 223, 233, 236, 241. Princess' Tomb, the, 62. Prisons, Eastern, experience of, 442. Procession, a quaint and motley one at Seoul, 56. Protestant churches in Seoul, 63, 65. 484 Index Provincial Government, 372, 378. Puk-han fortress, 105. Puk-han mountains, 39, 247, 284. Punishment, brutal character of, among Koreans, 33; abolished by the Japanese, 263. Purification, the rite of, 411. Putiata, Colonel, 433. Pyeng-San, 308. Pyok-chol, temple of, 84. P'yo-un Sa monastery, 138, 139, 143, 144. Queen of Korea, audience with, 251; description of, 252; dress of, 259; assassination of, 271, 273, 455; removal of the re- mains of, 369, 428. Rainfall, 161, 191. Rapids of the Han, 92, loi, 105. Rebellion in Southern Korea, 179. "Red Door," distinction of the, 299. Reforms in Korea pressed by the Japanese, 257; partial accept- ance of, 386, 448, 452. Religion, no national, 21, 63, 399- Religious shrines, 76. Reorganized Korean govern- ment, 371. Revenue, the, and its sources, 19. Revolutions, frequency of, 447. Rice cultivation, 155, 161. Rice trade of Chemulpo in Ja- panese hands, 32, 33. Rice wine partaken to excess, 91. 92. Richofen, Baron, his work on China, 12. Ride, along, hot, 156. Riong San, 270, 271, 390. Ritual of invocation, etc., 411. Rivers, lakes and harbors of Korea, 14, 25. Roads, bad character of, 20, 123, 128. Roman Church and Missions in Seoul, 64, 65. Ross, Dr. and Mrs., 198, 202, 211. Royal city, a, 292. Royal Edict, a fraudulent, 276; later edicts, 281, 366, 451. Royal examinations, abolition of, 388; Library, the, 256. Royal tombs of Seoul, 62. Royalty, an audience with, 245. Rulers of Korea, 18. Russian homes, 235; adminis- tration, 236; legation at Seoul, 431. Russian intervention, 281; Man- churia, 223, 243; soldier, the, 218. Russia's ''New Empire" and maritime province, 242, 243; ascendancy of, 430; her gains in Korea, 455; her ascend- ancy lost, 456. Russo-Chinese frontier, 230; Japanese Treaty, 471; Korean frontier, 230; Korean settle- ments, 225, 226, 229; hospi- tality of, 235. Ryeng-an Sa, temple, of, 84. Sabatin, Mr., 271, 272, 277. Saddle, twelve hours in the, 325. Sagem daemons, 416. Saghalien, 220. Sai-kal-chai, the, 150. Sai-nam, gateway at, 308. Sajorni, 231. Sakyamuni, image of, 136. Salt industry, the, 158, 228. Sampans, 70, 75. Sa-mun, 25. San Chin-choi Sok daemon, 420. Sang-chin, 25. Sang-dan San, 294. Sang-nang Dang, 129. Sanitary regulations, 436. San-kak-San mountain, 38. San-Shin Ryong daemons, 416. Saretchje, 229. Sar-pang Kori, 123, 126, 129, Satovv, Sir E., 68. Scotch missionaries, 201, 207. Index 485 Scranton, Dr., 350. Sea of Japan, 74. Seoul-Fusan railway, projected, 25. Seoul, port of, 14, 19; the capi- tal, 35; mode of transit and approach to, 36; mean archi- tecture of, 37; population and fine situation of, 38; beautiful and safe environs of, 39; foul- ness of the intra-mural city, 40; later sanitary improve- ments in, 40; the shops and their wares, 41; the great civic bronze bell, 41,42, 51; beauty of the ancient Marble Pagoda, 43; its hordes of mangy dogs, 47; women of, free to take ex- ercise in the streets only after nightfall, 47; the J^ur-don^- fes- tival, 51; seat of government and centre of official life, 59; graves of the capital, 61 ; royal tombs of, 62; the Missions and Protestant Churches, 63; authoress's sojourn in, 246; leaves it, 267; assassination of the Queen at, 273; mission and ioreign schools in, 390; dae- mon festivals at, 411; the city in 1897, 427; metamorphosis of, 435; newspapers of, 439, 440; banking facilities in, 20, 32; beacon-fire in, 97; Board of Rites at, 141; burial clubs in, 62; Chinese colony in, 44; clim- ate of, 16; education in, 387, 390; environs of, 68; first im- pressions of, 35, 48; fortresses of, 84; gates of , 39; houses of, 40, 436; Japanese ascendency in, 247, 261; Japanese colony in, 45; lava fields near, 16; marble pagoda in, 43, 84; mis- sionaries in, 64 ; Mulberry Palace, 43; New Year's Day in, 264; occupation of, by Ja- pan, 206; police of, 434, 441; political conditions in, 261,268; Prefecture of, 372 ; sanitary regulations in, 436; shops in, 41, 59, 168; singing and danc- ing girls at, 352; streets of, 435, 436; trade of, 60, 75; to Won- san, road from, 129; walls of, 39. Settlements, 223, 238. Seun-tjeung-pi, or monuments, 294. Seven Star Gate, the, 315. Shamanism, 21, 63, 401, 402. Shamans, 401. Shanghai, 175. Shan-tung, 188, 220. Sheep, 72, 163. Shen-si, 188. Shestakoff, Port, 174, 218. Shimonoseki, treaty of, 269. Shin-chang, or daemon generals, 41=^. Shipping vessels entering Ko- rean ports, return of, 468. Shou-yang-yi, 321. Sho-wa Ku, 194, 195. Shrines, 77, 129, 133, 149, 333. Shur-hung, 303, 415-418. Sian-chong, 322. Siao-ho river, 199. Siberia, Korean settlers in, 223, 234; " cussedness " of Sibe- rian ponies, 232. Si-jo style of music, 165. Sill. Mr., 269, 281. Simpson, Mr. J. Y., 244. Sin-gang Kam, 109. Sin Ki Sun, 438. Sin-kyei Sa monastery, 149. Siphun river, 241. Siptai-wong, the, or "Ten Jud- ges," 288. "Six Great Roads," the, 128. Slavery abolished, 385. Smith, Mr. Charles, 217. Social position of women, 338. Socie'te des Missions Etrangeres, 389. So-il, 95. Sok-wang Sa monastery, 169, 170. Soldier, the Korean, 56, 434; the Chinese, 209; the Russian, 218. 486 Index Sol-rak San mountain, loo. Song-do, visit to the city of, 293. Song, examples of native, 166. Song Ju daemon, 418. Song Whoang Dan altar,4i7,4i8. Son-tong, 141, Sorcerers and geomancers, 403. Sorning (sponging) on relations, 446, 447. Spanish chestnuts, groves of,io8. Spasskoje, 242. Spinsterhood, 115. Spirits, evil, classified, 421, 422. Spirit shrine, a, 129, 133. Spirit worship, 22, 63, 95, 96. "Star Board," the, 287. St. Peter, Sisters of, 64. St. Peter the Great, Gulf of, 220. Straw fringes, use of, 299. Streets, 27, 435. Stripling, Mr. A. B., 441. Su-chung Dai, 155. Sugimura, Mr., 275, 277. Suicide, prevalence of in Muk- den, 205. Sun-chhon, 338. Sungacha river, 244, Suruga Maru, the s. s., 269. Swallow King's Rewards, The,2>S^' Swings, 164. Sword and Dragon Dance, the, 353. Syo-im, 159. Tablets, stone, 103. Tai-dong river, 14, 17, 108, 308, 310, 314, 315, 322, 324, 327, 330, J35. 338,344,355. Taiping rebellion, 188. Tai-won-Kun, the, 37, 207, 255, 256, 262, 269, 271, 274, 275, 362, 437. Taku forts, the, 186. Tanning industry, the, 441, Tan-pa-Ryong Pass, the, 132, 133, 134. Tan-yang, 75, 90, 94, 97, 98, 106. Tao-jol, the, 303, Ta-rai, 11 1. Tarantass (Russian vehicle), the, 225, 226, 228. Ta-ri-mak, 163, 168. Taxation, burden of, 102, 384. Tchyu-Chichang Pass, 152. Temperature, high, 157, 159,160, 172, 191, 193; low, 204, 246, 302. Temple, interior of a, 87. Temple of the God of War, 60. "Temple of the Ten Judges," 136. Temples, 84,133,149,170,295,303. "Ten Judges," the, 288. Thong-chhon, 155. "Throwing the ball," 353, Tientsin, 175; treaty of, 206. Tiger-hunters, 73, 127, 150. Tigers, Korean and Manchu- rian, 73 ; the hunting of, 73, 150; dread of, 127; " tiger on the brain," 132. Ti Ju daemon, 419, 420. Toic-Chhon, 323, 325, 327, 328; squalor of dwellings at, 329, 333, 345- Tol Maru, 302. Tomak-na-dali, 85. Tombs, 77. Tong-haks, the, 29, 80, 177, 180, 181, 206, 264, 370. Tong-ku, 131. Top-knot, the, 359, 360, 361, 362; proclamation regarding, 366. Tornado, a, 130. To-tam, 99, 100, loi. To-ti-chi Shin daemons, 418. Toys, 168. Trade, 24, 25, 31, 32, 304, 308, 391 396, 450; statistics, 462, 466; foreign, extent of, 391, 392, 464. Tragedy, a palace, 273, Trans-Siberian railroad, 174; trip over eastern section of, 239; construction of, 244. Transition stage, a, in Korean annals, 261. Travellers, 127. Travelling, arrangements for, 67, 70. Treasury department at Seoul, 381; cleansing of, 449. Index 487 Treaties with foreign countries, 19, 471, 473. Treaty ports, 20, 32, 357, 458; population of, 469, 470. Treaty powers, the, 207. Troops (Chinese) on march, 206. Tso, General, 203, 210, 215, 315, 320; death of, 316, Tsushima, island of, 23. Tu-men river, 14, 17, 223, 228, 230, 231, 233, 242. "Twelve Thousand Peaks," beauty of the, 138. Tyzen Ho river, 233. Underwood, Mrs., 251, 252, 254, 279. Un-san, 322. Unterberger, General, 217, Upper classes, inactivity of, 446. Ur-rop-so, 108. Ussuri, 239, 240. Ussuri railway, 239, 240. Ut-Kiri, 107, no. Vermin, protection against, 292. Vernacular schools. Govern- ment, 388. Victoria, Queen, referred to by Queen of Korea, 259. Victory, cost of, 267. Villages, 77, 162, 225, 226, 229, 234; dirty and squalid, 130. Village system, the, 383 ; coun- cil of, 384. Vladivostok {See Wladivostok). Vocal music, native, 166. Volcanic action, signs of, 14, 16. " Volunteer Fleet," the Russian, 218, 239. Voracity of the Koreans, 154. Voyage up the Han, A, 82; its drawbacks, 105. Waeber, Mr., 183, 368, 431; Mme., 280. " Walking the Bridges," custom of. 266. War, impending, 177. War declared, 208, 454; disar- ranges ocean transit, 213; en- thusiasm for, 214; reforms induced by, 268. Warner, Mr., 68. War Office, 382. Waters, Colonel, 244. Wei-hai-wei, fall of, 267. Wei-man, 355. Western China, visit to, 282, 284; equipment for, 284. Whang Hai coast, the, 357. Whang-Ju, 308-310. "White-headed Mountain," 14. Widows, remarriage of, 291, 385. Wife, the duty of a, 118. Wildfowl, 174. Wilkinson, Mr., 31. Witch doctors, 203. Wladivostok, 24, 25, 175, 213- 222, 223, 224, 239, 240, 241; great progress of. 219; its militarism, 221; Chinese shops in, 220; climate of 222; Ko- rean settlements near, 233; population of, 219; public buildings in, 220; visit of the Tsar to, 239. Wol-po, 323. Women of Korea, seclusion and inferior position of, 13, 119; "slaves to the laundry" at Seoul, 45; Seoul women per- mitted to take exercise in the streets only after nightfall, 47; curious to see and inspect the garb of foreign women, 88, 94, 127; subjection of as a wife, 118; social position of, 338, 339; peasant women, 340. Won-chon, no. Wong, " my servant," 66, 69, 92, no, 125, 127, 164, 193, 197. Won Ju, 90, 94. Won-San, 14, 19, 20, 73, 109, 112, 123, 150, 158, 160, 163. 169, 170, 173-178, 184, 245, 328, 395; population of, 176, 470; Japanese troops pass through, 245. Won-sang, trade of, 176. Wyers, Mr., 69, 70. Wylie, Mr., murder of, 208, 211. 488 Index Yalu river, the, 14. Yamen, a, 86, 93, 104, 112, 163, 262, 303, 338; runners, 51, 57, 86, 336, 338, 339. Yang-bans, 59, 77-79, 87, loi, 102, 114, 116, 127, 235, 322, 338, 448, 450. Yang-kun, 83. Yangtze rapids, the, 106. Yang-wol, 103. Yantchihe, 226, 227. Ye Cha Yun, 427, 435. Yellow Sea, the, 14, 30. Yen, the Japanese, 305. Yi family, daemon of the, 425. Yi, General, 206. Yi Hak In, Mr., 283, 284, 292, 294, 298, 302, 304, 308, 312, 318, 320, 324, 326, 331. 334, 354, 356. Yi Kyong-jik, 273. Ying-tzli, 186. Yo ju, town of, 86, 87; authoress an object of curiosity at, 89. Yong-Chhun, 75, 76, 102, 103, 104, 106; rapids of, 105. Yong-Wol, 78. Yon-yung Pa-da, 357. Yuan, Mr., 44, 183; big bell at, 147. 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