240 



COREA. 



of a ship bearing American papers, and of the 

 massacre of her crew. According to his ac- 

 count, his junk, while lying at the mouth of a 

 very large river which entered the Yellow Sea 

 from the Corean peninsula, was joined by a 

 trading-vessel, the General Sherman, coming 

 from Chee-foo, and he consented to act as her 

 pilot. He conducted her for four tides, which 

 occupied three days, up the river, and then 

 left her to find her way to Ping-yang city, a 

 large trading-mart, about six days' journey 

 from the river's mouth. He left her about 

 mid-day, on the third day of the eighth moon 

 (llth of September, 1866), because her appear- 

 ance had created alarm, and all trading was 

 stopped between the Coreans and the Chinese. 

 The Coreans asked him about the General 

 Sherman and her intentions. He replied that 

 she was a peaceful trader, but they were not 

 convinced. He offered, as an excuse for de- 

 serting the vessel, that his junkmen refused to 

 return to China without him, saying that they 

 dared not leave him and face his family. The 

 pilot also related that, on again reaching the 

 mouth of the river which the General Sherman 

 had ascended, the natives had told him that 

 their sovereign would by no means trade with 

 foreigners. Regarding the General Sherman, 

 her passengers, and intentions, the following is 

 the sum of the information which the American 

 consul at Che-foo was able at the time to ob- 

 tain : She had been loaded at that port in July 

 or August, 1866, with a general cargo for a 

 trading-voyage to the coast of Corea. She 

 sailed with the following-named persons on 

 board: Mr. Preston, her owner; Mr. Page, her 

 master, both said to be Americans ; Mr. Neil- 

 son, her mate, said to be a naturalized Ameri- 

 can citizen; Mr. Hogarth, her supercargo, an 

 English subject; Mr. Thomas, an English mis- 

 sionary; two Portuguese, who accompanied 

 the missionary, and a crew of Malays and 

 Chinese. Of the fate of passengers and crew 

 no certain information has ever been obtained. 



On the return of the first French expedition 

 in the latter days of September, 1866, as was 

 afterward ascertained, a rumor was circulated 

 of the burning of an American ship and the 

 murder of her crew, but no attention was paid 

 to it until the return of the Chinese pilot in 

 the following month. 



Additional information of the loss of the Gen- 

 eral Sherman was brought in October, 1866, 

 by two French missionaries who had escaped 

 from Corea in a junk, and arrived at Chee-foo, 

 twelve days after the sailing of the second 

 French expedition under Admiral Roze. Pre- 

 vious to their leaving Corea they had heard 

 the rejoicing in the capital for the murder of 

 the passengers and crew of the American ves- 

 sel. Sacrifices of thanksgiving were offered 

 up by the Corean ministers at being rid of the 

 foreigners, and prayers were said that they 

 might be able to overcome all other intruders 

 in a similar manner. 



Admiral Bell, U. S. K, then commanding 



the Asiatic Squadron, in communicating to the 

 Government the details concerning the loss of 

 the General Sherman, suggested one of the 

 capitals of the kingdom, Seoul, as the proper 

 place to seek redress. He, however, reported 

 his force as insufficient, and, considering the 

 French defeat, that no less than 2,000 troops 

 should be landed. These the admiral recom- 

 mended should be brought from San Francisco, 

 together with some light-draught boats suit- 

 able to ascend the rivers Sal6e and Seoul. The 

 admiral wrote : " Until the Government takes 

 efficient action on this case, our countrymen 

 lawfully navigating the seas adjacent to Corea 

 will be in peril of life and liberty of person 

 from the barbarities of the people and the au- 

 thorities of the country, who aim at the exclu- 

 sion of strangers." 



Admiral Bell reported that as soon as the 

 repairs of the "Wachusett, then in progress, 

 could be completed, she would be sent to the 

 locality of the General Sherman's loss to de- 

 mand that her survivors, if any, should be 

 given up. In November, 1866, Minister Bur- 

 lingame addressed the Chinese Government, 

 demanding redress for the murder of the crew 

 of the General Sherman ; but the authorities of 

 that empire replied, disavowing any responsi- 

 bility for affairs in the Corean peninsula and 

 all jurisdiction over its people. 



On January 10, 1867, the United States 

 steamer Wachusett, Commander Shufeldt, 

 sailed from Shanghai for Che-foo and Corea. 

 At Che-foo were secured the services of the 

 Chinese pilot who was in the General Sher- 

 man a few days before her loss, and also of the 

 Rev. Mr. Corbett, an American missionary, to 

 act as interpreter. Commander Shufeldt's in- 

 structions were, to demand of the chief authoi 

 ities at the Ping- Yang River to deliver on tl 

 deck of the "Wachusett such of the unfortunat 

 men of the schooner General Sherman a 

 have been spared, whether they were Amei 

 can, Portuguese, British, Malays, or Chinamen, 

 and to make such further investigation of the 

 case as was practicable. On January 23, 1867, 

 the Wachusett reached the Corean coast, and i 

 chored near the mouth of the Pa-tong River, 50 

 miles to the south of the Ping- Yang, up which 

 the General Sherman had proceeded. The Pa- 

 tong River was found to be frozen, and the 

 pilot was extremely reluctant to take the ves- 

 sel farther north. Commander Shufeldt, there- 

 fore, determined to communicate from that 

 anchorage with the authorities. It was also 

 ascertained that the capital of the province of 

 Chang- Yuen, embracing the scene of the loss 

 of the General Sherman, was about midway 

 between the two rivers. A number of fishing 

 villages were found in the vicinity of the an- 

 chorage, and an inhabitant of one of them 

 was induced to bear a communication to the 

 King of Corea, accompanied by a letter to the 

 official of Chang-Yuen. In the former, Com- 

 mander Shufeldt assured his Majesty of the 

 peaceful nature of his mission, and prayed 



